The Gold of Chickaree Part 15

'What more work are you wis.h.i.+ng for there?'

'I am thinking?by and by?of building another mill.'

'Another mill!'?Mr. Falkirk's surprise was evidently more than it was polite to shew.?'You have not ground room, have you?'

'Not a present. I hope to be able to secure it. There _is_ room, in the valley.'

'Then you expect your ventures to succeed?'

'Or I should not think of enlarging them.'

'But Charteris and others are underselling you now.'

'Yes.'

'And they will.'

'While they are able.'

'And what under heaven is the use and purpose of it all?' exclaimed Mr. Falkirk testily. 'I beg your pardon?I know I am not your guardian?but what are you aiming to do?'

'Not to ruin myself. To do that would spoil my plan. There are several thousand people living in that Hollow, Mr. Falkirk.'

'I suppose so.'

'Do you know how they are living?'

'No. What business is it of mine?'

'Miss Kennedy is going this morning to see what business it is of mine.'

Mr. Falkirk pushed himself away from the table and presently left the room. The others mounted without delay and set off.

'When have you been on Jeannie before?' Rollo asked, when they had got quit of the Chickaree woods and were indulging in a good trot along the level country road.

'Not since the end of last November,?the day before I went to town.'

'My little Wych!' said Rollo, riding close up alongside,?'what sort of a year has this been?'

'Very mixed up. Part of the winter was pleasant.'

'The summer??'

'I suppose that was pleasant too?only I did not enjoy it.'

'Why didn't you come home?'

'The old story,' she said laughing and colouring,?'I did not want to come. Mr. Falkirk thinks I never have any other reason to give.'

'Might be a very good reason to give Mr. Falkirk. Now, do you know what you are going to look at?'

'Mill people and mill work.'

'In detail; but in general you are going to see what my friend Mrs.

Powder calls "my experiment." A problem of life-work, if you will; the question being, what can be done with fifteen hundred human beings accustomed only to poverty and hard work, to bring them to their nearest attainment of happy and useful living.'

'Fifteen hundred unhappy people!'?Hazel repeated. 'I should think everybody would be trying experiments.'

'You rode through the place once. You remember how they looked. Tell me what you would have tried first?'

'I remember. But I hardly knew what it meant, then.' There was a little emphasis upon the last word.

'Go on, and say what would occur to you to do.'

'Ah, you will only laugh and call me unpractical,' said Hazel smiling; 'but the first thing _I_ should do, Mr. Rollo, would be to beautify the places where they live. I believe it does people good to be?just a little?smothered in roses.'

'I believe in roses; but they were not the first thing I set about. For two reasons; they take time, and also they have to be in a certain degree prepared for. The old dwellings could not be beautified; I had to build new ones; but also, Hazel, and this is a more important thing, the desire for something better than the people knew, had to be excited. Roses are not a subst.i.tute for bread,?to the uncultured mind,' he added smiling; 'and men that are ground in the dust of poverty need first of all to get ambition enough to raise their heads and wash their faces. The _very_ first thing I did, was to make the pay sufficient for decent living. That gave them from the beginning some confidence in me, too.'

'Yes, of course. O that, I knew, you had done. I heard of it last winter.'

'Then in that connection there is another thing. I am beginning now to make the pay as far as it is possible follow the work done, instead of the time. I had to wait a good while before attempting this, because I could trust n.o.body to tell me or advise me, and before I could be competent to form my own judgment in the matter I had a great deal of study to do. And practice,' he added smiling. 'As far as practicable, I will have the pay dependent on the quant.i.ty and quality of the work. This stimulates effort and ministers to the sense of character, and also obviates several troublesome questions which are apt to come up between employers and employed. The people are not enlightened enough to like any change which they do not immediately feel for the better; but they will come into it, for they must; and then they will like it.'

Hazel looked amused. 'Is not that last clause an addition to the old code?' she said. 'The first two sound natural.'

Rollo smiled a little, but vouchsafed no further notice. 'Now,' he went on, 'to pursue your plan, I am building new cottages; and I shall leave the rose-planting to you.'

'In-doors and out.?Do you know, Mr. Rollo, I should think you had done the very best possible preparatory work by getting it into the peoples' heads that somebody cared whether they had roses, or clean faces, or anything else. And there I can speak from experience.'

'What sort of experience?'

'Because I never had anybody to care,' said Hazel. 'So I know how it feels.'

'Never had anybody to care?what?' said Dane, riding close up alongside and looking earnestly for the answer.

'What I did, or how I dressed, or what became of me generally,'

said Hazel. 'O I suppose Mr. Falkirk _cared_, but he never shewed it in any way to do me a bit of good. There was no one I could please, and no one I could displease; and so while people thought I had everything, I used to feel all alone, and thought I had nothing.'

Rollo was silent and grave.

'I knew?very soon?that you cared,' she said, with the pretty soft fall of eyes and voice. 'I mean, cared for my sake.'

'Very soon?' said Rollo. 'How soon, you Wych?'

'Other people were thinking of what I was, and you of what you thought I ought to be; and it was very easy to feel the difference.'

'When?' said Rollo, scarce controlling a smile, 'When did you see it first, I mean?'

'I think you began to criticise me, almost as soon as I got here.'