Between You and Me

he best liked lad in a' those parts. But he was not. Nothin' was ever good enough for Andy. I'm tellin' ye, had he found a golden sovereign along the ro

he was wrong, only he was no worse off than the rest, and better than some, and he was always feeling that it was he who was badly used, just he, not everyone. He'd curse the gaffer if the vein of coal he had t

ame he tried. He wasn't educated; had he been, we all used to think, he micht ha' made a name for himself. I didn't see, in those days, that we were all wrong. If Andy'd been a good miner, if he'

sunshine. It was bad luck that the wee toon was sae dull for a man of his spirit. Andy seemed to think that some one should come around

as that sort of man we'd always say, when we were talking of hi

, and buss her in a dark spot, maybe. And just because he'd no een for them, the wee lassies were ready to come, would he but lift his finger! Is it no always the way? There'd be a dozen decent, hard working m

hin' a football game. Or, if ye did, there'd be a sneer curling his lip

d say, turning up his nose. "If the

as he thought himself. 'Twas so wi' all the man did; he was handy enough, but there were aye others better. But he was all fo

I'm thinkin', he had odd uses for; Andy was no above seekin' a hare now and then that was no his by rights. And he'd be out before dawn, sometimes, with old Dick, who coul

fit to speak to for days. And then, richt on top of that, he lost his bird; it was killed in a main wi' another bantam, and Andy lost his champion bantam, and forty shillin' beside, That settled him. Wi' his two friends gone frae him, he had no more

tellin', ye ken, hoo it was I came to gang on the stage and become the Harry you're all so good to when he sings to ye. But the noo I'll just say that it was years later, and I was singing in London, in four or five halls the same nicht, when I met Andy one day. I was f

t clapped my een on you, Harry," he said. "I've heard

ce it with his fellows, ye ken, but to save his anger for the enemy. But, for once in a way, Andy's quarrelsome ways did him good. He was punished once for fighting wi' his corporal, and when his captain

e army-he'd liked that job no better than any other he'd ever had. His captain, in his will, l

r gave you your start

lau

down Portsmouth way-I set up for a contractor. I was doin' fine, too, but a touring company came along

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

ugh 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 hi

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

nds on me, not on anyone else. The wife's there waiting for me when I gang

' 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 w