The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1902-05-29
CHAPTER NN-CCn tinued.

strengt hen their power Tor evil. Inc
people must think that YOU approve of
them"
Listen" said the merchant. Re
formation is not SO simple matter as
impusive youth is apt to think. You
know how wretchod the state of the
poorest commons is. You would have
their condition bettered, would you
not?"
"With all my heart" said Ralph.
Consider, then, how it is to be
done. The head must move as well as
the heart. act with those turbulent
orators because am no orator myself,
and these men raise the wind that fills
the sails of my plan OF reformation, and
have no hope in any other plan.
There is, in truth, no other plan that
can succeed.
Ralph was rather staggered at this
frank statement, and his countenance
showed it.
cam | too self-confdent? Listen
and YOU shall Judge. If the king is
tender hearted to his poor subjects,
there is all the more hope in what |
propose to do.
"But how can you do more than dis
cover what justice requires, and carry
that into effect?'
True; but the king can act only
through commissioners: the kings
commissioners must be men of rank
and wealth, or the friends of such; and
the Justice of the kings commissioners
may be very different from my Justice
or your justice. They will themselves
be masters of servants, owners of bond
men. Think you that they are likely
of their own free will to give servants
and bondmen what they ask, seeing
that To give IL to impoverish them
selves, to contract their own pleasures,
to limit their own grandeur"
"Some of them would not yield, :"
said Ralph
"Many of them" answered Simon:
''most of them, and when it came to
the pinch, they would act as one man
to keep the bondmen down"
"But they might be persuaded" said
Ralph
Eyes" answered the merchant, "by
fear. They may be persuaded by fear;
against established and unconscious
seltishness it is Il stronger motive than
love. And it is by fear that propose
to persuade them. Let them once see
that the poor commonsa are to be feared,
and they will yield. At present they
n ff, "A
cession to justice. And now YOU un-
derstand my plan. These hot-headed
orators, whom you will presently hear,
excite the storm which ] and others are
laboring to direct Why did the JAG
querie fail? Only through want of
union. We must give our poor COM
mons union, and then their numbers
will tell. At present the mobiles and
rich commons care no more for their
wretched thralls than for swarms of
flies"
Ralph pondered for little in ST.
lence. "But," he asked at length,
what if the storm raised should be too
strong? The wind, then, intsead of
filing your sails, might wreck your
ship"
"That is my fear" said the mer-
chant.
"And yet you persevcre?" said
Ralph, with some surprise.
"What else can | do? If the king is
with us, there is hope His name is
still tower of strength. The inhu-
man pride of the mobiles must somehow
be- broken"
Ralph said nothing. The picture
which the merchant had suggested to
his mind of two opposed classes on the
eve of deadly strife-the one contempt
nous and overweening, the other stub
born, resentful, ready to give battle
with the courage of despair and the
savagery OF hatred long pent up, filled
him with horror that kept him silent
Gould nothing be done for peace?
Was war inevitable2
They had now reached the old camp
at Wandlebury, Ralph looked round
on the motley gathering, buzzing in
groups on the breezy hill under the
changeful September sky. as if he could
read in their faces what was to come.
So impressed was his Imagination with
the thought of savage and vindictive
rebellion, that he was almost startled
TO see so many faces without any out
ward trace of sullen gloom or brooding
hatred. Weather-beaten faces were
there in plenty, roteh, tanned throats
running up into shaggy, matted hair;
ut he features in gene had the
grave, hard set of severe bodily labor
and sober fare. A certain glisten in
the eyes was the only visible sign Of
excitement, and it betokened rather
vague curiosity and expectation than 9
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