Union Not Always Strength
- Mr. Hale and Margaret set out to visit Nicholas Higgins and his remaining daughter Mary. After a quick chat, they find out that Nicholas is out of work because he's been blacklisted by Milton's factory owners. Or in other words, he has a reputation for standing up for workers' rights, which means that none of the factories want to hire him.
- Some factory owners have said they'd give him a little work if he swore never to give a penny to the local workers' union, but he flat-out refused.
- Higgins blames his neighbor Boucher for ruining everything for the workers in town. Public opinion was totally on the workers' side until Boucher went around and started causing trouble and doing illegal things.
- And of course, once the strike was over, Boucher went to one of the factory owners and totally agreed to leave the union in order to get work. So once again, he's betrayed his fellow workers.
- It didn't even matter, though, since the factory owners still kicked him to the curb. Now word is that Boucher is running around town crying like a baby and looking for handouts.
- Margaret thinks that Higgins is being way too harsh on Boucher. For her, everyone deserves compassion.
- As they speak about Boucher, they hear some action going on out in the street. They all look out and see a team of policemen carrying a person down the street. They're carrying the dead body of Boucher, as it turns out that the guy felt so much despair over being unemployed that he drowned himself in the nearby brook.
- People from the crowd recognize Higgins standing out on his front step and ask him to go tell Boucher's wife the terrible news. Higgins says he can't do it, though.
- Margaret asks her father to go give the news, but this man isn't up to the task, either. So she does it. Margaret gets all the dirty jobs, jeepers.
- As you can imagine, Boucher's wife is crushed. She's already poor. But without her husband doing a little work, her family is going to be totally destitute. She'll probably have to give most of her children up for adoption. Ugh.
- Margaret holds Mrs. Boucher in her arms and tries to comfort her. After the woman has settled down, Margaret learns from Higgins that a bunch of neighbors have taken the children to their homes and given them supper.
- Mrs. Boucher, though, is furious with her husband for killing himself and for leaving her all alone with the children.
- When everything has calmed down, everyone just wants to be alone, including Margaret.