. For a wonder, nobody was hurrying toward home
and dinner was growing cold on some of the long boarding-house tables.

"They might have carried us through the cold weather; there's but a
month more of it," said one middle-aged man sorrowfully.

"They'll be talking to us about economy now, some o' them big
thinkers; they'll say we ought to learn how to save; they always begin
about that quick as the work stops," said a youngish woman angrily.
She was better dressed than most of the group about her and had the
keen, impatient look of a leader. "They'll say that manufacturing is
going to the dogs, and capital's in worse distress than labor--"

"How is it those big railroads get along? They can't shut down,
there's none o' them stops; they cut down sometimes when they have to,
but they don't turn off their help this way," complained somebody
else.

"Faith then! they don't know what justice is. They talk about their
justice all so fine," said a pale-faced young Irishman--"justice is
nine per cent. last year for the men that had the money and no rise at
all for the men that did the work."

"They say the shut-down's going to last all summer anyway. I'm going
to pack my kit to-night," said a young fellow who had just married and
undertaken with unusual pride and ambition to keep house. "The likes
of me can't be idle. But where to look for any work for a mule
spinner, the Lord only knows!"

Even the French were sobered for once and talked eagerly among
themselves. Halfway down the street, in front of the French grocery, a
man was haranguing his compatriots from the top of a packing-box.
Everybody was anxious and excited by the sudden news. No work after a
week from to-morrow until times were better. There had already been a
cut-down, the mills had not been earning anything all winter. The
agent had hoped to keep on for at least two months longer, and then to
make some scheme about running at half time in the summer, setting
aside the present work for simple yarn-making. He knew well enough
that the large families were scattered through the mill rooms and that
any pay would be a help. Some of the young men could be put to other
work for the company; there was a huge tract of woodland farther back
among the hills where some timber could be got ready for shipping. His
mind was full of plans and anxieties and the telegram that morning
struck him like a blow. He had asked that he might keep the card-room
prices up to where th