They labored like convicts at the work of extracting the precious combustible.

It is even believed that the coal miners, like the salt-makers of that period, were actual slaves.
However that might have been, Simon Ford was proud of belonging to this ancient family of Scotch miners.

He had worked diligently in the same place where his ancestors had wielded the pick, the crowbar, and the mattock.

At thirty he was overman of the Dochart pit, the most important in the Aberfoyle colliery.

He was devoted to his trade.