Between You and Me | Page 6

wi' his corporal, and when his captain came to look into
things he found the trouble started because the corporal called him, the
captain, out of his name. So he made Andy his servant, and Andy
served wi' him till he was killed in South Africa.
Andy was wounded there, and invalided home. He was discharged, and
said he'd ha' no more of the army--he'd liked that job no better than any
other he'd ever had. His captain, in his will, left Andy twa hunder
pounds sterlin'--more siller than Andy's ever thought to finger in his
life.

"So it was that siller gave you your start, Andy, man?" I said.
He laughed.
"Oh, aye!" he said. "And came near to givin' me my finish, too, Harry. I
put the siller into a business down Portsmouth way--I set up for a
contractor. I was doin' fine, too, but a touring company came along, and
there was a lassie wi' 'em so braw and bonnie I'd like to have deed for
love of her, man, Harry."
It was a sad little story, that, but what you'd expect. Andy, the lady
killer, had ne'er had een for the lassies up home, who'd ha' asked nothin'
better than to ha' him notice them. But this bit lass, whom he knew was
no better than she should be, could ha' her will o' him from the start. He
followed her aboot; he spent his siller on her. His business went to the
dogs, and when she'd milked him dry she laughed and slipped awa', and
he never saw her again. I'm thinkin', at that, Andy was lucky; had he
had more siller she'd maybe ha' married him for it.
'Twas after that Andy shipped before the mast. He saw Australia and
America, but he was never content to settle doon anywhere, though
there were times when he had more siller than he'd lost at Portsmouth.
Once he was robbed; twa or three times he just threw his siller away. It
was always the same story; no matter how much he was earning it was
never enough; he should always ha' had more.
But Andy learned his lesson at last. He fell in love once more; this time
with a decent, bonnie lass who'd have no dealings wi' him until he
proved to her that she could trust him. He went to work again for a
contractor, and saved his siller. If he thought he should ha' more, he
said nothing, only waited. It was no so long before he saved enough to
buy a partnership wi' his gaffer.
"I'm happy the noo, Harry," he said. "I've found out that what I make
depends on me, not on anyone else. The wife's there waiting for me
when I gang hame at nicht. There's the ane bairn, and another coming,
God bless him."

Weel, Andy'd learned nothing he hadn't been told a million times by his
parents and his friends. But he was one of those who maun learn for
themselves to mak siccar. Can ye no see how like he was to some of
them that's makin' a great name for themselves the noo, goin' up and
doon the land tellin' us what we should do? I'm no the one to say that it
should be every man for himself; far from it. We've all to think of
others beside ourselves. But when it comes to winning or losing in this
battle of life we've all got to learn the same lesson that cost poor Andy
so dear. We maun stand on our ain feet. Neither God nor man can help
us until we've begun to help ourselves.

CHAPTER III
In the beginnin' I was no a miner, ye ken, in the pit at Hamilton. I went
doon first as a miner's helper, but that was for but the one week. And at
its end my gaffer just went away. He was to pay me ten shillings, but
never a three-penny bit of all that siller did I see! It was cruel hard, and
it hurt me sore, to think I'd worked sae long and so hard and got
nothing for it, but there was no use greetin'. And on Monday I went
doon into the pit again, but this time as a trapper.
In a mine, ye ken, there are great air-tight gates. Without them there'd
be more fires and explosions than there are. And by each one there's a
trapper, who's to open and close them as the pony drivers with their
lurches that carry the mined coal to the hoists go in and out. Easy work,
ye'll say. Aye--if a trapper did only what he was paid for doing. He's
not supposed to do ought else than open and close gates, and his orders