CHAPTER V.
A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM.
When Hugh O'Hara came to the door of Harvey Bradley, he was in his bestdress--the same that he wore to church on Sundays. Aunt Maria met himon the threshold, and, in tremulous tones, thanked him. Then she ledthe way to the back parlor, where the young superintendent awaited him.The moment he entered, there came a flash of sunshine and a merryexclamation, and with one bound, little Dollie (none the worse,apparently, for her adventure the night before) landed in the iron-likearms and kissed the shaggy-bearded fellow, who laughingly took a chairand held her a willing captive on his knee.
Harvey sat smiling and silent until the earthquake was over. Then, ashis chief foreman looked toward him, he said:
"As I said last night, Hugh, the service you have done is beyondpayment. You know what a storm set in just after Dollie was broughthome, she never could have lived through that."
"It would have gone hard with her, I'm afraid," replied the embarrassedvisitor; "does the little one feel no harm?"
"We observe nothing except a slight cold, which the doctor says is ofno account. I have made up my mind to give to you, Hugh----"
The latter raised his hand in protest. He could accept money for anyservice except that of befriending the blue-eyed darling on his knee.
"Never refer to that again."
Harvey laughed.
"I looked for something of the kind; I have a few words to add. Ifound out this morning that there was a mortgage of $600 against yourlittle home in the village. I don't believe in mortgages, and thatparticular one has now no existence. If you see any way to help undowhat I have done go ahead, but I beg you not to refuse another smallpresent that I have prepared for you."
And Harvey turned as if about to take something from his desk, butstopped when he saw Hugh shake his head almost angrily.
"I would do a good deal to oblige you, Mr. Bradley, but you must notask that. I would have been better pleased had you let the mortgagealone; my wife and little one are under the sod, and it matters noughtto me whether I have a place to lay my head. But," he added with afaint smile, "what's done can't be undone, and, since you have askedme, I will drop the matter, but nothing more, I pray you, on the othersubject."
"Hugh," said the superintendent, like one who braces himself for a dutythat has its disagreeable as well as its pleasant features, "you knowthat I had sent to Vining for men to take the places of those who areon strike?"
"I heard something of the kind, sir."
"They were to start for Bardstown to-night and are due to-morrow."
"Yes, sir."
"I countermanded the order by telegraph this morning; not a man willcome."
"Yes, sir."
"The whistle will blow to-morrow as usual, ten minutes before 7o'clock, and I shall expect every one of you to be in place; I haveagreed to your terms."
Hugh looked at the superintendent a moment and then asked a singularquestion:
"Is it because I found Dollie that you agree to our terms?"
"Why do you ask that?"
"Because, if that is the reason, I will not accept the terms, for youwould be doing out of gratitude an act which your judgment condemned."
Harvey Bradley felt his respect for this man increase tenfold. Suchmanliness was worthy of all admiration. He hastened to add:
"There's where, I am glad to say, you are in error. Now you know aswell as I do that in order to keep discipline the employer must insistupon his rights. If he were to give all that is asked his businesswould be destroyed. But, on the other hand, labor has rights as wellas capital, and the two can never get along together until this truthis respected by both. In all disputes, there should be an interchangeof views, a full statement of grievances by those who are dissatisfied,and a fair consideration of them by the party against whom they exist."
O'Hara was not afraid to look his employer in the face and say:
"That has been my opinion all along, Mr. Bradley, and had it been yoursthis lock-out would never have come."
"I admit it. You came to me from the employes and asked for adiscussion of the differences between us. I thought you insolent, andrefused to listen to you. Therein I did you all an injustice, forwhich I apologize."
"It gives me joy to hear you speak thus, Mr. Bradley."
"Seeing now my mistake, there is but the one course before me. I amconvinced that in all cases of trouble like ours the court of firstresort should be arbitration. The wish to be just is natural to everyone, or at least to the majority of mankind. If the parties concernedcannot agree, they should appeal to those in whom both have confidenceto bring about an agreement between them; that is according to thegolden rule. Employer and employed, labor and capital, should befriends, and arbitration is the agent that shall bring about that happystate of things."
"But I do not see that there has been any arbitration in this dispute."
"But there has been all the same."
"Where is the arbitrator?"
"She sits on your knee wondering what all this talk means. I tell you,Hugh, there is a good deal more in those little heads than most peoplethink. Yesterday morning, when Dollie sat in her high chair at thebreakfast-table, she heard her aunt and me talking about the strike.Though she could not understand it all, she knew there was troublebetween me and my employes. I was out of patience and used some sharpwords. She listened for a few minutes while busy with her bread andmilk, and then what do you think she said?"
"I am sure I have no idea," replied O'Hara, patting the head of thelaughing child, "but whatever it was, it was something nice."
"She says, 'Brother Harvey, when I do anything wrong, you take me onyour knee and talk to me and that makes me feel so bad that I never dothat kind of wrong again. Why don't you take those bad men on yourknee and talk to them, so they won't do so again?' I showed her thatsuch an arrangement was hardly practicable, and then she fired hersolid shot that pierced my ship between wind and water: 'BrotherHarvey, maybe it's _you_ that has done wrong; why don't you sit down ontheir knees _and let them give you a talking to_? Then you won't bebad any more."
Hugh and Harvey broke into laughter, during which Dollie, who hadbecome tired of sitting still full two minutes, slid off O'Hara's kneeand ran out of the room.
"We smile at the odd conceits of the little ones," continued Harvey,"but you know that the truest wisdom has come from the mouths of babes.I hushed her, but what she said set me thinking--'_Why don't you letthem give you a good talking to_?' _That_ was the very thing you hadasked and I had refused. I set out to take a long walk, and was absentmost of the day. Her question kept coming up to me, and I tried todrive it away. The effort made me angry and ended in a decision to besterner than ever. I would not yield a point; I would import a body ofmen at large expense and keep them at work, just because I was tooproud to undo what I knew was wrong.
"Still my conscience troubled me, but for all that I don't think Iwould have yielded. Pride, the greatest of all stumbling-blocks, wasin my way. Reaching home, I learned that Dollie was lost; then, ofcourse, every other thought went from my head. Nothing else could bedone until she was found."
Harvey was about to tell his guest his suspicion that he had had a handin the abduction of the child, but he was ashamed, and really there wasno call for such a confession.
"Well, it was you who found her. I repeat that my debt to you cannever be paid. And yet I do not believe that that obligation wouldhave led me to yield, where I felt that a principle was at stake. Itwas the words of Dollie, spoken yesterday, that stuck to me. They keptme awake most of the night and played a part in the dreams that I hadabout her being lost in the woods and eaten up by panthers and allsorts of creatures. When I awoke this morning, the mists had clearedaway. I saw my error, and fully made up my mind to do all I could tocorrect it. I went to the telegraph office before breakfast and sent amessage to Vining countermanding the order for the men. Then I cameback and had just fini
shed my meal when a message was brought to myhouse. Odd, wasn't it?"
"I see nothing odd in a telegram for you."
"I mean in the telegram itself."
"I could not answer that unless I saw it."
"Of course," said Harvey with a laugh, wheeling about in his chair andpicking up one of the yellow slips of paper which the Western Unionfurnishes its patrons gratis.
"There, read _that_," he added, passing it to Hugh O'Hara, who lookedat it with no little curiosity.
It was dated in the city of New York and signed by Johnson W. Bradley,father of Harvey, and President of the Rollo Mills Company. This wasthe body of the telegram:
"Don't lose sight of the interests of your men. Before hiring otherhands _try arbitration_."
"That _is_ rather odd," said Hugh; leaning forward, so as to hand thetelegram back to his employer, "but it is sound wisdom all the same."
"Undoubtedly; but are you convinced that I agree to your terms notbecause of gratitude, but because I believe them right?"
"I am satisfied," said Hugh; "have you sent the notice to the hands?"
"Yes. I wonder that you did not hear of it on the way here."
Hugh smiled.
"Of course I heard of it. I knew it long ago, but I did not know _why_you had decided to restore our time to what it was and to pay the samewages; _that_ I have learned from yourself. And now that you have doneyour part so well," added Hugh, rising to leave, "I assure you that weshall do ours; we shall give you the best service we can. No one shallmisinterpret your action or try to take advantage of it."
The superintendent was wise enough to avoid a mistake to which persons,placed as was he, are liable--that is, he did not overdo his part. Hewas so happy over the return of his little sister that he was willingnot only to give the old wages and time asked for by his employes, buthe felt like adding to them. He meant to make the pay of O'Haragreater than before, but changed his purpose at the last moment.
Had he added to the pay of his chief foreman it would have changed theratio between that and the wages of the others, unless theirs, too, wasincreased. In that event, a reproof was likely to come from thedirectors, and he would find it hard to retrace his steps.
Justice called for him to do just what he had done; it would be weak todo more. "Hugh," said he, also rising to his feet, "I am not quitethrough with you; I am now going to ask you to do _me_ a favor."
"I guess it's safe to promise in advance that I will do it--that is, ofcourse, if it be in my power to do it."
"It is in your power. Last night, when I was in the woods near yourcabin, I noticed a strange odor in the air; I could not imagine itscause, but I know now what it was."
"What was it?" asked O'Hara, turning crimson.
"You and some of your friends have been illicitly making whiskey. Youhave a distillery somewhere in the mountains, and, while working in themills during the day, you have taken turns in running the still atnight. I will not ask you to tell me how long you have been doingthis, but you know as well as I that it is a crime."
The two men were silent a moment and then Hugh, without any appearanceof agitation, said:
"You have spoken the truth; the still was not more than a hundred feetfrom the cabin, and caused the smell you noticed."
"How could you three attend to it when you were in the cabin?"
"Some one was generally close by. The pipe that carried off the fumesran into the chimney of our cabin and mixed with the smoke. We tookturns in looking after it. Tom and I had been there earlier in theevening, and Jack was to look in now and then against our coming back.But," added Hugh, "you said you had a favor to ask of me."
"So I have; I ask you to destroy that still, root and branch, and nevertake a hand in anything of the kind again."
"I cannot do that."
"Why not? You are engaged in breaking the laws of your country, forwhich there is a severe penalty. Now that you will have steady work,you cannot make the plea that would have been yours if the strikecontinued. Why can't you do as I ask you to do?"
"Because it has already been done. After I got back to the cabin lastnight, Tom and Jack and I went out and wound up the business. The wormhas been thrown down the rocks, where it can never be found, the mashhas been scattered to the four winds, and everything smashed to generalflinders. It took us nearly to daylight to finish it, but we stuck toit till the job was done."
"I am delighted to hear that, what was the cause of all this?"
"I guess it must have been the little arbitrator," said O'Hara, with asmile; "they say that when a man does a bad act he feels like doingothers. That may or may not be true, but I know that when a man does agood deed, the impulse to do more is awakened, and whatever good thereis in him is strengthened. I have been a bad man; I grew desperateafter the death of Jennie; but when I held your Dollie in my arms itseemed that some of her goodness found its way into my heart. Iresolved with the help of heaven to be a better man. The first steptoward becoming so was to stop the unlawful work in which I had beenengaged only a short time.
"I thought that Tom and Jack would make trouble, but I didn't care, forI could manage them. To my surprise, however, they seemed to feel justas I did. So they fell to work with a will, and the job couldn't havebeen done more thoroughly. Now, if you will allow me to kiss Dollie,who has come back, I will bid you both good day."
Harvey Bradley shook hands with his visitor, during which he handed hima liberal sum of money for Tom Hansell, who had taken part in thesearch for Dollie. He sent naught to Jack, for he deserved none. Thenhe went with Hugh to the outer door, giving him a number of encouragingwords on the way.
The whistle of the Rollo Mills never screeched more cheerily than itdid the next morning, and there was never a happier band of employesthan the 300, young and old, who took their places again in the works.
A short time afterward Harvey Bradley opened and furnished a room wherethe best of reading was given free to all who chose to accept theprivilege. Still later in the season a night school was started, andthe skilled teacher who took charge was liberally paid by the board ofdirectors, who never made a better investment of money.
The interest shown by the superintendent in the welfare of his employesproved to be seed sowed in good ground. All wrought faithfully andwell, and when on the 1st of January the balance sheet was made up, lo!the net profits of the Rollo Mills were greater than ever before.