The audience enjoyed it, took the points, broke in now and then with comments as the speaker touched on such burning matters as the tyranny of overlookers, the temper of masters, the rubs between the different classes of 'hands,' the behaviour of 'minders' to the 'piecers' employed by them, and so on.

The sermon at one time was more like a dialogue between preacher and congregation.

David found himself joining in it involuntarily once or twice, so stimulating was the whole atmosphere, and Mr.Dyson's eye was caught perforce by the tall dark fellow with the defiant carriage of the head who sat next to Tom Mullins, and whom he did not remember to have seen before.
But suddenly the preacher stopped, and the room fell dead silent, startled by the darkening of his look.

'Ay,' he said, with stern sharpness.

'Ay, that's how you live--them's the things you spend your time and your minds on.