l in his lonely, sorrowful, proud way, until she, looking on, would
come to repent her unjust verdict!

He shut himself up in his study, and made some very fair translations
from his beloved poets. There were better ones, doubtless; and, after
all, fame might not lie in that direction. There was physical science,
much in vogue, and entertaining: no doubt he could do something in that
line. There were theories and speculations, there were old
philosophies--surely the ground was rich everywhere.

It was very poor at Yerbury, though there were theories enough. But,
when you took them for temporal meat and drink, they were not a
fattening diet. Men lounged in the streets and on the corners, or, worst
of all, in saloons, talking themselves angry and hoarse over the bad
luck, and blaming every one right and left. Women sat at home, and cried
over losses and crosses, cooked their scanty dinners, and retired to bed
early to save fuel. The poorer ones went out to a day's washing, glad to
get that. Boys played cards, read dime-novels, and dreamed of wonderful
fortunes at the West: some few stout-hearted chaps set out to seek
them.

There were panaceas. Mr. Rantley preached the rankest communism and
broadest free-thinking. Capital, i.e., money, was the tyrant of the
world, and always would be until the laborers of the world rose up and
claimed their rights. Why should this man starve when the man over
yonder had his store-house full of flour that he was holding for higher
prices? What right had he, except the might? So long as men were allowed
to hoard up these monstrous fortunes, they could control the market, and
would! What were the starving thousands to them? What if half the
provision in the country rotted on the owner's hands? he could get as
much or more money for the other half. What if the miners were at work
only a small portion of time? could not the amount of coal be managed
more easily, and prices kept up? Capital desired to keep production at
the lowest ebb, because it could be more conveniently mastered. The only
remedy was to give every man a chance, to break up these colossal
fortunes, to have no great mills and mines; to have smaller capitalists,
fewer hours of labor, to divide the immense hoards among the poor and
needy until there should be no more want or suffering!

The Rev. Mr. Bristow shook his head at this modern anti-Christ. Every
thing was anti-Christ, with Mr. Bristow, that went outside of his own
n