He gradually became more alert, and carried himself less slouchingly as he walked. He stood upright and gazed round him as though he had the right to look up at the sky, and he was not the only one either that put on a brisker air. Brown began to talk in a louder and more aggressive tone, and often spoke of what they heard at the dock gates, with sundry hints and whispers that "people would hear something by and by." "It's neither more nor less than a strike that they're thinking of, I do believe," said poor Mrs. Chaplin with a groan when she was talking to her friend Mrs. Rutter about these varied signs of some stir being on foot among the men. "Strike? Dock labourers strike? Why, I have heard my poor dear husband say they fought like wild beasts against each other to get the chance of being taken on for an hour." "Yes, and I have heard that the foremen don't care to have too many regular hands, but prefer to have a hundred or two waiting round the gate that they can pick from whenever they want a fresh batch of hands." Mrs. Chaplin spoke resentfully, for she did not like the insinuation about her husband fighting for work like a "wild beast." "If everything was done fair and square at the docks, some would get a little more and others a good deal less," she added. "I don't know anything about that," said Mrs. Rutter a little tartly. "But you ought to tell Chaplin not to be talked into any foolish scheme of striking for higher wages, for I can tell you this, they could get men at them gates to work for twopence an hour if they wanted 'em. I've heard my poor dear say so many a time." Mrs. Rutter always spoke of her husband as her "poor dear" now. She had plucked up a little more spirit and did not look quite so miserable as she used to do, but still she was far from being a happy woman. Her husband had left her comfortably provided for so far as money went, but she was haunted with a fear that her money would all be spent and she would be left in want if she was not very careful. Every day saw her grow more miserly, and she was constantly reminding Lizzie that she had no father to work for her now, and so they ought not to spend a penny more than they could possibly help for fear they should come to want by and by. This mention of something like a strike being likely to take place among those who were her tenants made Mrs. Rutter very anxious, and the worst of it was, she could get no definite information about what was going on. It is doubtful whether at that time anybody knew definitely what was likely to be done. Everybody know there was a mighty stir of thought beneath the surface, but what it portended none could tell. When the time came for Annie to return, her father had a letter from her asking if she might stay to pick fruit. She had been offered work at a fruit-grower's close to where she had been staying, and if her father would agree to it, she thought she would like to stay till the end of the season.