seven
miles along the sleepers of a railway line against half a gale of wind,
wearing on his feet a pair of patent leather boots bought for a wedding.

"Get up out of that, Michael," said the woman, "And off with you to
Dunadea with the gentleman's telegram. You'll break no strike by doing
that, so not another word out of your head."

"I'll--I'll give you ten shillings with pleasure," said Sir James,
"I'll give you a pound if you'll take a message for me to Mr. Dennison's
house."

"Anything your honour chooses to give," said the woman, "will be
welcome, for we are poor people. But it's my opinion that Michael ought
to do it for nothing seeing it's him and his old strike that has things
the way they are."

"To listen to you talking," said the driver, "anybody would think I'd
made the strike myself; which isn't true at all, for there's not a man
in the country that wants it less than me."

Sir James tore a leaf from his note book and wrote a hurried letter to
Miss Dennison. The engine driver tucked it into the breast pocket of his
coat and trudged away through the rain. His wife invited Sir James to
sit by the fire. He did so gladly, taking the stool her husband had
left. He even, after a short time, found that he had taken the child on
to his knee. It was a persistent child, which clung round his legs and
stared at him till he took it up. The woman went on with her washing.

"What," said Sir James, "is the immediate cause of this strike?"

"Cause!" she said. "There's no cause, only foolishness. If it was more
wages they were after I would say there was some sense in it. Or if it
was less work they wanted you could understand it--though it's more work
and not less the most of the men in this country should be doing. But
the strike that's in it now isn't what you might call a strike at all.
It's a demonstration, so it is. That's what they're saying anyway. It's
a demonstration in favour of the Irish Republic, which some of them
play-boys is after getting up in Dublin. The Lord save us, would nothing
do them only a republic?"

Two hours later Sir James went back to his railway carriage. He had
listened with interest to the opinions of the engine driver's wife on
politics and the Labour Movement. He was convinced that a separate and
independent Ministry of Strikes ought to be established in Dublin. His
own office was plainly incapable of dealing with Irish conditions. He
took from his bag a quantity of foolscap pap