Saturday's Child

phine, there were days, too, when even the mother admitted to herself that some new tender element had crept into their love for each other since the little

d the old informal invitations to the nearest friends and neighbors for the tea-hour on Saturday. Susan was to have her vacation in August; Billy was to have at least a week; Anna had

e from the office at one o'clock, found

he end of the kitchen table, "and here's a special delivery letter for Billy, and Billy's not coming over here

r hands. "It's from Edward Dean," she said, examining it with unaffected interest. "Oh, I know what this is--it's about that blue-print busi

by telephone! As bad luck would have it, he's a good deal worried about the situation at th

o anyone!" laughed Susan. "He's been raving about it for weeks! And he and Mr. Dean have to rush the patent, because t

ith them, you could put on a special-delivery stamp and then Billy would h

"I can catch the two-ten. Or better yet, Aunt Jo, I'

ess among the men, not if they are talkin

get him to bring me back," she added, "don't worry, for I may go s

ing in the steamer's wake. Sailboats, waiting for the breeze, drifted idly toward the Golden Gate; there was not a cloud in the blue arch of th

ned under-foot; gongs and bells of cars made a raucous clamor. She was glad to establish he

machine-oils, ropes and coffee. Over the door of what had been Hunter, Baxter & Hunter's hung a new bright sign, "Hunter, Hunter & Brauer." Susan caught a glimpse, through the

to carry them!" What a long two years since she had

us streets; houses stood at curious angles, and were unpainted, or painted in unusual colors. Great ware-houses and factories shadowed little clusters of workingmen's homes; here and there were country-like strips of brown palings with dusty mallow bushes spraying about them, or a lean cow grazing near a bare little wo

mous brick buildings set with rows and rows of blank and dusty windows, the brick chimneys and the black pipes of the blast-furnaces, the heaps of twisted old iron and of ashes, the blowing dus

rs, and a door and one window downstairs. The seven or eight long buildings might have been as many gigantic German toys, dotted with apertures by some accurate brush, and finished with several hundred flights of wooden steps and several hundred

women talked and laughed over the low dividing fences. Gates hung awry, and baby carriage

tless men. A few were amusing babies, or joining in the idle chatter of the women

n said to hersel

sunshine streamed generously; the street was hot, t

amazed to find that it frightened her a little. She was conspicuously a newcomer, and co

,' Bert?" she heard them say. "Don't ask me! I'm expecting my

thing to do but walk senselessly on, or stop and ask her way. She began to look furtively about for a friendly fac

but do you know where Mr.

r a minute, with a closed, comp

oe

n, lathered for shaving, wh

Susan said smiling. "I'm a sort of cousin of hi

her from his face with a towel, took the l

he explained, "and I have to clean up or I'd take you to him myself! Maybe you'd do it, Lizzie?" he suggest

d willingly, in reference to the baby, "or mayb

e conversation, got up from the steps of the next house, and came to the fence. Sus

sister, I c'n see that,"

own. But Mr. Oliver was a sort of ward of m

till I pin on me hat wanst, and I'll take you up to

et out for the Hall, und

's a committee going to meet tonight. The old man-that's Carpent

us time to select for a conference. They walked along in silence, Mrs.

one young giant, shouldering his scowling way home, she st

said George, sullen

y--stand still!" said the old w

or three days more to settle this damn thing, and then he'll wire east and get a carload of men right straight through from Philadel

say?" asked Mrs. Cudahy,

s, 'For God's sake, George--None of that here! They'll mob the old

, but befoor that, Mr. Oliver and Clem and Rassette and Weidermeyer are going to

" said George, softe

ence about?" asked

e don't know THAT!" Mrs. Cud

a strike---" Sus

eed, with quiet grimness, and under her b

er's--are the men

d men out," Mrs. Cud

t. "But Billy's not responsible fo

s, then," Mrs. Cuda

thirty or forty men under him i

nything about it, thin!" Mrs. Cuda

an stared at her for a moment, then the dimples came

so mean!" laughed Susan. "

ed too, a little

or the boys," she went on, sobering quickly. "They wint on strike a week ago. Mr. Oliver

r?" aske

come in on every steamer," said Mrs. Cudahy indignantly, "and they'll work twelve hours for two bits! Bether hours," she went on, checking off the requirements o

!" Susan said generous

n they shouldn't," she resumed presently, "We're the only open shop in this part of the world,

talk to, the Carpenters I mean-

s is because they want to get rid of him--they want him out of the way, d'ye see? No, he talks to the committee,

eliminary conference in hi

he's prisidint of the local; Clem says he'd ought to be King!" And Susan was amazed to notice that the strong old mouth was trembling wit

sked a little timidly. This cheery, sun-bathed

nnyway," Mrs. Cudahy said, temperately, "a

ply rutted street, and opened a stai

ey mounted. Mrs. Cudahy opened a double-door at the top, and th

res, sunshine streaming through the dirty, specked windows, chairs piled on chairs against the long walls, a

and noisily to Billy Oliver, who stood at the table

heepish warmth; the vision of an extremely pretty girl in Mrs. Cudahy's care seemed to af

about all, Billy, I must be getting along," "Good-night, Billy, you k

expectedly confronted by his womenkind. "I think you were a peach to do that, Sue!" he said gratefully, when t

zzled, even more blue of eye than was Susan's new

Clem! Sue, he's about

"Whin I last heard it was cousin!

you a choice!" sai

ething different entirely!" the old woman said, in

you two a chanst," said Clem, in the str

it would suit ME,"

cratch his head, and giving her a rueful smile. "Sure, I'm

am, with a shove. And his tired face brightened wo

'll go straight to Rassette's--but w

who, after a few wistful glances back toward the swinging door, walked away with them, and was presently left in the care of a busily cooking little wife and a fat baby. Bil

when they aren't on strike! Now, let's see, it's five thirty. I'll tell you, Sue, if you'll miss the seven-five boat, I'll just wai

e was grimed with perspiration and very pale. "I feel like a fool to have come

a million, if you can only get along, some

sed herself with an impatient little jerk of her

hing?" he a

ring a train-load of men on from Philadelphia

?" he demand

, Billy--yes I do, too! Mrs

!" Billy's eyes gleamed.

asn't Frank Harris?" "Frank Harris--that was it!

him hear," said Billy grimly. "But that only makes it the more p

ce, at half-past five," Susan assu

added, grinning like a happy small boy. "This is Rassette's, where I'm staying," he said, sto

londe, pretty, neatly apron

was an immense brown dog, a lamp with a green, rose-wreathed shade, a carved wooden clock, a little mahogany table beautifully inlaid with white holly, an enormous pair of mounted antlers, and a large c

ful English for a fore

ma sends me home to my Grandma, so that I shall know our country. It is a better country for the working people," she add

f the house, and far more attractive. The floor was cream-white, the woodwork a

ey were the cleanest babies she had ever seen; through their flaxen mops she could see their clean little heads, their play-dresses were protected by checked gi

y in her lap. "A strike is pretty hard, when you have

e agreed placidly, "We have been here now four years,

u a ranch?"

ave an orchard there, and there is a town nearby where Joe shall have a shop of his own. And there is a good school! But until my Marie is seven, we think w

nd fro with nightgowns and slippers. All the while the sound of men's voices had been rising and falling st

en. He looked tired, but smiled when he

on, woman, the Cudahys expect us to

dahy, dashing through preparations for a meal whose lavishness startled Susan. Bottles of milk and bottles of cream stood on the table, Susan fell to stripping ears of cor

ncy pickles; Billy brought up beer from the cellar; Clem Cudahy cut a thick slice of butter from a two-pound square, and helped it into the serving

at about seven o'clock, when the other men had gone off to th

lowered tone, with a glance toward Mrs. Cudahy, who was out in the yard tal

d for their work; she just as much as he is! Do you wond

Cudahys, now,--why, this dinner was fit for a k

id. "He's got two flats he rents, and he's got sto

why do they

y've never had time to garden, or go to clubs, and consequently they don't miss them. But some day, Sue," said Billy, with a darkening face, "some day, when these peop

to do with that, Billy?" said Susan,

of rights; it's the beginning!" he said

," said she, "and show her the neighborhood." She laid a heavy hand on his shoulder. "Now, don't ye wo

ht with Mrs. Cudahy," said

stopped short,

nother. "I could no more go home now than af

interesting?" he

It could be perfect; just fancy if the Carrolls had one house, and you another, and I a third, and Phil and his wife a fourth--wouldn't it be like children playing house! And there's another thing about it, Billy," Susan went on enthusiastically, "it's hon

"Women drinking--men acting like brutes! But some day, when the liquor tr

er, R. I., in the Presidential Chair, hoo

he added contentedly. "I like to be at the bottom of things,

fter a moment's silence. "I thought one had to throw coal,

it," he said, "but here we have American-born laborers,

seems rather a big job!" Susan said. "Now, look at these small kids out of bed at this hour of night, Bill! And what are they eating?--Boiled crabs! And n

l," Billy said absently. "Is that the

n Mrs. Cudahy's steps, and waited for news. All Ironworks Row waited. Down the street Susan could see silent gr

knew, the moment that she saw the three, moving all close t

nt into Clem Cudahy's dining-room, and as many men and women as

ounger men would have conceded something, if not everything, long ago. But the old man had said that he wo

this point, and the cheers were given and echoed in the stree

bout eleven o'clock, the men who had been streaming in and out of the house began t

of the table, poured it,

for, Mr. Oliver," said Ernest

ied his cup at a draught. "Well! I don't know that we do

concede, Bill?

east, Carpenter keeps saying that if this local agitation was once

listeners, a young man who s

, yawning. "Me to the hay! Good

oesn't," said Mrs. Cudahy when he was gone, "mus

irl refusing Mr. Oliver

of toast, drifted up from below. Susan had slept well. She performed the limited toilet necessitated by a

smiling into the kitchen, that she looked like a streak of sunlight her

Mrs. Jerry Nelson, who had been stretched on her bed for eight long years. Mrs. Nelson's bright litt

" said Mrs. Nelson's daughter to Susan, "and there's nob

ends," the invalid assured her

ater to Billy, "so much nearer the center of things! Of course," she told him that afterno

have a mass meeting this afternoon.

dren fretted and shouted in the shade. Susan had seen no drinking the night before; but now she saw more than one tragedy. The meeting at three

d Billy, restlessly, just before dark. "

silence they threaded the path that led through various dooryard

Susan; she could find a beauty in carrot-tops an

look comfortable an

smile. They sat down on a pile of lumber, and wat

we're right in the middle of a st

--! Oh

n't mean funny! But I'll tell you what I'd

nced at h

do?" he aske

it over, as a dispassionate out

he said, grinni

I say this merely because the Carrolls want you to go camping with us! I was just th

n't se

ommittee to him, and make him this proposition. Say that if he'l

w if we get that. But he's practically willing to grant al

ds with a shrug, "you'll get out! Bill, you know and I know that what he hates more than anything or anybody is Mr. Wi

repeated dazedly. "W

principles involved are larger than

what you mean!--that is true. But, Sue, this is an unusual case. I organized these boys, I talk

t's not logic. S

ck right here on my job, and if they get a bunch of scabs in here they can take the consequen

ver stopping to think whether they mean anything or not! You're too big and too smart for that, Bill! Now, here you've given the cause a splendid push up, you've helped these particular men! Now g

up and walked away from her,

the girl's heart began to ache for him. "I don't believe they'd stand for it,"

to influence you,"

t. That's not the poin

his head in his hands. Susan longed to put her arm about h

dining-room, very white, very serious, determined lines drawn about

, for he had gone out again after bringi

by the table. "Well, I guess Miss Brown put her fin

ry act of pouring the newcomer a cup of coffee, stopped

hing!" she said eagerly. "D

, and in less than an hour the news spread over th

nfused rush. At three o'clock Billy, surrounded by vociferous a

was all too logical to be ignored and turned aside, he told them. They had not been fighting for any personal interest, or any one person. They had asked for this change, and

office, and Billy came home to Susan and Mrs. Cudahy, an

lently as it had come last night. But this

t. Practically everything had been granted, on the single condition that William

scarcely aware of what he was doing and saying. Men and women began to come in and discuss the

Sausalito to-night,--I'm all in! We've won, and that's the main thing, but I w

ette and Clem had escorted them thither; Mrs. Cudahy and Lizzie walking soberly behind them, with Su

she promised the old woman. "H

e big woods," said Billy. "You're quite ri

or later, and, personally, I can't imagine anything else in life half as

ld cut a fellow all up to le

I'm just about half-sick