ht that reigned here, a man
moved among the bales piled roof-high around him. He was gathering rough
tow from a broken bale of Russian hemp and had stripped the Archangel
matting from the mass.

Levi Baggs, the hackler, proceeded presently to weigh his material and
was taking it over the bridge to the hackling shop when he met John
Best, the foreman. They stopped to speak, and Levi set down the barrow
that bore his load.

"I see you with him, yesterday. Did you get any ideas out of the man?"

Baggs referred to the new master and John Best understood.

"In a manner of speaking, yes," he said. "Nothing definite, of course.
It's too soon to talk of changes, even if Mister Daniel means them.
He'll carry on as before for the present, and think twice and again
before he does anything different from his father."

"'Tis just Bridetown luck if he's the sort to keep at a dead parent's
apron-strings," grumbled the other. "Nowadays, what with education and
so on, the rising generation is generally ahead of the last and moves
according."

"You can move two ways--backward as well as forward," answered Best.
"Better he should go on as we've been going, than go back."

"He daren't go back--the times won't let him. The welfare of the workers
is the first demand on capital nowadays. If it weren't, labour would
very soon know the reason why."

Mr. Best regarded Levi without admiration.

"You are a grumbler born," he said, "and so fond of it that you squeal
before you're hurt, just for the pleasure of squealing. One thing I can
tell you, for Mister Daniel said it in so many words: he's the same in
politics as his father; and that's Liberal; and since the Liberals of
yesterday are the Radicals of to-morrow, we have every reason to
suppose he'll move with the times."

"We all know what that means," answered Mr. Baggs. "It means getting new
machinery and increasing the output of the works for the benefit of the
owners, not them that run the show. I don't set no store on a man being
a Radical nowadays. You can't trust nobody under a Socialist."

Mr. Best laughed.

"You wait till they've got the power, and you'll find that the whip will
fall just as heavy from their hands as the masters of to-day. Better to
get small money and be free, than get more and go a slave in state
clothes, on state food, in a state house, with a state slave-driver to
see you earn your state keep and take your state holidays when the state
wills, and work