“We're no longer slaves!” cried the speaker. “We're men—and we'll live as men! We'll work as men—or we'll not work at all! We'll no longer be a herd of cattle, that they can drive about as they please! We'll organise, we'll stand together—shoulder to shoulder! Either we'll win together, or we'll starve and die together! And not a man of us will yield, not a man of us will turn traitor! Is there anybody here who'll scab on his fellows?”
There was a howl, which might have come from a pack of wolves. Let the man who would scab on his fellows show his dirty face in that crowd!
“Ye'll stand by the union?”
“We'll stand by it!”
“Ye'll swear?”
“We'll swear!”
She flung her arms to heaven with a gesture of passionate adjuration. “Swear it on your lives! To stick to the rest of us, and never a man of ye give way till ye've won! Swear! Swear!”
Men stood, imitating her gesture, their hands stretched up to the sky. “We swear! We swear!”
“Ye'll not let them break ye! Ye'll not let them frighten ye!”
“No! No!”