The wife smiled quietly as she sewed it on for me, and I was a proud wee man when I strolled into the Greenock Town Hall.

Three pounds a week! There was a salary for a man to be proud of.

Ye'd ha' thought I was sure already of making three pounds every week all my life, instead of havin' just the one engagement.
Pride goeth before a fall ever, and after that, once more, I had to wait for an engagement, and once more I went back to the pit.

I folded the astrachan coat and put it awa' under the bed, but I would'na tak' off the fur.
"I'll be needin' you again before sae lang," I told the coat as I folded it.

"See if I don't." And it was even so, for J.C.MacDonald had liked my singing, and I had been successful with my audiences.