Part 38 (2/2)

Archey had news.

”The men had a meeting this afternoon,” he said. ”They've been getting up a big pet.i.tion, and they are going to send another committee to Was.h.i.+ngton.”

”What for?”

”To press for that boycott. Headquarters put them off last time, but there are so many men out of work now at other factories that they hope to get a favourable decision.”

”I'll see Judge Cutler in the morning,” promised Mary, and noticing Archey's expression, she said, ”Don't worry. I'm not the least alarmed.”

”What bothers me,” he said, ”is to have this thing hanging over all the time. It's like old What's-his-name who had the sword hanging over his head by a single hair all through the dinner.”

The sword didn't seem to bother Mary, though. That comparative table had given her another idea--an idea that was part plan and part pride. When she reached the office in the morning she telephoned Judge Cutler and Uncle Stanley.

”A directors' meeting--something important,” she told them both; and after another talk with the accountant she began writing another of her advertis.e.m.e.nts. She was finis.h.i.+ng this when Judge Cutler appeared. A minute later Uncle Stanley followed him.

Lately Uncle Stanley had been making his headquarters at the bank--his att.i.tude toward the factory being one of scornful amus.e.m.e.nt.

”Women mechanics!” he sometimes scoffed to visitors at the bank. ”Women foremen! Women presidents! By Judas, I'm beginning to think Old Ned himself is a woman--the sort of mischief he's raising lately!...

Something's bound to crack before long, though.”

In that last sentence you have the picture of Uncle Stanley. Even as Mr.

Micawber was always waiting for something to turn up, so Uncle Stanley was always waiting for something to go wrong.

Mary opened the meeting by showing the accountants' report and then reading her proposed advertis.e.m.e.nt. If you had been there, I think you would have seen the gleam of satisfaction in Uncle Stanley's eye.

”I knew I'd catch her wrong yet,” he seemed to be saying to himself. ”As soon as she's made a bit of money, she wants everybody to have it. It's the hen and the egg all over again--they've simply got to cackle.”

Thus the gleam in Uncle Stanley's eye. Looking up at the end of her reading, Mary caught it. ”How he hates women!” she thought. ”Still, in a way, you can't wonder at it.... If it hadn't been for women and the things they can do he would have had the factory long ago.” Aloud she said, ”What do you think of it?”

”I think it's a piece of foolishness, myself,” said Uncle Stanley promptly. ”But I know you are going to do it, if you've made up your mind to do it.”

”I'm not so sure it's foolish,” said the judge. ”It seems to me it's going to bring us a lot of new business.”

”Got all we can handle now, haven't we?”

”Well, we can expand! It wouldn't be the first time in Spencer & Son's history that the factory has been doubled, and, by Jingo, I believe Mary's going to do it, too!”

Mary said nothing, but a few mornings later when the advertis.e.m.e.nt appeared in the leading newspapers throughout the country, she made a remark which showed that her co-directors had failed to see at least two of the birds at which she was throwing her stone.... She had the newspapers brought to her room that morning, and was soon reading the following quarter page announcement:

THE FRUITS OF HER LABOUR

For the past six months, Spencer bearings have been made exclusively by women.

The first result of this is a finer degree of accuracy than had ever been attained before.

The second result is a reduction in the cost of manufacture, this notwithstanding the fact that every woman on our payroll has always received man's wages, and we have never worked more than eight hours a day.

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