began to expand and wax boastful, and to talk pol
itics. I can only say that they talked politics as
well as the average middle-class man, and a great
deal better than some of the middle-class men I
have heard. What surprised me was the hold
they had on the world, its geography and peoples,
and on recent and contemporaneous history. As
I say, they were not fools, these two men. They
were merely old, and their children had undutifully
failed to grow up and give them a place by the
fire.

One last incident, as I bade them good-by on
the corner, happy with a couple of shillings in their
pockets and the certain prospect of a bed for the
night. Lighting a cigarette, I was about to throw
away the burning match when the Carter reached
for it. I proffered him the box, but he said,
"Never mind, won t waste it, sir." And while he
lighted the cigarette I had given him, the Carpen
ter hurried with the filling of his pipe in order to
have a vo at the same match.

"It s wrong to w r aste," said he.

"Yes," I said, but I was thinking of the wash
board ribs over which I had run my hand.

[[90]]

p089 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p090w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p091

v?