' me they'll be. But, me b'y," he added instructively, "it's a
fine job ye'll have runnin' down to the ahffice gettin' their time."
(This is the railroad man's expression for money due, or wages.) "Ye'll
have plenty av that to do, I'm tellin' ye."

"You don't mean to say that you're going to discharge them, Rourke, do
you?" I asked.

"Shewer!" he exclaimed authoritatively. "Why shouldn't I? They're jist
the same as other min. Why shouldn't I?" Then he added, after a pause,
"But it's thim that'll be comin' to me askin' fer their time instid av
me givin' it to thim, niver fear. They're not the kind that'll let ye
taalk back to thim. If their work don't suit ye, it's 'give me me time.'
Wait till they'll be comin' round half drunk in the mornin', an' not
feelin' just right. Thim's the times ye'll find out what masons arre
made av, me b'y."

I confess this probability did not seem as brilliant to me as it did to
him, but it had its humor. I expressed wonder that he would hire them if
they were such a bad lot.

"Where else will ye get min?" he demanded to know. "The unions have the
best, an' the most av thim. Thim outside fellies don't amount to much.
They're aall pore, crapin' creatures. If it wasn't fer the railroad
bein' against the union I wouldn't have thim at aall, and besides," he
added thoughtfully, and with a keen show of feeling for their point of
view, "they have a right to do as they pl'ase. Shewer, it's no common
workmen they arre. They can lay their eight hundred bricks a day, if
they will, an' no advice from any waan. If ye was in their place ye'd do
the same. There's no sinse in allowin' another man to waalk on ye whin
ye can get another job. I don't blame thim. I was a mason wanst meself."

"You don't mean to say that you acted as you say these men are going to
act?"

"Shewer!"

"Well, I shouldn't think you'd be very proud of it."

"I have me rights," he declared, flaring up. "What kind av a man is it
that'll let himself be waalked on? There's no sinse in it. It's naht
natchral. It's naht intinded that it should be so."

"Very well," I said, smoothing the whole thing over, and so that ended.

Well, the masons came, and a fine lot of pirates they surely were. Such
independence! Such defiance! Such feverish punctilio in regard to their
rights and what forms and procedures they were entitled to! I stared in
amazement. For the most part they were hale, healthy, industrious
looking creatures, but so ob