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“Oh, I wouldn’t say that. They were only guarding the paymaster to keep him from being robbed,” Pa said. “He’s carrying a good many thousand dollars in cash to pay all the men in the camps, and somebody might try to get it. But those men had guns enough on them and in the buggy. They had no need to be afraid.”
As Pa went back to the store, Laura saw the handle of his revolver showing from his hip pocket. She knew he was not afraid, and she looked at his rifle over the door and his shotgun standing in the corner. Ma could use those guns. There was no fear that robbers could get that money.
That night Laura woke up often, and often she heard Pa stirring too, in the bunk on the other side of the curtain. The night seemed darker and full of strange sounds, because that money was in the flour-sack. But no one would think of looking for it there, and no one did.
Early in the morning, Pa took it to the store. This was payday. After breakfast all the men gathered around the store, and one by one they went inside. One by one they came out again, and stood in little groups, talking. They would not work that day; it was payday.
At supper Pa said he must go back to the office again. “Some of the men don’t seem to understand why they got only two weeks’ pay,” he said.
“Why don’t they get paid for the whole month?” Laura asked him.
“Well, you see, Laura, it takes time to make out all those time-checks and send them in, and then the paymaster has to bring out the money. I’m paying the men their wages now up to the fifteenth, and in another two weeks I’ll pay them up to now. Some of them can’t get it through their thick heads that they’ve got to wait two weeks for their pay. They want to be paid right up to yesterday.”
“Don’t fret about it, Charles,” said Ma. “You can’t expect them to understand how business is handled.”
“And they don’t blame you, do they, Pa?” said Mary.
“That’s the worst of it, Mary. I don’t know,” Pa answered. “Anyway I’ve got some bookwork to do at the office.”
The supper dishes were soon washed, and Ma sat rocking Grace to sleep, with Carrie snuggled beside her. Laura sat beside Mary in the doorway, watching the light fade from the waters of the lake. She was seeing it out loud for Mary.
“The last light is shining pale in the middle of the smooth lake. All around it the water is dusky, where the ducks sleep, and the land is black beyond. The stars are beginning to twinkle in the gray sky. Pa has lighted his lamp. It shines out yellow from the back of the black store. Ma!” she cried out. “There’s a big crowd of men—look.”
The men were crowding around the store. They did not say anything, and there was not even any sound of their feet on the grass. Only the dark mass of men was growing larger very fast.
Ma rose quickly and laid Grace on the bed. Then she came and looked out over Laura’s head and Mary’s. She spoke softly. “Come inside, girl
s.”
When they obeyed her she shut the door, all but a crack. She stood looking out through the crack.
Mary sat in the chair with Carrie, but Laura peeped under Ma’s arm. The crowd was close around the store. Two men went up the step and pounded on the door.
The crowd was quiet. The whole dusky twilight was quiet for a moment.
Then the men pounded again on the door and one called, “Open the door, Ingalls!”
The door opened, and there in the lamplight stood Pa. He shut the door behind him, and the two men who had knocked stepped backward into the crowd. Pa stood on the step with his hands in his pockets.
“Well, boys, what is it?” he asked quietly.
A voice came from the crowd. “We want our pay.”
Other voices shouted. “Our full pay!” “Come across with that two weeks’ pay you kept back!” “We’re going to get our pay!”
“You’ll have it two weeks from now, just as soon as I can get your time-checks made out,” said Pa.
The voices shouted again. “We want it now!” “Quit stalling!” “We’re going to have it now!”
“I can’t pay you now, boys,” Pa said. “I won’t have the money to pay you till the paymaster comes again.”
“Open up the store!” somebody answered. Then the whole crowd yelled. “That’s it! That’s good enough—Open the store! Open up that store!”
“No, boys. I won’t do that,” Pa said coolly. “Come in tomorrow morning, and I’ll let each man have all the goods he wants, on his account.”
“Open up that store or we’ll open it for you!” came a shout. A growl rumbled from the crowd. The whole mass of men moved in toward Pa as if that growl moved them.
Laura ducked under Ma’s arm, but Ma’s hand clenched on her shoulder and pulled her back.
