"
"No chance," she said cheerfully. "Mother would raise the devil if
you tried it." She glanced at Ellen's face. "If that word shocks
you, you're due for a few shocks, you know."
"The way you talk is your business, not mine," said Ellen austerely.
When they finally departed on a half-run Ellen was established as a
fixture in the Boyd house, and was already piling all the cooking
utensils into a wash boiler and with grim efficiency was searching
for lye with which to clean them.
Two weeks later, the end of June, the strike occurred. It was not,
in spite of predictions, a general walk-out. Some of the mills,
particularly the smaller plants, did not go down at all, and with
reduced forces kept on, but the chain of Cardew Mills was closed.
There was occasional rioting by the foreign element in outlying
districts, but the state constabulary handled it easily.
Dan was out of work, and the loss of his pay was a serious matter
in the little house. He had managed to lay by a hundred dollars,
and Willy Cameron had banked it for him, but there was a real
problem to be faced. On the night of the day the Cardew Mills went
down Willy called a meeting of the household after supper, around
the dining room table.
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