It was for him the advent of manhood, and represented the beginning of
his real work.
One night in the late summer, after the pit had knocked off and the
"day-shift" was returning home, he and Mysie were walking as usual
behind the women. He had meant to tell her the great news all day, but
somehow she was so different now, and besides a man should always keep
something to himself as long as possible. It showed strength, he
thought.
"I'm goin' doon the pit the morn, Mysie," he said, now that he had come
to the point of telling her, and speaking as casually as he could.
"Oh, are you?" said Mysie, and stopped, disappointingly, and remained
silent.
"Ay. I'm twelve now, you ken, an' I can get into the pit," feeling a bit
nettled that she was silent in the face of such a happening.
"Oh!" and again Mysie stopped.
"My faither has got a place a week syne that'll fit John an' him an' me.
The three o' us are a' goin' to work thegither. If he could have gotten
yin sooner, I'd hae been doon a month syne. But he's aye been waitin' to
get a place that wad suit us a'," he said, volunteering this information
to see if it would loosen her tongue to express the regret he wanted her
to speak.
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