y with which he greeted "the horny-handed son of
toil." No town was so small that he disdained it, no city so great that
he feared it. There had been "demonstrations," but he seemed proud of
his defiance of danger.

Men who could not altogether approve of him admitted that he was
"smart," that he uttered a good many truths, half-truths they were,
dressed up in specious falsehoods, all the more dangerous, since the
world does pay homage to virtue and truth. They were troublesome
questions: the great difficulty was the haste made in settling them. A
balance will finally adjust itself, though there may be many vibrations
at first.

It was a fact much to be regretted, that with returning prosperity the
gin-mills and beer-shops of Yerbury had, as a general thing, increased
in their business. A notable instance to the contrary, however, was
Keppler's saloon. It had depended a good deal on the men from Hope Mills
and the iron-works. The latter had been closed so long; and, although
the coffee-house did not seem much of a rival at first, it had gone on
steadily, and given the men time to think. It was not simply the one
glass of beer they took to wash down their midday lunch, but the
treating when a crowd gathered, the many drinks during a heated
discussion of an evening. Not half a dozen of the mill-hands went there
now, so occupied had their minds become with other matters. Keppler's
lease was not out, and his rent was high for the times; he had lost
money and customers, and felt sore over it; he had a grudge against
Jack Darcy as the exponent of a system that interfered with his profits.

McPherson was discussed over pipes and ale one warm June evening, with
brains cleared, of course, by frequent potations and stifling smoke. It
was proposed that he should be invited to lecture at Yerbury.

"I like to see fair play!" cried Keppler. "These fellows over
here"--nodding toward the mill--"have had it all their own way because
they took up a lot of starving men in dull times. That was all well
enough,--praise-worthy--praise-w-o-r-thy," with a long accent. "But
things have changed now,--changed!" with a confident nod. "I'd like to
hear what the man has to say. You see, he has come up from the ranks, he
has been poor himself!"

So the ball was put in motion. McPherson's speech at Millville, a great
laboring-centre, was read aloud with frequent cheering. And the
laboring-men at Yerbury began to wonder why wages were not higher,