even before
I became mature leather, and one afternoon I was brought to a small
shoemaker's shop in Crosshill tied up in a bundle. There were lots of
cuttings in that bundle--butt, ben, wrapper, cordivan, kid, calf-skin,
and even sheep-skin--but I was then a shapeless piece of wrapper, kipp,
and calf-skin. When I was trysted there were few, if any, football boots
made, and the old man who was entrusted with my construction was a
strange old "cove." He could make a pair of ordinary boots with any one,
but was not so sure about me. I was ordered by a genteel, nice-looking
lad, with red cheeks and clear black eyes. He addressed the
representative of St. Crispin in a musical voice, but I then formed an
opinion of my future master, that he would be a little conceited and
arrogant at times, and this has proved correct. The instructions about
covering my soles with bars was specially impressed on the old man's
memory, and every detail was carried out to the letter. When we were
completed, my brother and I, you would have admired us. If it were
possible to have anything handsome in the boot line, except, perhaps, a
tiny, fur-lined lady's slipper, it was us. We were sewed with
substantial rosen-end, the division between the inseam and soles was
filled up with real leather skivings, and not the trashy "jump" which
makes up the bulk of the soles of football boots nowadays. The more, in
fact, I think of it, the more I am convinced that the present make of
football boots is a new-fangled device in the shoemaking trade, for are
they not now got up of American leather, brass nails, and other
abominations, free of import duty! My master, I remember, came for me
(please consider that I am also representing my brother, for, like the
Siamese twins, the one can do nothing without the other) on a Saturday.
He told the old man that he was going to play a match with the Leven
Crowers that very afternoon, and must have me. I was barely finished,
but Tate's son got the bars put on all right, and I was handed over to
the tender mercies of my new master. He was quite delighted with my
appearance, and looked with pride, and even satisfaction, on my
well-polished uppers and wrapper soles. There was even a half-'un going
at the paying.

The Leven Crowers were a young and powerful club, possessing more speed
in running than any real football ability at the time. The club to which
my master belonged was the first to introduce the new ideas in the gam