"Aw never were more i' earnest, George. And it hurts me to tell thee. Yo' know what store I set on yo', George. We've been more like brothers nor cousins, an' tha knows, tho' aw'm not clever like thee an' high mettled, aw'm neither coward nor traitor. Aw've tried to think as yo' think, George, an' to see as yo' see. Aw know it's all true tha says about th' sufferings o' th' poor; an' what's to become o' th' working folk when more an' more machines come up, aw cannot tell. But we're on a wrong tack, George. Enoch's none going to stop machinery. Th' mesters are stubborn, an' they're English, too. We may break a thousand frames, an' clear every machine out of every mill an' shop in England, but better ones will take their place. We cannot go on for ever wi' midnight raids an' secret meetings. The law's too strong for us, George, an' we're kicking against the pricks." "Then what would yo' have us do, Ben? Are th' working classes to sit down wi' their hands i' their pockets an' watch their families die by inches? If yo' don't like my methods tell me better. Do yo' think I like stealing about at night like a thief, or that I find any pleasure in smashing machines? If that were the be-all and end-all of our campaign, I'd have nowt to do wi' it. But it's only th' beginning, Ben, only th' beginning." "And the end?" I asked. "We'll strike higher an' further. Before many weeks are over I'll throw off all disguise. I'll call on every man that has a heart in his breast to join me in a march to London. We'll strike into the great North-road. We'll ransack every farm house by the way for arms and provisions. We'll take toll of every man in every town who has got rich by grinding down the poor. We'll make our presence and our power known at every hail and castle in the Shires. We'll strike terror into the hearts of every aristocrat who abuses his hereditary privileges to press down and rob the poor. We'll march with swelling ranks and a purpose firmer by every step we take, till we stand, an army, at the very gates of Westminster, and there we will thunder forth our claims and wring from an abject Parliament the rights, without which we are driven slaves." "And have you counted the cost, George?"