“I thocht first Jinnet maybe wadna gang, her bein’ in the Co-operative Store and no’ awfu’ ta’en up wi’ Royalty, but, dod! she jumped at the chance.
“‘The Queen’s a rale nice buddy,’ she says; ‘no that I’m personally acquainted wi’ her, but I hear them sayin’. And she used to mak’ a’ her ain claes afore she mairried the King.’
“So Jinnet and me were oot on Duffy’s lorry, sittin’ on auld copies o’ ‘Reynolds’s News,’ and hurrayin’ awa’ like a pair o’ young yins.
“The first thing Jinnet saw was a woman wi’ a wean and it’s face no’ richt washed.
“‘Fancy her bringin’ oot her wean to see the King, wi’ a face like that,’ says Jinnet, and gies the puir wee smout a sweetie.
“Frae that till it was time for us to gang hame Jinnet saw naething but weans, and her and Duffy’s wife talked aboot weans even on. Ye wad think it was a baby-show we were at and no’ a King’s procession.
“Duffy sat wi’ a Tontine face on him maist o’ the time, but every noo and then gaun up the street at the back o’ us to buy himsel’ a bottle o’ broon robin, for he couldna get near a pub; and I sat tryin’ as hard’s I could to think hoo I wad like to be a King, and what kind o’ waistcoats I wad wear if I had the job. On every hand the flags were wavin’, and the folk were eatin’ Abernaithy biscuits.
“At aboot twelve o’clock cannons begood to bang.
“‘Oh my! I hope there’s nae weans near thae cannons or they micht get hurt,’ says Jinnet.
“Little did she think that at that parteecular meenute the King was comin’ doon the tunnel frae Cowlairs, and tellin’ her Majesty no’ to be frichted.