We're bound to succeed if we care to be solid thegither."
"I'll come to the meetin', Geordie, although I was sayin' that, but I'll
no' promise to join yer union," was the answer, and Sinclair had to be
content with that.
Thus went Geordie from house to house, meeting with much discouragement,
and even downright opposition, but he was always good-humored, and so he
seldom failed to extract a promise to attend the meeting.
The night of the meeting arrived, and the hall--an old, badly lit and
ill-ventilated wooden erection--was packed to its utmost. There were
eager faces, and dull, listless ones among the audience; there were eyes
glad with expectancy, and eyes dulled with long years of privations and
brutal labor; limbs young and supple and full of energy, and limbs stiff
and sore, crooked and maimed.
Geordie Sinclair was chairman, and when he rose to 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.
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