“Oh, what’s hard on all of us? What’s
the use of asking?” said the girl, with a bitter
coquetry. “I shouldn’t think any man
with horse-sense would ask what’s hard on us
when he’s seen the ornaments tacked up all over
the shop this morning.”
“That’s so,” said Lee, with a glance
over his shoulder. Flynn was at the other end
of the room. Granville Joy, Dixon, and one or
two other men were sauntering up. For a second
the little group looked at one another.
“What are you going to do?” asked Ellen,
in a low voice, which had an intonation that caused
the others to start.
“I know what I’ll do, if I can get enough
to back me,” cried Lee, in a loud voice.
“Hush up!” said Sadie Peel. Then
her father came along smiling his imperturbable smile
on his wide face, which had a Slavonic cast, although
he was New England born and bred. He looked from
one to the other without saying a word.
“We’re deciding whether to strike or not,
father,” said Sadie, in a flippant manner.
She raised a hand and adjusted a stray lock of hair
as she spoke, then she straightened her ribbon stock.
Her father said nothing, but his face assumed a stolidity
of expression.
“I know what I’ll do,” proclaimed
Amos Lee again.
“Hush up!” cried Sadie Peel again, with
a giggle. “Here’s Ed Flynn.”
And the foreman came sauntering up as the one-o’clock
whistle blew,
and the workers sprang to their posts of work.
The snow increased all day. When the six-o’clock
whistle blew, and the workmen streamed out of the
factories, it was a wild waste of winter and storm.
The wind had come up, and the light snow arose in
the distance like white dancers of death, spinning
furiously over the level, then settling into long,
gravelike ridges. Ellen glanced into the office
as she passed the door, and saw Robert Lloyd talking
busily with Flynn and another foreman by the name of
Dennison. As she passed, Robert turned with a
look as if he had been watching for her, and came
forward hastily.
“Miss Brewster!” he called.
Mamie Brady, following close behind, gave Ellen an
admonishing nudge. “Boss wants to see you,”
she whispered, loudly. Ellen stopped, and Robert
came up.
“Please step in here a moment, Miss Brewster,”
he said, and colored a little.
Granville Joy, who was following Ellen, looked keenly
at him, some one sniggered aloud, and a girl said
quite audibly, “My land!”
Ellen followed Robert into the office, and he bent
over her, speaking rapidly, in a low voice.
“You must not walk home in this snow,”
he said, “and the cars are not running.
You must let me take you. My sleigh is at the
door.”
