nd, where the
mothers wore print dresses, the daughters must have silk. They had gone
on altogether too fast."

Yet only a few years ago workingmen had been urged to put their money
into homes. Rows of houses had been built for them, and sold on such
ridiculously easy terms, only a trifle down. The interest would not be
as much as rent. Then the fascinating shopkeeper had flaunted his wares
in the faces of the thrifty housewives. "A good article is cheapest in
the end. This Brussels will outwear two ingrain carpets, at a very
little advance on the first cost. No moths will trouble it, once down it
is there for years, saving worry and hard work;" and the buyer was
persuaded. Then there must be new furniture, and so on to the end. Was
it altogether their fault? The old things were passing away. The world
was awaking from its Rip-Van-Winkle nap. There was to be a wider
outlook, a liberal cultivation, a general rising of every one.

So there had been years of plenty, and men had pulled down the old
storehouses to build new ones.

Such people as the Eastmans and the Lawrences could not economize at a
moment's warning. The screws must be put on elsewhere.

At first the workmen looked at each other in blank dismay. Winter was
coming on--a hard one it bid fair to be. Coal had risen, and in spite of
the abundant harvest the absolute staples of life had not much decreased
by the time they reached the consumer. Coffees were high: pease, beans,
and chiccory were sold at a reduction, to be sure, and you could get
lumpy heavy flour that spoiled your bread, and poor butter, and teas
that were colored and doctored; and this was cheap living.

There was a stormy wrangle. Meetings were held, and speakers figured out
the actual cost of living. Less than the present rates meant loss,
privation, and want in the end. So a strike was determined upon.

Jack Darcy, being foreman of one department, stood, as it were, between
the upper and nether millstone, at present just escaping both. He
thought it hard that the men should have this second reduction so soon,
and it did seem to him reasonable that profits ought to yield a little,
that there ought to be a sympathy between them. Personally, he should be
comfortable enough; but if he had a wife and three or four children, a
helpless, bedridden mother, or a drunken father, or a do-nothing
brother, hanging upon him, what then?

He advised a little moderation and patience. It might be better t