own account, you and your fellow-workmen have done a very foolish thing. What in the world could induce you to strike I cannot conceive; only, as it is plain, you have been stirred up to it by that Michael Collins, of whom I have something to tell you presently. With a good employer, very fair wages, and constant work, you must have been beside yourselves to cast yourselves adrift as you have done.

"And now about your coming to London. Since you ask my advice, I will give it you honestly, in two words: Don't come. Perhaps you would like to know why I give that advice; and I will tell you. If you do come, you will not find employment. There are now scores, and I might say hundreds, of men in our trade who are out of work—not on strike, but because of the general slackness. I should have thought you might have learned this from the men, who have taken some of your places at Mr. Johnson's, and who, you say, came from London. But perhaps you have not come across any of them, or, if you have heard it, perhaps you have not believed them that told you. But it is true; and whoever may have told you to the contrary has just told you a falsehood.

"For my own part, I am not out of work, and hope I shall not be thrown out; but there is no certainty about it; and, as it is, I and all in our workshops are working short time, and so we shall be all through the winter, I am afraid, and must think ourselves well off too.

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Now, with regard to wages. It is true that the regular wages for your class of work is sixpence a day more in London than you speak of as yours in the country. But if it comes to comparing, I believe you are better off with sixpence a day less than we are here with sixpence a day more. Plainly for this reason: our expenses of rent and living are greater than yours. So I don't think that was a good and sufficient cause for striking.

"It is quite true also that your regular day's work is longer than ours by half-an-hour. But you must bear in mind that mechanics in London cannot always live so near their shops

as you in the country can generally manage to do; so that the time taken up in going to and from work reconciles that difference. Perhaps you do not know, but I do, that I, for instance, have to walk more than two miles every morning before I get to work, and two miles, of course, every evening before I can sit down to rest at home. So there is a full hour taken up every day in walking, whereas you live within ten minutes' easy walk of your work; consequently the balance of time is in your favour.

"I won't say anything about the other causes for your turn-out; because, whether they are just or not, the same things exist everywhere in our trade; and it is not strikes that will make a change. At least, that is my opinion.

"And now, about Michael Collins. To be sure, I may be wrong in my man; for as there is more than one Tom Brown or more than one James Brown in the world, so there may be more than one Mike Collins. All I shall say, therefore, is that some time ago a certain Michael Collins worked in our shop. He had a very smooth tongue, and a plausible manner enough; but he was a thorough rogue. He was found out at last, and the place was too hot to hold him; but it was not till he had set half the men together by the ears, and pretty nearly hatched up a quarrel between us and our master. The way he betrayed himself was by borrowing as much money as he could of one and another of us and then bolting. What became of him afterwards we never could find out, nor his poor wife either, whom he left in great distress. Now, mind, I don't wish to speak ill of any one, James; and I shall only say that, if your Michael Collins and mine should happen to be one and the same, there are some people in London who would be glad to know whereabouts he is now to be found.

"And as you ask my advice, James, as I wrote just now, I will honestly tell you that, as far as I can see, the best thing you can do is to make it up with your master as soon as you can. It is plain, from what you say, that he does not mean to come to your terms; and, whether you men have

any right on your side or not, it is pretty certain you will have to come to his terms at last-that is, if you come together again at all; and the first loss will be the least. And I am pretty sure of this, you will not get better terms anywhere else, even supposing you could get work at all.

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There is one thing more, and then I must have done writing. I expect this turn-out has been rather a bad thing for your pocket. Now, my dear brother, I have got a little money put by in the savings bank; and you have only to say the word, and it is yours for as long as you want it. So no more at present from

"Your affectionate brother,

This was my brother Tom's letter.

"THOMAS BROWN."

CHAPTER XI.-A CATASTROPHE.

"What a very kind letter!" said my wife, when I had finished reading my brother Tom's epistle.

"Yes, kind enough, Betsy," said I.

"But I am afraid there is something in it you do not like," she added.

"Well," said I, "nobody likes to be proved to be in the wrong, I suppose."

"No, James. I dare say it goes a little against the grain generally; but if one is in the wrong, is it not better to have it proved ?"

"And, James," continued Betsy, with a coaxing, goodhumoured smile, "does it not show good sense in any one to be open-to have such a thing proved ?"

"Betsy," I replied, and I felt what I said too, "you are a good, patient, and loving wife. You have thought all along that I have been in the wrong, but you have not bored me and provoked me as some of our men's wives have done to their husbands; and I am sure you will not triumph over me now."

"No, James, indeed I will not," she answered; and tears came into her eyes as she put her hand in mine.

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66 Because," I went on, I must confess that I am afraid I have been a very great blockhead."

"I do not say that, and I do not think it, James,” said my wife, kindly; "you have only been drawn away and overpersuaded, as everybody is liable to be at times. I am sure Michael Collins has tongue enough to

"Michael Collins is a scoundrel," I said, hastily.

"He must be a bad man if he is the same that your brother writes about," said Betsy;

wife cannot be good for much.”

a man that deserts his

"Oh! he is the same man,” said I, bitterly; "he has all the marks of being the same. His long tongue, and his setting master and men together by the ears, and ”—I added this with an effort-" and the trick of borrowing money, all prove that Tom's Mike Collins and ours is one and the same."

"What do you mean by the trick of borrowing money,' James?" my wife asked. And then I confessed what I had

done.

you will way you mean

"Oh James, James !" said the dear creature; never be worth a million pounds if that is the to go on."

"You are safe to say that, Betsy," I groaned.

66 But you need not look so downcast about it for all that," she went on. "You are better, with all your faults, than some men with all theirbut I am not going to repeat my wife's flattery; only that she added, "After all, James, the money was your own; for you earned it, and, instead of spending it as some men would have done, you saved it; and if for once you have made a mistake, it will teach you better for another time, in matters of greater consequence perhaps."

"I hope it will," said I. "But to be done out of so much of our little stock, Betsy!"

"But you are not sure that you are done out of it, James."

“I'll soon see,” said I;, and I jumped up, and was putting on my hat when Betsy stopped me.

"James," she said, "I don't think you are quite in a right frame for seeing Collins now. 'A wise man deferreth his anger,' you know; and you must remember that there is nothing proved against him yet; and you are apt to be hasty and warm-tempered at times."

"And you would have me sit down quietly with the loss, I suppose, then?" said I, in a tone which would at once have proved what my wife had just said about me.

How this would have ended I don't exactly know; but just then came a tap at our door, and, on its being opened, in stepped the woman at whose house Collins had lodgings.

"Oh Mrs. Brown," said she, "I am in such a way! and I am come to ask your good man if he can tell me anything about my lodger."

Naturally, my wife and I looked at one another rather wonderingly, fancying at first that Mrs. Hobday had been listening outside our door. I did not hint this suspicion, however, but I asked her what she supposed I had to tell.

"Where is he gone to?" said she, half-crying; "for he has not been in these two days."

"Do you mean that Collins has cut?" said I, with a start, and making use of the first word that came to me.

"I don't know, indeed," said Mrs. Hobday; "I only know that he went out without saying a word of his intentions, as long ago as the day before yesterday, and I have not seen him since; and as you and he, Mr. Brown, are so thick together, I was in hopes you could tell me what has become of him."

"No," said I, "I cannot, for I have not seen your lodger nor heard from him since last Tuesday; and it is since then that he left you. And the best I can say to you is, that I hope he does not owe you anything."

"What makes you say that, Mr. Brown?" asked the poor woman, all in a tremble.