omfortable and good and pleasant for all. Bob Smillie never
won a truer heart than he did that night in winning this barefooted,
ragged boy's.

Round after round of applause greeted the speaker when he had finished,
and in response to his appeal to them to organize, a branch of the union
was formed, with Geordie Sinclair as its first president. At the request
of the meeting Smillie interviewed Black Jock next morning, and as a
result Sinclair got started on the following day.

Smillie stayed overnight with Geordie. They were certainly somewhat
cramped for room, though Geordie had just lately got another apartment
"broken through," which gave them a room and kitchen.

The two men sat late into the night, discussing their hopes and plans,
and the trade union movement generally.

"It's a great work, Bob, you ha'e set yersel', an' it'll mean
thenklessness an' opposition frae the very men you want maist to help,"
said Sinclair as they talked.

"Ay, it will," was the reply, spoken in a half dreamy tone, as if the
speaker saw into the future. "I ken what it'll mean, but it must be
done. I have long had it in me to set myself this work, for no
opposition ought to stand in the way of the uplifting of the workers. I
... It's the system, Geordie!" he cried, as if bringing his mind back to
the present. "It is the system that is wrong. It is immoral and evil in
its foundations, and it forces the employers to do the things they do.
Competition compels them to do things they would not have to do if there
were a cooperative system of industry. Our people have to suffer for it
all--they pay the price in hunger, misery and suffering."

"Ay," said Geordie, "that's true, Bob. But what a lang time it'll tak'
afore the workers will realize what you are oot for. They'll look on
your work wi' suspicion, and a wheen o' them'll even oppose you."

"Ay," was the reply, "I know that. It will mean the slow building up of
our own county first, bit by bit, organizing, now here, now there, and
fighting the other class interests all the time. It will divide our
energies and retard our work, and the greatest fight will be to get our
own people to recognize what is wanted and how to get it. Then through
the county we'll have to work to consolidate the whole of Scotland; from
that to work in the English and Welsh miners, while at the same time
seeking to permeate other branches of industrial workers with our ideas.
And then, when we have got that le