He was an incomer, he told me, from the Borders, his native place being the town of Galashiels, or, as he called it, 'Gawly'.

'I began as a powerloom tuner in Stavert's mill.
Then my father dee'd and I took up his trade of jiner.

But it's no world nowadays for the sma' independent business, so I cam to the Clyde and learned a shipwright's job.

I may say I've become a leader in the trade, for though I'm no an official of the Union, and not likely to be, there's no man's word carries more weight than mine.

And the Goavernment kens that, for they've sent me on commissions up and down the land to look at wuds and report on the nature of the timber.
Bribery, they think it is, but Andrew Amos is not to be bribit.