Surely a man like poor Rutter was to be pitied that he had learned to love money so much that he had no room in his heart for anything else, and the system that encouraged this was greatly to be blamed for the result. And therefore if it could be amended, the foremen ought to be as grateful as the poor dockers in whose behalf the work had been undertaken.
Something of this she could tell to Lizzie, and the girls sat and talked until her mother came in to get tea ready.
She had been out in the vain hope of being able to find a little work for herself, for although they were better off than many of the neighbours, it was hard work to provide for all their wants even with the help they got from the strike fund.
That things had so far gone on quietly was a great cause for thankfulness to all true friends of the men on strike. But as days passed into weeks, and nearly a month went by, those who had refused to consent to make any alteration at first began to see that they would have to give way on some points at least, and so at last they consented to do away with the contract system; but they would not pay the men more than fivepence an hour, and the men determined to hold out until the sixpence was granted.
Some few among them had been taken up for assaulting men who wanted to go to work in the empty docks, for all who went in while the strike lasted were looked upon as traitors by the rest. It was for interfering with these that two or three men got sent to prison; but for the most part they acted in as orderly and becoming a manner as any company of men could do, and the example of brotherly kindness and helpfulness that Chaplin and Brown learned to practise towards each other beforehand, they and their companions learned to extend to those beyond their immediate circle, so that each man restrained his own selfish impulses and greed for revenge for the sake of others, and in memory of help so freely given to them in their hour of need.
CONCLUSION.
THE closing of the dock gates put a stop to every other industry as well as that of the dock labourers, for all the smaller trades and occupations were dependent, more or less, upon the shipping of the port of London, and with that practically closed, these came to an end.
It was a sore trial to those usually so busy to have to sit at home with folded hands and look at their denuded homes, or wander aimlessly about the dull streets, for after the procession of men had gone by on their usual perambulations, there was nothing to break the monotony of their lives, and it was a hard test of their patience to sit dumb and idle. And yet, the women felt that if they broke out into loud-voiced complaints, there was danger that the men might be goaded into some act of violence, and if once this was done there was no telling what the end might be.
So every woman did her best to bear uncomplainingly the hardship of her lot, and when father, brother, or husband came home, to make the place as bright and cheery as they could. In this way, women like Mrs. Chaplin and weak girls like Winny, saved London from riot and bloodshed, and gained for themselves a name of imperishable honour, setting the whole world an example of patient endurance and the divine might of doing the duty that lay nearest to them.
Every mission room was busy from morning till night, for meals, free or a farthing each, for the starving women and children, were going on all day and half the night too. These cheap meals made the Chaplins better off than most of their neighbours, and practically independent of the strike fund, for although Mrs. Chaplin only got one day's work a fortnight with Mrs. Rutter now, still, with the money sent every week by Annie Brown to help them through the trouble, they were able to get along fairly well. And when Mrs. Chaplin got a little to do in helping Miss Lavender with the meals and entertainments at the mission room, she was a good deal more content.
The coming of Annie Brown's letter every week came to be looked forward to as the red-letter day of the seven, for besides the words of cheerful hope the girl always sent herself, it often contained a kindly message and a few pence from some of her fellow-workers.
But one day there came a letter with news that set the little household in a quiver of excitement.
"My master wants a carpenter," she wrote, "a man who can turn his hand to anything—make boxes, put up shelves, or build a shed. I told him about Winny's father, and about Winny too, and he says if he would not mind living in the country, and could do the work, there would be steady wages for him all the year round."
"Mother, mother, what does it mean?" asked Letty when she heard the letter read, while Winny lay with clasped hands and shining eyes, too deeply moved to utter her thoughts to anyone but God, in the swift uprising of thanksgiving for this fresh proof of his love.
"Letty, we must go and find father!" exclaimed Mrs. Chaplin, as soon as she could find her tongue. "Mr. Brown, do you know where he is?" she exclaimed turning to him, for he had brought the letter and still stood looking from one to the other, for he knew that to get work in the country had long been his friend's wish for the sake of poor Winny.
He shook his head to Mrs. Chaplin's question, and turning to the invalid on the couch, he said: "Well, what do you think of it, my dear?"
"Oh, I am so glad!" she replied. "It was kind of Annie to think of father and send to tell him."
"I wouldn't own her for my 'little un' again if she didn't do all she could for you, Winny," he replied. "But we shall miss you, my dear; we shall all miss you. But look here, if you hadn't give my gal the chance you did, why she couldn't have done this for you, so you see after all, it's just your own kindness coming back to you again. The seed you sowed is just bearing the right kind of fruit. That's what it is, my lass, you may depend upon that. We heard something like it down at the mission-hall the other day, when Miss Lavender give us that tea. She stood up afterwards and warned us against losing our patience or our temper, telling us in good plain words that the seed we sowed would bring the same kind of fruit to us."
"I wish I could have heard Miss Lavender speak like that," said Winny with glowing cheeks.
The girl almost worshipped her teacher, and now, as the thought crossed her mind that if her father got this work in the country, it would separate her from this dear friend, the tears rose to her eyes tears of regret this time, not of thankfulness and she wondered how she could have forgotten for a moment what going to live in the country would mean to her.
Meanwhile Letty had gone one way and her mother another in search of Chaplin, to tell him the good news. But they both came back in the course of a quarter of an hour to see if he had returned, as neither of them had been able to find him.
Brown had gone upstairs to perform the laborious task of answering Annie's letter, for she always insisted that he should do this, as she could not read any writing but his; and he said that Chaplin would come and see the master at once, and that Winny was very glad.
There was no more to tell according to the way Brown looked at things, and even this was a difficult task to him, and took him a long time to perform, so that he knew very little of what was going on downstairs.
Mrs. Chaplin, having failed to find her husband close at hand, put on her bonnet to go to the mission room, for she thought he might be doing something for Miss Lavender, as there was always so much going on. But as she hurried down the street, tying her bonnet strings as she went along, a neighbour asked: "Are you looking for your husband, Mrs. Chaplin?"
"Yes. Have you seen him? I want him at once."
"You'll find him down by the dock gates, I think," replied her friend; "he was there a few minutes ago."
"Thank you," called Mrs. Chaplin, and she hurried along the street as fast as she could, for fear her husband should be gone before she should find him.
But as soon as she came within sight of the gates, she saw him talking to a man on the opposite side of the road. Her business was of too much importance, she thought, to brook any delay, and so she went up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Wait a minute, mother," he said, turning to the stranger again and resuming his talk in an undertone.
She waited a minute, but not more, and then she went to her husband again. "You must come home at once," she said a little sharply, for she did not like to be put off for a stranger like this.
Chaplin looked at her anxiously. "Is anybody ill?" he asked.
"No, no, it isn't that; but we've had a letter from Annie Brown, and she says there is constant work for you in the country if you like to go and see about it."
This would make him give up his talk with the stranger and go home with her, she thought. She had not meant to tell him so quickly, but she wanted to get him away, and thought that this would do it, if everything else failed.
But to her surprise, he only said in a low tone, "Thank God for his goodness," and then went to the stranger again and resumed his talk once more.
Mrs. Chaplin thought he must be mad not to hurry back with her, and stood there impatiently enough until the stranger went away, and then she went to her husband again.
"Are you coming?" she asked in a cross tone.
"I can't, mother; didn't they tell you I am on picket duty?"
"Picket nonsense!" exclaimed Mrs. Chaplin, losing all patience with her husband now. "Come along home and let us arrange how you are to go down to the country. You ought to go this afternoon or to-morrow morning early."
"To-morrow morning will do, I should think," said Chaplin anxiously. "You see, I can't get away from here until someone comes to take my place."
"Well, there are plenty to do that, I should think," replied his wife, who was anxious that her husband should go and secure this good fortune for himself.
"Yes, yes, there are plenty of men about as you say; but look here, we want to keep strangers from going to take our work, and to do that somebody must be at hand to talk to any stranger who would go in, just to tell them what we are holding out for and persuade them to go home again. But, don't you see, we have to be very careful how we do this, for if we got in a passion over it, there might be fighting, and then we should get into the hands of the police. They know what we are doing well enough, but so long as we are peaceable, they don't interfere; but if we gave them any trouble, we should get three months, and that might be the beginning of a row all round. The committee know the men pretty well by this time, and as they have appointed me to this duty till four o'clock this afternoon, here I must stay."
"I'll send Brown down to take your place," said Mrs. Chaplin.
"Brown won't come, and I shouldn't leave if he did," replied the man with something like a smile parting his thin lips.
"Do you want this work at all, Tom Chaplin?" asked his wife.
She could not see that just lounging about the dock gates, walking up and down, speaking occasionally to the policeman, taking with a smile some ugly epithet thrown at them by the dock foreman who might be passing, was by any means so important as her husband seemed to think, and she was more angry with him than ever she had been in her life before.
Tears of vexation stood in her eyes as she turned to go home again, and as she went by the mission room she thought she would go in and see if Miss Lavender was there, to tell her what had happened, and how her husband was neglecting this opportunity of benefiting all of them.
The lady heard the poor woman's story, and could well sympathize with her impatience at what seemed like her husband's apathy. But having done so, she said, "He could not have left his post without leave from those who placed him there. You see it is not every man who could be trusted to do such duty, for these pickets must be careful, steady men. No, no, Mrs. Chaplin, he could not leave such a post as that for anything," added the lady.
"And yet he may lose a good chance of work through it," said the poor woman with a gasp.
"We must take care he does not do that," said the lady. "I will write a telegram and give you the money to send it to the country." And as she spoke, the lady took a pencil from her pocket, and wrote on the leaf of her pocket-book:
"Chaplin will come to-morrow—cannot leave post of duty."
"There, that will be enough, if the gentleman is a reasonable man," she said. "Now go and get the address, and send it off." And she gave her the message and a shilling as she spoke.
Mrs. Chaplin was not long performing her errand, and felt greatly relieved when it was done.
Chaplin came home soon after four, very tired but full of eager expectation.
How he was to go into the country decently attired had been thought of by their friend Miss Lavender. And soon after Chaplin got home, Letty ran in with a large bundle in her arms.
"It's new clothes for daddy," she announced, setting her burden down on the table and beginning to untie the handkerchief.
But Mrs. Chaplin soon took it from her, for she was all eagerness to see whether her husband had a chance of making a decent appearance at the place he was going to. To see him once more clad like a decent carpenter was the highest ambition of her life. Her friend knew this, and felt that the man would stand a much better chance of success in his new venture, if he could go down in trim, tidy clothes instead of the poor rags he wore as a dock labourer. So she had managed to get a decent gray suit about his size, and a clean white shirt, and a pair of boots, so that nothing was wanting to complete his attire.
To see them all when these were laid out for inspection can better be imagined than described. Letty danced round the table, bumping her head against the bedstead in the process, while Winny clapped her hands, and insisted that her father should dress himself in them at once that they might have time to admire him in them before he went away the next day.
Then Brown must be fetched to see them, and he must walk with Letty to the mission room for the loaf of bread that was to be given out at six o'clock.
Never was a family so elated, for, to crown their joy, instead of having to tramp to this new place of work as he had made up his mind to do, one of the men brought him the price of the railway fare from the strike committee, and a promise to look after his family until he could send up money to take them down to him, if he was likely to stay.
When her mother went out with Letty to get something for breakfast in the morning, Winny contrived to have a word or two with her father.
"Do you remember the talk we had a long time ago, daddy?" she said. "Don't you know, when we talked about it first, I said God would help us somehow, that he would help people put things right if they were wrong?"
"Ah! My girl, I do remember something about it; but it seems a long time ago, as you say, for so much has happened since then."
"Yes, God has been busy in a good many people's hearts. I asked him that very night about it, and I have prayed to him every night since, for the old way seemed wrong for everybody. Men like Rutter could not help getting hard and cross, it seemed. But now that will be done away at least, and the men may get a penny an hour more, and the four hours' work a day, for they won't be able to make twenty or thirty men do the work of sixty."
"I hope that's over, my lass, though it won't make the difference to us I thought it would, if I get this work at my old trade."
"What would have been the difference, daddy?" asked the girl.
"Why, we might have had a front room as well as this one, and you might have been able to look out into the street sometimes and see the children at play when they came home from school. That's what Brown and I used to talk about, and when he found out that you had given up your holiday ticket for Annie, he set himself to give up the drink, and be as steady and sober as he could, so that he might be able to keep the rest steady too, when the strike came, that nothing might spoil it, and prevent you from having a front window to look out of."
"How kind of him!" exclaimed Winny smiling through her tears. "But God is kinder, father, for he is going to let us live in the country, which is ever so much better than having a front window even."
"Yes, dear, I hope we may be able to live in the country for your sake. We owe this good fortune to you, my girl, for if Annie Brown had not gone to work at this jam factory, we should not have heard of this."
"You will take it, father? Though I am sure Mr. Brown will be very sorry if we go away."
"But more sorry if we stayed, my lass, after having such a chance as this. Don't you see every one who leaves this overcrowded London for work in the country gives those who stay a better chance, and so I hope I shall be able to do this work, though what I am going to do without tools is rather a puzzle, for of course they will expect me to take them with me."
"Oh, daddy! We never thought of that," said Winny in a tone of dismay. "I thought when you had got those nice clothes you had got all you wanted."
But before they went to bed, this want was supplied. Brown knew a man who wanted to sell a basket of carpenter's tools, and went to see him about them. Money was scarce enough just now with everybody, but he had found a friend who was willing to lend the price of these to be repaid in small instalments, if somebody would be responsible for the debt, and this Brown promised to do himself.
So before they were in bed, Brown brought the basket of tools ready for him to take in the morning. But the pleasure of handling the old familiar things was too keen for Chaplin to be content with just looking at them. They were a little rusty in places, and this was enough for an excuse. He must sit up for an hour to clean them, and never did a duchess handle her diamonds more tenderly and lovingly, than Chaplin did the planes and gimlets, screw-drivers and hammers. They must all be rubbed and cleaned before he could go to bed, and Winny lay in her little bed watching her father and thanking God for his great goodness to them.
Early the next morning, Chaplin started on his journey, bearing all sorts of kind messages to Annie Brown, for everybody was willing to forget and forgive her offence now.
A day or two afterwards came the eagerly expected letter from the traveller. Chaplin could write better than Annie or her father, and so the letter was quite a long one, or seemed so to the little family who gathered round to hear it read.
First he told them he had begun work, and thought he should get on very well. His master was satisfied with him, and to get back to his old trade with regular work and regular wages more than satisfied himself. He never felt so thankful for anything in his life as to get back to the country again, and he hoped to get a place ready for them to come into in the course of a day or two. Annie Brown was looking so well, so rosy and happy at her work of fruit-picking, that he hardly knew her, and she quite failed to recognize him in his smart new suit and the carpenter's basket over his shoulder. It was plain enough that he was proud of being regarded as a carpenter again, and his wife shared his feeling, and told her neighbours how well her husband was getting on down in the country.
No one grudged the Chaplins their good fortune, for among the men he had proved himself steady and reliable, and was therefore chosen for the most difficult and delicate work picketing which no man coveted, but which Chaplin was always ready to do, and never known to forsake a post when once he had taken it.
Among their more immediate neighbours there was genuine rejoicing, for now Winny would get the chance of growing strong which she had given up to Annie Brown. This action of hers had not met with the unqualified approval of her friends and neighbours. They could not understand the high standard Winny set before her—even that of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who came to give up his life for those who were ignorant and out of the way, that they might be brought to a knowledge of the love of the Father, thus leaving all who would call themselves his disciples an example that they should follow in his steps.
They had thought such a sacrifice as Winny had made was altogether too much for a girl like Annie Brown. If she had been respectable now, they could have understood it, but for a girl who had been to prison, and who felt ashamed to meet her neighbours when she came back, well, it was altogether too much.
Now, however, everything had turned out so well for everybody, and Annie had proved to be worthy of the help given to her, why, it was just what might be expected to happen.
Some said Annie Brown would stop in the country now she liked it so well, and Letty came and told Brown what had been said.
He did not seem to be at all pleased at the suggestion. "I hope my 'little un' won't leave her old dad," he said. "The country is all very well for some people, but I was bred and born in London, and I could never do without its noise and bustle. No, no, my gal must come home to me when the strike is over; I can't do without her much longer."
The next letter that came from Annie had almost the same words.
"I can't do without you much longer, daddy. I should like to come home at once, but of course I must wait till the strike is over. The rooms that the Chaplins are to have are almost ready, and Winny will be coming here next week I expect, so I shall wait and see her and help Mrs. Chaplin get things straight, and then I can tell you all how she is when I come home."
This plan of Annie's was adopted as being the best that could be devised, and the very Monday that the men went back to work in the docks again, Mrs. Chaplin, Winny, and Letty set out on their journey to their country home.
All sorts of little comforts had been provided by Miss Lavender to lighten the invalid's journey, and give her strength to endure what she feared would be a very painful experience to the girl.
It certainly did try her very much, and, in spite of all her mother's care and her teacher's forethought, she fainted two or three times before she got to her journey's end. But when at last the station was reached, her troubles were over, for there was her father, looking so stout and strong, ready to lift her out of the carriage to a little swing-bed he had contrived for her between some boxes in the wagon his master had lent him to fetch them home in.
The furniture had been sent on from London the week before, and Annie had been all day getting things comfortable for the travellers.
Letty fairly screamed with delight when she saw her new home, but Winny was too tired to do more than look round at the sunny fields and up at the window which her father told her was to be her own, and then with a feeble smile at Annie she said: "God is very good to everybody. I shall have a front window after all."