the strangers, but he wanted to consider the matter first. He had
misgivings. His father was not in the sitting-room, nor in the kitchen.
Dinner was ready on the table, and the one servant, an old woman who had
served the Dorns for years, appeared impatient at the lack of promptness
in the men. Both father and son, except on Sundays, always ate with the
hired help. Kurt stepped outside to find Jerry washing at the bench.

"Jerry, what's keeping the men?" queried Kurt.

"Wal, they're palaverin' out there with two I.W.W. fellers," replied
Jerry.

Kurt reached for the rope of the farm-bell, and rang it rather sharply.
Then he went in to take his place at the table, and Jerry soon followed.
Old man Dorn did not appear, which fact was not unusual. The other hired
men did not enter until Jerry and Kurt were half done with the meal.
They seemed excited and somewhat boisterous, Kurt thought, but once they
settled down to eating, after the manner of hungry laborers, they had
little to say. Kurt, soon finishing his dinner, went outdoors to wait
for Jerry. That individual appeared to be long in coming, and loud
voices in the kitchen attested to further argument. At last, however, he
lounged out and began to fill a pipe.

"Jerry, I want to talk to you," said Kurt. "Let's get away from the
house."

The hired man was a big, lumbering fellow, gnarled like an old oak-tree.
He had a good-natured face and honest eyes.

"I reckon you want to hear about them I.W.W. fellers?" he asked, as they