Trusting to luck, or God, or the power of my hands, I entered the
great, smoky, dirty city of Glasgow to look for a job. I considered it
a great shame to be without one, and a crime to be prowling the city
at night, homeless and workless. God at this time was a very real
Person to me and I spent the greater part of many a night on my knees,
in some alley, or down by the docks, praying for a chance to work--to
be clean--to learn to read.

I slept one night in a large dry-goods box on one of the docks, and,
in searching for a place in the box to lay my head, I laid my hand on
another human, and at daylight discovered him to be a youth of about
my own age. We exchanged experiences, and in a few minutes he outlined
a programme; and, having none of my own, I dropped naturally into his.
He conducted me to a quarter of the city where the recruiting officers
parade the streets, gayly attired in their attractive uniforms. We
accosted one man, who had the special attraction of a large bunch of
gay ribbons flying from his Glengarry cap. We passed the physical
examination, "took the shilling," and were drafted, first to London,
then to a training depot in the south of Kent.




CHAPTER II

THE BEGINNING OF AN EDUCATION


The first discovery I made in the training depot was that I had not,