The powder was stowed away before the hands began to arrive, all full of wonder and curiosity. They learned little at the mill, however. Ned went about the place as usual with an unchanged face, and the hands were soon at their work; but many during the day wondered how it was possible that their quiet and silent young employer should have been the hero of the desperate act of which every one had heard reports more or less exaggerated. A lad had been sent over to Marsden the first thing for some carpenters, and by nightfall a rough but strong door had been hung in place of that which had been shattered. By the next day rumor had carried the tale all over Marsden, and Ned on his return home was greeted by Charlie with: “Why, Ned, there is all sorts of talk in the place of an attack upon the mill the night before last. Why didn't you tell me about it?” “Yes, Maister Ned,” Abijah put in, “and they say as you blew up about a thousand of them.” “Yes, Abijah,” Ned said with a laugh, “and the pieces haven't come down yet.” “No! but really, Ned, what is it all about?” “There is not much to tell you, Charlie. The Luddites came and broke open the door. I had got several barrels of powder there, and when they came in I told them if they came any further I should blow the place up. That put them in a funk, and they all bolted, and I went to sleep again. That's the whole affair.” “Oh!” Charlie said in a disappointed voice, for this seemed rather tame after the thrilling reports he had heard. “Then you didn't blow up any of 'em, Maister Ned,” Abijah said doubtfully. “Not a man jack, Abijah. You see I could not very well have blown them up without going up myself too, so I thought it better to put it off for another time.” “They are very wicked, bad men,” Lucy said gravely. “Not so very wicked and bad, Lucy. You see they are almost starving, and they consider that the new machines have taken the bread out of their mouths, which is true enough. Now you know when people are starving, and have not bread for their wives and children, they are apt to get desperate. If I were to see you starving, and thought that somebody or something was keeping the bread out of your mouth, I dare say I should do something desperate.” “But it would be wrong all the same,” Lucy said doubtfully. “Yes, my dear, but it would be natural; and when human nature pulls one way, and what is right pulls the other, the human nature generally gets the best of it.” Lucy did not exactly understand, but she shook her head gravely in general dissent to Ned's view. “Why did you not tell us when you came home to breakfast yesterday?” Charlie asked.