nd indeed seemed unused to the
task of uttering so many words, but for all that he spoke without
hesitation, and with a reserve of force which made his utterances all
the more impressive. Having bespoken his hearer's attention in this
deliberate way, he became silent, and for a while sat brooding, his
fingers still busy among the coins in his pocket.

"I don't rightly know how old I may be," he began at length, "but it's
most like about fifty; we'll say fifty. For fifty years I've lived in
this world, and in all that time I can't remember not one single 'appy
day, not one. I never knowed neither father nor mother; I never knowed
not a soul as belonged to me. Friends I '_ave_ had; four of 'em; and
their names was Brandy, Whisky, Rum, an' Gin. But they've cost me a
good deal, an' somehow they ain't quite what they used to be. They used
to make me merry for a while, now and then; but they've taken now to
burnin' up my inside, an' filling my 'ead with devils; an' I'm gettin'
afeard of 'em, an' they'll 'ave to see me through to the end.

"Fifty year," he resumed, after another interval of brooding, "an' not
one 'appy day. I was a-thinkin' of it over to myself, and, says I,
'What's the reason on it?' The reason is, 'cos I ain't never 'ad money.
Money means 'appiness, an' them as never 'as money, 'll never be 'appy,
live as long as they may. Well, I went on a-sayin' to myself, 'Ain't I
to 'ave not _one_ 'appy day in all my life?' An' it come to me all at
once, with a flash like, that money was to be 'ad for the trouble o'
takin' it--money an' 'appiness."

The bleared eye rolled with a sort of self-congratulation, and the
coins jingled more loudly.

"A pound ain't no use; nor yet two pound; nor yet five pound. An' five
pound's what I never 'ad in fifty year. There's a good deal more than
five pound 'ere now, Mr. Waymark; I've reckoned it up in my 'cad. What
d' you think I'm a-goin' for to do with it?"

He asked this question after a pause, with his head bent forward, his
countenance screwed into the most hideous expression of cunning and
gratified desire.

"I'm a-goin'," he said, with the emphasis of a hoarse whisper, "I
a-goin' to drink myself dead! That's what I'm a-goin' to do, Mr.
Waymark. My four friends ain't what they used for to be, an' 'cos I
ain't got enough of 'em. It's unsatisfaction, that's what it is, as
brings the burnin' i' th' inside, an' the devils in the 'cad. Now I've
got money, an' for wunst in my li