“Duffy’s first wean was Wullie John. Ye wad think, to hear Duffy brag abobt him, that it was a new patent kind o’ wean, and there wasna anither in Coocaddens, whaur, I’m tellin’ ye, weans is that rife ye hae to walk to yer work skliffin’ yer feet in case ye tramp on them. “Duffy’s notion was to rear a race o’ kind o’ gladiators, and he rubbed him a’ ower every nicht wi’ olive-oil to mak’ him soople. Nane o’ your fancy foods for weans for Wullie John. It was rale auld Caledonia--parridge and soor dook, that soor the puir wee smout went aboot grewin’ wi’ its mooth a’ slewed to the side, as if it was practising the wye the women haud their hairpins. “Mony a time I’ve seen oor Jinnet sneak him into oor hoose to gie him curds-and-cream; he said he liked them fine, because they were sae slippy. “‘Show your temper, Wullie John,’ Duffy wad tell him when onybody was in the hoose; and the wee cratur was trained at that to put on a fearfu’ face and haud up his claws. “‘See that!’ Duffy wad say as prood as ony-thing; ‘the game’s there, I’m tellin’ ye.’ “Then Duffy began to harden him. He wad haud him up by the lug to see if he was game, and if he grat that was coonted wan to Duffy, and Wullie John got nae jeely on his piece. He was washed every mornin’, winter and summer, in cauld watter in the jaw-box, and rubbed wi’ a tooel as coorse as a carrot-grater till the skin was peelin’ aff his back. “‘Ye need to bring oot the glow,’ Duffy wad say to me. “‘If it gangs on much further,’ I tellt him, ‘I’ll bring oot the polis.’ “Wullie John was fair on the road for bein’ an A1 gladiator, but he went and dee’d on Duffy, and I never saw a man mair chawed. “Duffy’s next was a laddie too--they ca’d him Alexander. There was gaun to be nane o’ their hardenin’ dydoes wi’ Alexander. “It was aboot the time Duffy took to politics, and said the thing the Democratic pairty wanted was educated men wi’ brains. He made up his mind that Alexander wad never cairry a coal-poke, but get the best o’ learnin’ if it cost a pound.