“That has been my opinion all along, Mr. Bradley, and had it been yours this lock-out would never have come.”

“I admit it.  You came to me from the employes and asked for a discussion of the differences between us.  I thought you insolent, and refused to listen to you.  Therein I did you all an injustice, for which 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 am convinced that in all cases of trouble like ours the court of first resort should be arbitration.  The wish to be just is natural to every one, or at least to the majority of mankind.  If the parties concerned cannot agree, they should appeal to those in whom both have confidence to bring about an agreement between them; that is according to the golden rule.  Employer and employed, labor and capital, should be friends, and arbitration is the agent that shall bring about that happy state 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 people think.  Yesterday morning, when Dollie sat in her high chair at the breakfast-table, she heard her aunt and me talking about the strike.  Though she could not understand it all, she knew there was trouble between me and my employes.  I was out of patience and used some sharp words.  She listened for a few minutes while busy with her bread and milk, and then what do you think she said?”

“I am sure I have no idea,” replied O’Hara, patting the head of the laughing child, “but whatever it was, it was something nice.”

“She says, ’Brother Harvey, when I do anything wrong, you take me on your knee and talk to me and that makes me feel so bad that I never do that kind of wrong again.  Why don’t you take those bad men on your knee and talk to them, so they won’t do so again?’ I showed her that such an arrangement was hardly practicable, and then she fired her solid shot that pierced my ship between wind and water:  ’Brother Harvey, maybe it’s you that has done wrong; why don’t you sit down on their knees and let them give you a talking to?  Then you won’t be bad any more.”

Hugh and Harvey broke into laughter, during which Dollie, who had become tired of sitting still full two minutes, slid off O’Hara’s knee and 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 let them give you a good talking to?’ That was the very thing you had asked and I had refused.  I set out to take a long walk, and was absent most of the day.  Her question kept coming up to me, and I tried to drive it away.  The effort made me angry and ended in a decision to be sterner than ever.  I would not yield a point; I would import a body of men at large expense and keep them at work, just because I was too proud to undo what I knew was wrong.