g meditatively on the
ground, his hand hanging carelessly by his side, but still holding the
pistol. The eleven remaining deputies watched him some time, talking
under their breath to each other. At length one of them approached. This
man looked very different from either of the two who had previously
spoken; he was hard-favoured, but modest and manly-looking.

"I've not much faith i' Moses Barraclough," said he, "and I would speak
a word to you myseln, Mr. Moore. It's out o' no ill-will that I'm here,
for my part; it's just to mak a effort to get things straightened, for
they're sorely a-crooked. Ye see we're ill off--varry ill off; wer
families is poor and pined. We're thrown out o' work wi' these frames;
we can get nought to do; we can earn nought. What is to be done? Mun we
say, wisht! and lig us down and dee? Nay; I've no grand words at my
tongue's end, Mr. Moore, but I feel that it wad be a low principle for a
reasonable man to starve to death like a dumb cratur. I willn't do't.
I'm not for shedding blood: I'd neither kill a man nor hurt a man; and
I'm not for pulling down mills and breaking machines--for, as ye say,
that way o' going on'll niver stop invention; but I'll talk--I'll mak as
big a din as ever I can. Invention may be all right, but I know it isn't
right for poor folks to starve. Them that governs mun find a way to help
us; they mun make fresh orderations. Ye'll say that's hard to do. So
mich louder mun we shout out then, for so much slacker will t'
Parliament-men be to set on to a tough job."

"Worry the Parliament-men as much as you please," said Moore; "but to
worry the mill-owners is absurd, and I for one won't stand it."

"Ye're a raight hard un!" returned the workman. "Willn't ye gie us a bit
o' time? Willn't ye consent to mak your changes rather more slowly?"

"Am I the whole body of clothiers in Yorkshire? Answer me that."

"Ye're yourseln."

"And only myself. And if I stopped by the way an instant, while others
are rushing on, I should be trodden down. If I did as you wish me to do,
I should be bankrupt in a month; and would my bankruptcy put bread into
your hungry children's mouths? William Farren, neither to your dictation
nor to that of any other will I submit. Talk to me no more about
machinery. I will have my own way. I shall get new frames in to-morrow.
If you broke these, I would still get more. _I'll never give in._"

Here the mill-bell rang twelve o'clock. It was the dinner-hour