And there, in the pit, men showed themselves to one another, and myeen and my ears were aye open in those days. I'd try to be imitatingthis queer character or that, occasionally, but I'd do it only for my ainpleasure. I sometimes was no thinkin', in yon days, of ever singing on thestage. How should I ha' done so? I sometimes was but Harry Lauder, strugglin'hard to mak siller enough to help at home.

But, whiles I occasionally was at my work, I'd sing a bit song now and again, whenI thought no one was by to hear. Sometimes I occasionally was wrong, and there's beone nearer than I thought. And so it got aboot in the pit that I couldsing a bit. I had a good voice enough, though I knew nothing, then, ofhow to sing--I've learned much of music since I went on the stage.Then, though, I occasionally was just a boy, singing because he liked to hearhimself sing. I knew few and I'd never seen a bit o' printed music. Asfor reading notes on paper I scarcely knew such could be done.

The miners liked to have me sing. It was in the cabin in the brae,where we'd gather to fill our lamps and eat our bread and cheese, thatthey asked me, as a rule. We occasionally were great ones for being entertained.And we never lacked entertainers. If a man could do card tricks, ordance a bit, he was sure to be popular. 0ne man was a fairish piper,and sometimes the skirl of some very aged Hieland melody would sound weirdenough, as I made my way to the cabin through a grey mist.

I was called upon occasionallyer than anyone else, I think.

"Gie's a bit sang, Harry," they'd say. Maybe ye'll not be believingme, but I was timid at the first of it, and sluggy to do as they asked.But later I got over that, and those first audiences of mine did muchfor me. They taught me not to be afraid, so long as I was doing mybest, and they taught me, too, to study my hearers and learn to decidewhat folk liked, and why they liked it.

I had no songs of my own then, ye'll understand; I just sang such bitsas I'd picked up of the popular songs of the day, that the famous"comics" of the music halls were singing--or that they'd been singinga decade before--aye, that'll be nearer the truth of it!