y. "But maybe it's because you're ay
agitatin' to have a union started."

"An' what about it," enquired Geordie, getting a bit heated. "If I ha'e
been advocatin' the startin' o' a union? It seems to me to be muckle
needed."

"Oh, I've nothing to say aboot it," replied Walker. "It's the boss, an'
I was merely givin' ye a hint for yer ain guid."

"It's a' richt," exclaimed Geordie, getting still more heated. "I can
see as far through a brick wall as you can see through a whin dyke. The
boss has naething to do wi' it. It's you, an' I'm quite pleased to get
the chance to tell ye to yer face. Ye could, many a time, ha'e given me
a better place, if you had cared. But let me tell you, if there was a
union here, it would soon put an end to you an' yer damn'd cantraips."

"Very weel. Gang on an' start yin. Man, though ye were a' in a union the
morn, I could buy an' sell the majority of them for the promise of a
guid place, or a bottle of whisky--Ay, if they jist thocht they were in
wi' the gaffer, I'd get all I wanted frae the maist o' them. A clap on
the shoulder, a smile, or even a word would do it. The one hauf o' the
men can ay be got to sell the ither. Ye daurna' cheep, man, but I hear
of it."

"Damn'd fine I ken that," replied Geordie, "an' it's mair the peety. But
that's no' to say that men'll ay be like that. If they'd be true an'
stick to yin anither, they'd damn'd soon put an end to sic gaffers as
you."

"Maybe ye'll be the first to be put an end to," said Walker, rising to
leave. "I might ha'e something to say to--"

"You rotten pestilence o' hell," cried Geordie, now fairly roused, and
jumping over the coals on the "roadhead" after him. "I'll cleave the
rotten heart o' ye if I get my fingers on ye, you an' yer fancy women,
yer gamblin' an' yer shebeens!"

But Walker was off; he did not like to hear these matters of his private
life mentioned, and so Geordie, left to himself, lit his pipe, and sat
down to cool his temper.

A few minutes later Matthew Maitland came round to borrow a shot of
powder, and Geordie unburdened his mind to him.

"He's a dirty brute," said Matthew, "an' it's time we had a union
started. I hear great stories aboot how Bob Smillie's gettin' on wi' the
union that he started doon the west country."

"I ken Bob fine," said Geordie. "He's a fine fellow. I worked next wall
to him doon there a while, an' a better chap ye couldna' get."

"I hear that he's gotten as muckle as tippence on