Yes, Padre, I know all that. But it can't teach away
what's always happening here and now. At least not to the Butterfly
Man and me, ... nor yet the mother-birds, Padre. No. We want to be
shown how to head off the bluejays."

We walked along in silence, his hand upon my arm. His eyes were
clouded with the vision that beckoned him. As for me, I was wondering
just where, and how far, that bluejay was going to lead John Flint.

It led him presently to my mother. All men learn their great lessons
from women and in stress the race instinctively goes back to be taught
by the mothers of it. There were long intimate talks between herself
and the Butterfly Man, to which Laurence was also called. In her quiet
way Madame knew by heart the whole mill district, good, bad and
indifferent, for she was a woman among the women. She had supported
wives parting from dying husbands; she had hushed the cries of
frightened children, while I gave the last blessings to mothers whose
feet were already on the confines of another world; she had taken dead
children from frenzied women's arms. Just as the Butterfly Man had
shown the country folks to Laurence, so now Madame showed them both
the mill folks, the poor folks, the foreigners in a small town
disdainful of them; and she did it with the added keenness of her
woman's eyes and the diviner kindness of her woman's heart.

The little lady had enormous influence in the parish. And as
Laurence's plans and hopes and ambitions unfolded before her, she
threw this potent influence, with all it implied, in the scale of the
young lawyer's favor. They began their work at the bottom, as all
great movements should begin. What struck me with astonishment was
that so many quiet women seemed to be ready and waiting, as for a
hoped for message, a bugle-call in the dawn, for just that which
Laurence had to tell them.

"A fellow with pull behind him," said John Flint, "is what you might
call a pretty fair probability. But a fellow with the women behind him
is a steam-roller. There's nothing to do but clear the road and keep
from under." And when he went on his rounds among the farm houses now
it wasn't only the men and children he talked to. There was a message
for the overworked women, the wives and daughters who had all the
pains and none of the profits. Westmoreland, who had been a rather
lonesome evangelist for many years, of a sudden found himself backed
and supported by younger and stronger forces.