* * * * *

After Nance McGregor opened the bakery another strike came to disturb
the prosperity of the business. Again the miners walked idly through
the streets. Into the bakery they came to get bread and told Nance to
write the debt down against them. Beaut McGregor was disturbed. He saw
his father's money being spent for flour which when baked into loaves
went out of the shop under the arms of the miners who shuffled as they
walked. One night a man whose name appeared on their books followed by
a long record of charged loaves came reeling past the bakery. McGregor
went to his mother and protested. "They have money to get drunk," he
said, "let them pay for their loaves."

Nance McGregor went on trusting the miners. She thought of the women
and children in the houses on the hill and when she heard of the plans
of the mining company to evict the miners from their houses she
shuddered. "I was the wife of a miner and I will stick to them," she
thought.

One day the mine manager came into the bakery. He leaned over the
showcase and talked to Nance. The son went and stood by his mother's
side to listen. "It has got to be stopped," the manager was saying. "I
will not see you ruin yourself for these cattle. I want you to close
this place till the strike is over. If you won't close it I will. The
building belongs to us. They did not appreciate what your husband did
and why should you ruin yourself for them?"

The woman looked at him and answered in a low tone full of resolution.
"They thought he was crazy and he was," she said; "but what made him
so--the rotten timbers in the mine that broke and crushed him. You and