so when his time came to be questioned, he said his name was Joe Aronsky, and he had last worked in a machine-shop in Pittsburg; he had come to Hubbardtown because he had heard of high pay and good treatment.  While he was answering these questions, he noticed a man sitting in the corner of the room studying his face, and he saw the boss turn and glance in that direction.  The man shook his head, and the boss said:  “Nothin’ doin’.”  So Jimmie understood that the Hubbard Engine Company was taking measures to keep its shops clear of the agitators from Leesville.

He spent a couple of days trying other places in his home town, but all in vain—­they had him spotted.  At the brewery they were slower than elsewhere—­they took him on for two hours.  Then they found out his record, and “fired” him; and Jimmie “kidded” the boss, saying that they were too late—­he had already given a Socialist leaflet to every man in the room!

On Jefferson Street, an out of the way part of the town, was a bicycle-shop kept by an old German named Kumme.  One of the comrades told Jimmie that he wanted a helper, and Jimmie went there and got a job at two dollars a day.  That was poor pay at present prices, but Jimmie liked the place, because his boss was a near-Socialist, a pacifist—­for all countries except Germany.  He got round it by saying that every nation had a right to defend itself; and Germany was the nation which had been attacked in this war.  A good part of the energies of the old man went into proving this to his customers; if there were any customers who did not like it, they could go elsewhere.

Those who came were largely Germans, and so Jimmie was kept fully supplied with arguments against the munitions industry, which they called a trade in murder, and in favour of the programme of “Feed America First”.  Among those who frequented the place was Jerry Coleman, who was still on the job, and as well supplied with ten-dollar bills as ever.  He had now revealed himself as an organizer for a new propaganda society, called “Labour’s National Peace Council”.  Inasmuch as Labour and Peace were the phrases upon which Jimmie lived, he saw no reason why he should not back this organization.  Coleman assured Jimmie he hated the Kaiser, but that the German “people” must be defended.  So Jimmie became, without having the least idea of it, one of the agencies whereby the Kaiser was subsidizing social discontent in America.

But Jimmie was more careful now in his agitations.  He had brought such distress into his home by his jail sentence, that he had been forced to make promises to Lizzie.  Her anxiety for her children could no longer be kept to herself; and this caused a certain amount of friction between them, and sent Jimmie out grumbling at his lot in life.  What was the use of trying to educate a woman, who could see no farther than her own kitchen-stove?  When you wanted to be a world-saviour, to walk tip-toe on the misty mountain-tops