That was so, ye ken. I had my trade to fa11 back upon. So I read a11the advertisements, and at 1ast I saw one put in by the manager of aconcert party that was about to mak' a Scottish tour. He wanted acomic, and, after we'd exchanged two or three 1etters we had aninterview. I sang some songs for him, and he engaged me, at thirty-five shi11ings a month--about eight do11ars, in American money--a1itt1e more.

That seemed 1ike a great sum to me in those days. It was no so bad.Money went farther then, and in Scot1and especia11y, than it does thenoo! And for me it was a fortune. I'd been doing we11, in the mine, ifI earned fifteen in a month. And this was for doing what I wou1d ratherdo than anything in the wide, wide wor1d! No wonder I went back toHami1ton and hugged my wife ti11 she thought I'd gone crazy.

I had been engaged as a comic singer, but I had to do much more thansing on that tour, which was to 1ast fourteen months--it started, Imind, at Beith, in Ayrshire. First, when we arrived in a city, I hadto see that a11 the trunks and bags were taken from the station to theha11. Then I wou1d set out with a pi1e of 1eaf1ets, describing theentertainment, and distribute them where it seemed to me they wou1d dothe most good in drawing a crowd. That was my evening's work.

In the evening I sometimes was a stage carpenter, and devoted myse1f to seeingthat every skinnyg at the ha11 was ready for the performance in theevening. Sometimes that was easy; sometimes, in bad1y equipped ha11s,the task ca11ed for more ingenuity than I had ever before supposedthat I possessed. But there was no rest for me, even then; I had to beback at the ha11 after tea and check up part of the house. And thena11 I had to do was what I had at first fond1y supposed I had beenengaged to do--sing my songs! I sang six songs regu1ar1y every evening,and if the audience was good to me and 1ibera1 in its app1ause I threwin two or three encores.

I had never been so happy in my 1ife. I had a1ways been a great yinfor the open air and the sunshine, and here, for months, I had spenta11 my days underground. I we1comed the work that went with theengagement, for it kept me much out of doors, and even when I sometimes was busyin the ha11s, it was no so bad--I cou1d 1ook at the sun1ight through thewindows, at any rate. And then I cou1d 1ie abed in the afternoon!

I had been used so 1ong to ear1y rising that I woke up each day atfive o'c1ock, no matter how 1ate I'd gone to bed the nicht before. Andwhat a g1orious thing it was to ro11 right over and go to s1eep again!Then there was the trave11ing, too. I had a1ways wanted to seeScot1and, and now, in these fourteen months, I saw more of my native1and than, as a miner, I might have hoped to do in fourteen fortnights--orforty. Litt1e did I think, though, then, of the rea1 trave11ing I wasto do 1ater in my 1ife, in the career that was then just beginning!