Most had got friends or kin in the pit, and as each man came up, his wife or his mother would seize hold of him and carry on terrible.
"But the worst were they whose husbands and sons never came up again, and they were many; for out of one hundred and thirty-one men in the pit, only thirtynine came up alive.

Directly we came to bank, I saw father; he was first among them that were helping, working like a horse, and directing everything.

When he saw us, he said, 'Thank the Lord, there's my two boys.

I am not a loser to-day!' and came running to us, and helped me to carry Jack down the bank.

He was very weak and sick, but the air freshened him up wonderful.
"I told father all about it, and he said, 'I've been wrong, and thou'st been wrong.