After I'd been in the mine a few years my brother Matt got old enough to help me to support the family, and so, one by one, did my still younger brothers.

Things were a wee bit easier for me then; I could keep a bit o' the siller I earned, and I could think about singing once in a while.

There were concerts, at times, when a contest was put on to draw the crowd, and whenever I competed at one of these I usually won a prize.

Sometimes it would be a cheap medal; it usually was.

I shall never forget how proud I was the night a manager handed me real money for the first time.