many years. The engineer, James Starr,
had collected the hundreds of workmen which composed the active and
courageous population of the mine. Overmen, brakemen, putters, wastemen,
barrowmen, masons, smiths, carpenters, outside and inside laborers,
women, children, and old men, all were collected in the great yard of
the Dochart pit, formerly heaped with coal from the mine.

Many of these families had existed for generations in the mine of
old Aberfoyle; they were now driven to seek the means of subsistence
elsewhere, and they waited sadly to bid farewell to the engineer.

James Starr stood upright, at the door of the vast shed in which he
had for so many years superintended the powerful machines of the shaft.
Simon Ford, the foreman of the Dochart pit, then fifty-five years of
age, and other managers and overseers, surrounded him. James Starr took
off his hat. The miners, cap in hand, kept a profound silence. This
farewell scene was of a touching character, not wanting in grandeur.

"My friends," said the engineer, "the time has come for us to separate.
The Aberfoyle mines, which for so many years have united us in a
common work, are now exhausted. All our researches have not led to
the discovery of a new vein, and the last block of coal has just been
extracted from the Dochart pit." And in confirmation of his words, James
Starr pointed to a lump of coal which had been kept at the bottom of a
basket.

"This piece of coal, my friends," resumed James Starr, "is like the last
drop of blood which has flowed through the veins of the mine! We shall
keep it, as the first fragment of coal is kept, which was extracted
a hundred and fifty years ago from the bearings of Aberfoyle. Between
these two pieces, how many generations of workmen have succeeded each
other in our pits! Now, it is over! The last words which your engineer
will address to you are a farewell. You have lived in this mine, which
your hands have emptied. The work has been hard, but not without profit
for you. Our great family must disperse, and it is not probable that the
future will ever again unite the scattered members. But do not forget
that we have lived together for a long time, and that it will be the
duty of the miners of Aberfoyle to help each other. Your old masters
will not forget you either. When men have worked together, they must
never be stranger to each other again. We shall keep our eye on you, and
wherever you go, our recommendations shall fo