Now you know yourself that rush work is hard on the nerves. Did you
ever get rush work done at a laundry and not pay more for it? We was
anxious as anybody to get the Capitol in shape for the big show this
afternoon. But there's reason in all things."

"Yes," agreed his auditor, "there is."

The man looked at him a little doubtfully. "Our president--we
elected Johnny McGuire president last night--went to the Governor
this morning with our demands."

The Governor's fellow official smiled--he knew the Governor pretty
well. "And he turned you down?"

The striker nodded. "But there's an election next fall; maybe the
turning down will be turned around."

"Maybe so--you never can tell. I don't know just what power
Carpet-Tackers' Union Number One will wield, but the Governor's
pretty solid, you know, with Labour as a whole."

That was true, and went home. The striker rubbed his foot
uncertainly across the floor, and took courage from its splinters.
"Well, there's one thing sure. When Prince Ludwig and his train-load
of big guns show up at four o'clock this afternoon they'll find bare
floors, and pretty bum bare floors, on deck at this place."

The attorney-general rubbed his own foot across the splintered,
miserable boards. "They are pretty bum," he reflected. "I wonder,"
he added, as the man was half-way out of the door, "what Prince