the child to her at sunset, there was an ineffable joy
in her pale face, and next morning, when Greta awoke, Mercy was singing
softly to herself in the sunrise.

CHAPTER IV.

There was a gathering of miners near the pit-head that morning. It was
pay day. The rule was that the miners on the morning shift should pass
through the pay-office before going down the shaft at eight o'clock; and
that those on the night shift should pass through on their way home a
few minutes afterward. When the morning men passed through the office
they had found the pay-door shut, and a notice posted over it, saying,
"All wages due at eight o'clock to-day will be paid at the same hour
to-morrow."

Presently the men on the night shift came up in the cages, and after a
brief explanation both gangs, with the banksmen and all top-ground
hands, except the engine-man, trooped away to a place suitable for a
conference. There was a worked-out open cutting a hundred yards away. It
was a vast cleft dug into the side of the mountain, square on its base,
vertical in its three gray walls, and sweeping up to a dizzy height,
over which the brant sides of the green fell rose sheer into the sky. It
was to this natural theatre that the two hundred miners made their way
in groups of threes and fours, their lamps and cans in their hands,
their red-stained clothes glistening in the morning sun.

It was decided to send a deputation to the master, asking that the order
might be revoked and payment made as usual. The body of the men remained
in the clearing, conversing in knots, while two miners, buirdly fellows,
rather gruffer of tongue than the rest, went to the office to act as
spokesmen.

The deputation were approaching the pit-head when the engine-man shouted
that he had just heard the master's knock from below, and in another
moment Hugh Ritson, in flannels and fustian, stepped out of the cage.

He heard the request, and at once offered to go to the men and give his
answer. The miners made way for him respectfully, and then closed about
him when he spoke.

"Men," he said, with a touch of his old resolution, "let me tell you
frankly, as between man and man, that I can not pay you this morning,
because I haven't got the money. I tried to get it, and failed. This
afternoon I shall receive much more than is due to you, and to-morrow
you shall be promptly paid."

The miners twisted about and compared notes in subdued voices.

"That's no'but fair,