the straight wire, I promise
you. But it stands to reason--don't it?--that if I've been out of
graft for months and haven't got any money and my horses are played out
and there's no chance of another job, well, I'm going to humor him a bit
more than I'd like to, ain't I?"

Geisner laughed "You see it all right, Ned. Suppose the first man you
sounded said no?"

"I'd try another."

"And if the other said no?"

"Well, I'd have to keep on trying."

"And you'd get more inclined to humour the boss every time you had to try
again."

"Naturally. That's how they get at us. No man's a crawler who's sure of a
job."

"Then you might take lower wages, and work longer hours, after you'd been
out of work till you'd got thoroughly disheartened than you would now."

"I wouldn't. Not while there was--I might have to, though I say I'd
starve or steal first. There are lots who do, I suppose."

"Lots who wouldn't dream of doing it if there was plenty of work to be
had?"

"Of course. Who'd work for less than another man if he needn't, easily?
There isn't one man in a thousand who'd do another fellow out of a job
for pure meanness. The chaps who do the mischief are those who're so
afraid the boss'll sack them, and that another boss won't take them on,
that they'd almost lick his boots if they thought it would please him."

"Now we're coming to it. It is work being hard to get that lowers wages
and increases hours, and makes a workman, or workwoman either, put up
with what nobody would dream of putting up with if they could help it?"

"Of course that's it."

"Now! Is the day's work done by a poorly-paid man less than that done by
a highly-paid one?"

"No," answered Ned. "I've seen it more," he added.

"How's that?"

"Well, when a man's anxious to keep a job and afraid he won't get another
he'll often nearly break his back bullocking at it. When he feels
independent he'll do the fair thing, and sling the job up if the boss
tries to bullock him. It's the same thing all along the line, it seems to
me. When you can get work easily you get higher wages, shorter hours,
some civility, and only do the fair thing. When you can't, wages come
down, hours spin out, the boss puts on side, and you've got to work like
a nigger."

"Then, roughly speaking, the amount of work you do hasn't got very much
to do with the pay you get for it?"

"I suppose not. It's not likely a man ever gets more than his work is
worth. The boss would soon