The Little Missis Part 39

"No, friends," Phebe calmly answered, "I will only have a willing audience."

"You have! You have!" they all called out.

"I am going to ask Mr. Black to give you fifteenpence for that extra hour, on condition that you are willing to work 's.h.i.+fts' with these Irishmen. Couldn't you manage that?"

"No," said Ford, "the days are not long enough."

"Well, what could you suggest that would show that you were willing to do the brother's part by these men, and also show Mr. Black that the English working-man was willing to do as he would be done by?"

Then there followed several little speeches of the usual Socialistic strain, to which Phebe replied: "Yes, I sympathise with you there, but those questions are out of order at this gathering. We must be practical."

"Tell us what you would like us to say to him," said Ford, and another round of cheers followed this suggestion.

Phebe paused for a moment to ask for guidance; the light from the blessed stars was very clear, but just then an added glory was given to the scene by the moon suddenly s.h.i.+ning forth. The silver beams brought Phebe a message. "This is what I would suggest, friends," and as she spoke it seemed as if a sudden silence came over the men, "that instead of working the extra hour--for I am sure your day is long enough--you let the new men work with you, and that Mr. Black pay you a halfpenny an hour more than the usual rate--that would mount up in the course of the week; or, if that is not practicable, to work in 's.h.i.+fts,' as I suggested before, which could very well be done with the aid of electric light. If he preferred the latter plan, I should still advise him to let you work the extra hour at the increased pay I mentioned. Of course this will greatly aid him in getting the work finished, perhaps long before the time. I am not, however, forgetting that the plan will shorten the job for you, but work will surely not be scarce this fine weather. Now, what do you think of my suggestions?"

"I think they'll do all right," said Ford.

"Do you all agree to them, and empower me to say so to Mr. Black?"

"She speaks fair enough," said one man.

"He'll never cave in to all that," called out another.

"But do you agree?"

A great shout went up: "We all agree."

"And will you go on steadily and quietly with your work till you hear from me again?"

"Yes, we all agree!" Every man of them must have joined in that shout by the noise they made.

They all wanted to shake hands with her before she left; several wished her "luck," but one old man said solemnly: "Eh, missis, you're a clever 'un, but you'll never get anything out of Hugh Black."

Before Jim started to accompany Mrs. Waring to the station he whispered to Ford: "There now! didn't I tell you she'd manage the men all right? I knew she'd handle them all neat enough! Trust the Little Missis for that."

"Yes," a.s.sented Ford, "she's just splendid, but she won't succeed."

The visit to Hugh Black was by no means so easy an affair as the one to the men had been. When he learnt what her errand was he could hardly believe it. "Whatever will those men get you to do next? I expect the next thing will be, you will represent them in Parliament. I shouldn't wonder, though, but that you'd do it better than the fellow who is there now. But to the point: what have those fellows talked you over to ask me?"

"I want you to understand, Mr. Black, they have not told me at all what to say; what I am going to say to you is my own suggestion, to which they agreed."

"If that is so it will make a considerable difference."

Her first endeavour was to get him to sympathise with the men in their hard toil. She scored a good point when she expressed her surprise that clever men like he was did not invent more machinery to save such heavy toil. "I feel sure you could do it if you tried." From that she pa.s.sed on to the fact that the men had some time ago found out he was seeking to live his life on a higher plane than at one time. "'A bit religious'

is the way they put it."

"Well, what if they do?"

"I want them to see that that bit is real," was her straight answer; "that G.o.d has something to do with your business arrangements."

He made no answer, and then she told him the two suggestions she had made to the men, and asked him which he preferred.

"You fairly take away my breath!" he exclaimed. "The last one is a splendid idea! I had never thought of that wrinkle! The men would never agree working side by side, but the idea of the 's.h.i.+fts' and the electric light is a dazzling one. The wonder is, I had never thought of it myself."

"You think, then, the electric light could be managed?"

"Yes, easily enough. Why, do you know, I should get this contract finished in time to take on another I was thinking I should have to decline! I really ought to pay you for the idea--excuse me," seeing a flush come to her face, "but I am really indebted to you!"

"What may I say to the men, Mr. Black?"

"That I will have the two 's.h.i.+fts,' and that if they will work the extra hour I will pay them the sum you have named to them. I could do no other after the help you have been to me."

"I wish," she said earnestly, "you had agreed to it out of sympathy with the men, and because you thought G.o.d would have you do so."

But he made her no answer.

Early that evening Jim Coates came to receive the message for the men.

He lost no time in returning to his mates. They were a.s.sembled in the same place as before.

Of course the message was received with cheers. Some of the men could hardly believe their ears.

"Well, I never!" was all Ford and some others could say.

"And I am to tell you," continued Jim, "that when this job is finished, Mr. Black will have another job on hand."

Another cheer.

"And he couldn't have taken this job but for the Little Missis."

Still a louder cheer.

"But there is something else I have to tell you," went on Jim again, "which she said I was to be sure to remember. When you asked her to say what she would have us ask, she took just a moment to ask G.o.d for guidance, and at that very moment the moon came out. It was the clear moonlight which brought her the message about the electric light. She says that was G.o.d's answer. You know it was all along of the electric light made Mr. Black so pleased; it made the way easy for two gangs of us to be at work, and made it possible for him to take on the other job.

So the Little Missis says we are always to remember G.o.d will work for us if we will let Him."

There was no cheering after that part of the speech, but the words, "G.o.d will work for us if we will let Him," rang in those men's ears for many a long day.

They were repeated to Mr. Black by Jim Coates.

"'G.o.d will work for us if we will let Him,'" Hugh Black repeated to himself, "how real G.o.d is to that little woman! I wish He were as real to me!" The moonlight never fell upon his path but the words came back to him, and they were always followed by the simple, earnest prayer: "Undertake for me, O my G.o.d."

Hugh Black was Mayor of Hadley that year. One day Jim Coates put a little packet into his hand in a very mysterious manner. It contained two pounds in sixpences and threepenny bits, and this little note:

"We'd like you to do something with this that would show our grat.i.tude to the Little Missis.--A FEW ROUGH NAVVIES."

He mused over it a few days, then he borrowed a photograph of "the Little Missis" from Bessie, had a coloured enlargement taken from it, then had it framed in carved oak, with the words in gilt beneath: "The Little Missis. Subscribed for by a few grateful admirers."

The next step was to ask permission to hang it in the Council Chamber, which was readily granted. Thus in the very room where she had been spoken of as "a woman whose husband had been obliged to leave her," the portrait of "the Little Missis" had a place of honour.

It was months before Phebe knew anything of this, and when she did, so many other things had come to pa.s.s that her mind seemed too full to either grieve or be glad over it.