“I’ve got to walk some of this off,” said Billy, restlessly, just before dark.  “Come on up and see the cabbage gardens!”

Susan pinned on her wide hat, joined him in silence, and still in silence they threaded the path that led through various dooryards and across vacant lots, and took a rising road toward the hills.

The stillness and soft dusk were very pleasant to Susan; she could find a beauty in carrot-tops and beet greens, and grew quite rapturous over a cow.

“Doesn’t the darling look comfortable and countryish, Bill?”

Billy interrupted his musing to give her an absent smile.  They sat down on a pile of lumber, and watched the summer moon rise gloriously over the hills.

“Doesn’t it seem funny to you that we’re right in the middle of a strike, Bill?” Susan asked childishly.

“Funny—!  Oh, Lord!”

“Well—–­” Susan laughed at herself, “I didn’t mean funny!  But I’ll tell you what I’d do in your place,” she added thoughtfully.

Billy glanced at her quickly.

“What you’d do?” he asked curiously.

“Certainly!  I’ve been thinking it over, as a dispassionate outsider,” Susan explained calmly.

“Well, go on,” he said, grinning indulgently.

“Well, I will,” Susan said, firing, “if you’ll treat me seriously, and not think that I say this merely because the Carrolls want you to go camping with us!  I was just thinking—–­” Susan smiled bashfully, “I was wondering why you don’t go to Carpenter—–­”

“He won’t see me!”

“Well, you know what I mean!” she said impatiently.  “Send your committee to him, and make him this proposition.  Say that if he’ll recognize the union—­that’s the most important thing, isn’t it?”

“That’s by far the most important!  All the rest will follow if we get that.  But he’s practically willing to grant all the rest, except the union.  That’s the whole point, Sue!”

“I know it is, but listen.  Tell him that if he’ll consent to all the other conditions—­why,” Susan spread open her hands with a shrug, “you’ll get out!  Bill, you know and I know that what he hates more than anything or anybody is Mr. William Oliver, and he’d agree to almost any terms for the sake of having you eliminated from his future consideration!”

“I—­get out?” Billy repeated dazedly.  “Why, I am the union!”

“Oh, no you’re not, Bill.  Surely the principles involved are larger than any one man!” Susan said pleasantly.

“Well, well—­yes—­that’s true!” he agreed, after a second’s silence.  “To a certain extent—­I see what you mean!—­that is true.  But, Sue, this is an unusual case.  I organized these boys, I talked to them, and for them.  They couldn’t hold together without me—­they’ll tell you so themselves!”

“But, Billy, that’s not logic.  Suppose you died?”

“Well, well, but by the Lord Harry I’m not going to die!” he said heatedly.  “I propose to stick right here on my job, and if they get a bunch of scabs in here they can take the consequences!  The hour of organized labor has come, and we’ll fight the thing out along these lines—–­”