Kurt stepped outside to find Jerry washing at the bench.
"Jerry, what's keeping the men ?" queried Kurt.
"Wal, they're palaverin' out there with two I.W.W.

fellers," replied Jerry.
Kurt reached for the rope of the farm-bell, and rang it rather sharply.
Then he went in to take his place at the table, and Jerry soon followed.
Old man Dorn did not appear, which fact was not unusual.

The other hired men did not enter until Jerry and Kurt were half done with the meal.
They seemed excited and somewhat boisterous, Kurt thought, but once they settled down to eating, after the manner of hungry laborers, they had little to say.

Kurt, soon finishing his dinner, went outdoors to wait for Jerry.

That individual appeared to be long in coming, and loud voices in the kitchen attested to further argument.