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84 ROAMIN' IN THE GLOAMIN'
ing him I had accepted an attractive professional engagement which would prevent me resuming my duties as a miner. This portentous sentence had occupied my mind for a long time in the concocting and after I had reeled it off I felt very proud and independent. The manager looked at me with a mystified, half -pitying smile.
"Harry, ma lad," he said, "yer a guid miner an' no a bad wee singer. I'm thinkin' ye'll be back in a week or two wi* yer tail at ween yer legs !"
But he wished me success all the same, adding, wistfully, that he wished he had the chance himself to see a bit o' God's green country. We shook hands cordially and parted but as the "gaffer" turned away he stopped and cried over his shoulder, "If ye come roond Hamilton way, mind an' send me a free pass for yer concert !"
Nance and I spent all the Sunday together plotting and planning and dreaming. In the evening we wandered out the Lanark Road where we had done our courting. We hated to think of the parting on the morrow and "mony a sigh an' farewell kiss" were exchanged between us. At nine o'clock the following morning I caught the train to Beith where the rest of the concert party were due to arrive later in the day.
The Kennedys were popular entertainers and the tour throughout was quite successful. We went all over Ayrshire and Dumfriesshire to begin with and then gravitated to the Border district and up to the Scottish midlands. I made three appearances on every programme, singing at least six songs a night and frequently more if I "got over" well. Sometimes I did and sometimes I didn't. At the larger towns, where they had had a chance of hearing other travelling comedians, I was very successful but at certain small places the people didn't seem to know whether to laugh or cry. So they did neither — just sat still, listened, and looked stupidly at me !