e most of my men, are perfectly well aware that they receive
good wages for their work, and would be content enough if it were not
for these vampires--for they seem liker that than anything else. Though
I have been at many of their meetings I have never had an opportunity of
speaking until to-day, and you may be sure I made the most of it, laying
before them a plain statement of the case, and asking them if, in their
hearts, they did not endorse every word of it.

"I may as well say that I had very little faith in anything resulting
from this appeal, and was therefore not surprised when I sat down, to
see that the stolid indifference with which they had received me was
still unbroken; but I _was_ surprised at what followed.

"A great burly Irishman--one Malone--who has been working in the pit for
half-a-year or so, stood up and spoke.

"He did not say much, but every word told. He retailed the story of his
wife's death-bed, and how the master's daughter had come, undeterred by
wind and rain, and brought with her the comfort and hope which had made
his wife's last moments the happiest she had ever known. I cannot bring
before you the grandeur of simplicity which carried such weight with it,
nor the terrible sincerity of the rugged giant, as he stood with tears
in his eyes and his voice husky with emotion, but it is a scene I will
never forget as long as I live, and I don't think any one who witnessed
it will ever forget it either.

"He reminded them too, how the master's daughter and her friends had
wrought and thought for their children's good and theirs, and how there
was scarcely one present who had not reaped the benefit of their labours
in comfort and cleanliness alone, not to mention other and better
things.

"In conclusion, he proposed that they should all go back to their work,
after they had given three cheers in honour of the young ladies, for the
sake of whose goodness alone, they should be willing to do much more
than this.

"He sat down amid a perfect burst of cheering, and when that was
subdued, another miner rose and seconded him, and the resolution was
carried by acclamation.

"Some one tried to oppose it, but he was effectually shouted down in
less time than it takes to tell it; and so the dispute was settled, and
my men go back to work on Monday in perfect good humour with themselves
and all the world."

Nobody spoke when he had finished his recital, the minds of all being
intensely occupied,