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 comfortable and good and pleasant for all. Bob Smillie never
won a truer heart than he did that night in winning this barefooted,
ragged boy's.
Round after round of applause greeted the speaker when he had finished,
and in response to his appeal to them to organize, a branch of the union
was formed, with Geordie Sinclair as its first president.
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