vented the mischief
from spreading further. Well, but perhaps he continues rebellious. What
follows? We can't lock up facts that affect the trade; we are bound to
report the case at the next general meeting. It excites comments, some
of them perhaps a little intemperate; the lower kind of workmen get
inflamed with passion, and often, I am sorry to say, write ruffianly
letters, and now and then do ruffianly acts, which disgrace the town,
and are strongly reprobated by us. Why, Mr. Little, it has been my lot
to send a civil remonstrance, written with my own hand, in pretty fair
English--for a man who plied bellows and hammer twenty years of my
life--and be treated with silent contempt; and two months after to be
offering a reward of twenty or thirty pounds, for the discovery of some
misguided man, that had taken on himself to right this very matter with
a can of gunpowder, or some such coarse expedient."

"Yes, but, sir, what hurts me is, you don't consider me to be worth a
civil note. You only remonstrated with Cheetham."

"You can't wonder at that. Our trade hasn't been together many years:
and what drove us together? The tyranny of our employers. What has kept
us together? The bitter experience of hard work and little pay, whenever
we were out of union. Those who now direct the trades are old enough to
remember when we were all ground down to the dust by the greedy masters;
and therefore it is natural, when a grievance arises, we should be
inclined to look to those old offenders for redress in the first
instance. Sometimes the masters convince us the fault lies with workmen;
and then we trouble the master no more than we are forced to do in
order to act upon the offenders. But, to come to the point: what is your
proposal?"

"I beg to be admitted into the union."

"What union?"

"Why, of course, the one I have offended, through ignorance. The
edge-tool forgers."

Jobson shook his head, and said he feared there were one or two
objections.

Henry saw it was no use bidding low. "I'll pay L15 down," said he,
"and I'll engage not to draw relief from your fund, unless disabled by
accident or violence."

"I will submit your offer to the trade," said Jobson. He added, "Then
there, I conclude, the matter rests for the present."

Henry interpreted this to mean that he had nothing to apprehend, unless
his proposal should be rejected. He put the L15 down on the table,
though Mr. Jobson told him that was premature, and w