But trappers are boys, as a rule, and the pony drivers strong men, and they manage to make the trappers do a deal of their work as well as their ain.
They can manage well enough, for they're no slow to gie a kick or a cuff if the trapper bids them attend to their own affairs and leave him be.
I learned that soon enough.

And many was the blow I got; many the time a driver warmed me with his belt, when I was warm enough already.

But, for a' that, we had good times in the pit.

I got to know the men I worked with, and to like them fine.

You do that at work, and especially underground, I'm thinking.