nd read the poster."

"Why it is a poster, isn't it?" cried Bess. "What does it say?"

The two school girls, both neatly dressed and carrying their bags of
text books, pushed into the group before the yellow quarter-sheet poster
pasted on the fence.

The appearance of Nan and Bess was distinctly to their advantage when
compared with that of the women and girls who made up the most of the
crowd interested in the black print upon the poster.

The majority of these whispering, staring people were foreigners. All
bore marks of hard work and poverty. The hands of even the girls in the
group were red and cracked. It was sharp winter weather, but none wore
gloves.

If they wore a head-covering at all, it was a shawl gathered at the
throat by the clutch of frost-bitten fingers. There was snow on the
ground; but few wore overshoes.

They crowded away from the two well-dressed high-school girls, looking
at them askance. Bess Harley scarcely noticed the mill-hands' wives and
daughters. She came of a family who considered these poor people little
better than cattle. Nan Sherwood was so much interested in the poster
that she saw nothing else. It read:

NOTICE: Two weeks from date all departments of these mills will be
closed until further notice. Final payment of wages due will be made
on January 15th. Over-supply of our market and the prohibitive price
of cotton make this action a necessity. ATWATER MILLS COMPANY. December
28th.

"Why, dear me!" murmured Bess. "I thought it might really be something
terrible. Come on, Nan. It's only a notice of a vacation. I guess most
of them will be glad to rest awhile."

"And who is going to pay for their bread and butter while the poor
creatures are resting?" asked Nan seriously, as the two girls moved away
from the group before the yellow poster.

"Dear me, Nan!" her chum cried. "You do always think of the most
dreadful things. It troubles me to know anything about poverty and
poor people. I can't help them, and I don't want to know anything about
them."

"If I didn't know that you are better than your talk, Bess," said Nan,
still gravely, "I'd think you a most callous person. You just don't
understand. These poor people have been fearing this shut-down for
months. And all the time they have been expecting it they have been
helpless to avert it and unable to prepare for it."

"They might have saved some of their wages, I suppose," said Bess. "I
heard father say the other night