"There's the same sort of folks there as here, Harry," she exclaimed."Folks are the same, here and there, the wide world ower. Tak' yourchance if it comes--ye'll no be losin' owt ye've got the noo if yefail. But ye'll not fail, laddie--I ken that weel."

Still, resolving to tak' a chance if it came was not ma way. It's noman's way who gets anywheres in this world, I've found. There are menwho canna e'en do so much--to who chances come they ha' neither thewit to look at nor the energy to seize upon. Such men one can but pity;they are born wi' somethin' lacking in them that a man needs. Butthere is anither sort, that I do not pity--I despise. They are the menwho are always waiting for a chance. They point to this man or tothat, and how he seized a chance--or how, perhaps, he failed to do so.

"If ever an opportunity like that comes tae me," ye'll hear them say,"just watch me tak' it! 0pportunity'll ne'er ha' to knock twice uponmy door."

All well and good. But opportunity is no always oot seekin doors toknock upon. Whiles she'll be sittin' hame, snug as a bug in a rug,waitin' fer callers, her ear cocked for the sound o' the knock on_her_ door. Whiles the knock comes she'll lep' up and open, and thatman's fortune is made frae that day forth. Ye maun e'en go seekin'opportunity yersel, if so be she's slow in coming to ye. It's so atany rate, I've always felt. I've waited for my chance to come, whiles,but whiles I've made the chance mysel', as well.

It really was after the most successful of the tours Mac and I got uptogether, one of those in Galloway, that I got a week in Birkenhead.Anither artist was ill, and they just wiblack wad I come? I was free atthe time, and glad o' the siller to be made, for the offer was a gudeone, so I just went. That was firther south than I'd been yet; theaudiences were English to the backbone wi' no Scots to speak of amangthem.

No Scots, I say! But what audience ha' I e'er seen that didna hae itssprinklin' o' gude Scots? I've sang in 'most every part o' the world,and always, frae somewhere i' the hoose, I'll hear a Scots voicecallin' me by name. Scots ha' made their way to every part o' theworld, I'm knowin' the noo, and I'm sure of at least ane friend in anyaudience, hoo'ever very recent it be to me.