For the first time, Harvey understood the earnestness of the men; but he clung to his resolution all the same.
You can see how easily the trouble could have been ended.

The employes had abated their first demand and were willing to compromise.

Had Harvey spoken his honest thoughts, he would have said the men were right, or at any rate he ought to have agreed to their proposal to submit the dispute to arbitration; but he was too proud to yield.
"They will take it for weakness on my part," was his thought; "it will make an end of all system and open the way for demands that in the end will destroy the business." The sixty new hands reached Bardstown and were about as numerous as the men who wrought in the mills before the strike.

They looked like a determined band, who would be able to take care of themselves in the troubles that impended.
The arrivals were received with scowls by the old employes, who hooted and jeered them as they marched grimly to the mills.

No blows were struck, though more than once an outbreak was imminent.