o open the meeting and
introduce Smillie, he felt as if the whole world were looking on and
listening.

"Weel, men," he began, halting and hesitating in his utterance, "for a
lang time now there has been much cryin' for a union here. There has
been a lot of persecution gaun' on, an' it has been lang felt that
something should be done. We ha'e heard of how other men in other places
ha'e managed to start a union, and how it has been a guid thing in
risin' wages. Mr. Smillie has come here the nicht to tell us how the
other districts ha'e made a start, and what thae other districts has
gotten. If it can be done there, it can be done here. I ha'e wrocht
aside Bob Smillie, an' I ken what kind of man he is. He has done great
wark doon in the west country, an' he is weel fitted and able to be the
spokesman for the miners o' Scotlan'. I'm no gaun' to say ony mair, but
I can say that it gie's me great pleasure to ask Mr. Smillie to address
ye."

A round of applause greeted Smillie as he rose to address them. Tall and
manly, he dominated his audience from the very first sentence, rousing
them to a great pitch of enthusiasm, as he proceeded to tell of all the
many hardships which miners had to endure, of the "Block" system of
persecution, and to point to the only means of successfully curing them
by organizing into one solid body, so that they might become powerful
enough to enforce their demands for a fuller, freer, and a happier life.
Never in all his life did he speak with more passion than he did that
night in Lowwood.

Little Robert was present in the hall--the only child there; and as
Smillie spoke in passionate denunciation of the tyrannies and
persecutions of the mine-owners and their officials, his little heart
leapt in generous indignation. Many things which he had but dimly
understood before, began to be plain to him, as he sat with eyes riveted
upon Smillie's face, drinking in every word as the speaker plead with
the men to unite and defend themselves. Then, as his father's wrongs
were poured forth from the platform, and as Smillie appealed to them in
powerful sentences to stand loyally by their comrade, the boy felt he
could have followed Smillie anywhere, and that he could have slain every
man who refused to answer that call. Away beyond the speaker the boy had
already glimpsed something of the ideal which Smillie sketched, and his
soul throbbed and ached to see how simple and how easy it was for life
to be made c