ould lay hands on, but
thought Mr. Hatton was perhaps considering the question and not ready to
move yet.

"Do you think they will come to fighting, Greenwood?" Mr. Hatton asked.

"Well, sir, if they'll only keep to cotton and such like, they'll never
fire a gun, not they. But if they keep up this slavery threep, they'll
fight till one side has won and the other side is clean whipped forever.
Why not? That's our way, and most of them are chips of the old oak
block. A hundred years or more ago we had the same question to settle
and we settled it with money. It left us all nearly bankrupt, but it's
better to lose guineas than good men, and the blackamoors were well
satisfied, no doubt."

"How do our men and women feel, Greenwood?"

"They are all for the black men, sir. They hevn't counted the cost to
themselves yet. I'll put it up to them if that is your wish, sir."

"You are nearer to them than I am, Jonathan."

"I am one o' them, sir."

"Then say the word in season when you can."

"The only word now, sir, is that Frenchy bit o' radicalism they call
liberty. I told Lucius Yorke what I thought of him shouting it out in
England."

"Is Yorke here?"

"He was ranting away on Hatton green last night, and his catchword and
watchword was liberty, liberty, and again liberty!' He advised them to
get a blue banner for their Club, and dedicate it to liberty. Then I
stopped him."

"What did you say?"

"I told him to be quiet or I would make him. I told him we got beyond
that word in King John's reign. I asked if he hed niver heard of the
grand old English word _freedom_, and I said there was as much
difference between freedom and liberty, as there was between right and
wrong--and then I proved it to them."

"What I want to know, Greenwood, is this. Will our people be willing to
shut Hatton factory for the sake of--_freedom?"_

"Yes, sir--every man o' them, I can't say about the women. No man can.
Bad or good, they generally want things to go on as they are. If all's
well for them and their children, they doan't care a snap for public
rights or wrongs, except mebbe in their own parish."

"Well, Jonathan, I am going to prepare, as far as I can, for the worst.
If Yorke goes too far, give him a set down and advise all our workers to
try and save a little before the times come when there will be nothing
to save."

"Yes, sir. That's sensible, and one here and there may happen listen to
me."

Then John began to consi