and misfortune to them one and all, have
their troubles also, because they don't know what
they want, the discontented, lazy, good-for-nothin'
varmints. May they all perish be their own folly
before the world or their money comes to an end.

NAGLE
'Tis only the poor who knows how bad the rich are.
And only the rich that can be hard on the poor. Have
you a match, if you please?

DEVLIN (_handing a box_)
You'll find plenty in that.

NAGLE
All the comfort some of us have in this world is a
smoke, that's when we have the tobacco, of course.

DEVLIN
There'll be smokin' enough in the next world, they
say, but that's cold comfort to a man without the
fillin's of a pipe or a match to light it.

NAGLE
'Tis a great misfortune to be born at all.

DEVLIN
That's what I've often been thinkin'. And many's
the time I've cursed the day that my father met my
mother. (_Sadly_) 'Twould be better for us all in spite
of what the clergy say that we were all Protestants,
or else died before we came to the use of reason.
But things might be worse.

NAGLE
Trouble comes to us all, and 'tis a consolation to
know that the King must die as well as the beggar.
Think of me, and I after losin' my return ticket to
Carlow, and I must be there to-night even if I have
to walk every step of the way.

DEVLIN
And haven't you the price of your ticket?

NAGLE
The devil a penny at all have I, and unless I can sell
my watch to buy my ticket with, I'll lose my job, and
then my wife and family must go to the workhouse.

DEVLIN
God himself seems to be no friend of the poor. That
was a terrible calamity to befall a stranger. How
much will your ticket cost?

NAGLE
Ten shillin's, and I'm willin' to part with my watch
for that triflin' sum, though 'twas my poor father's,
rest his soul. (_Holds watch in his hand_) Look at it,
'tis as fine a timepiece as eyes ever rested on. A solid
silver watch, and a chain of solid gold, and all for ten
shillin's. And history enough attached to it to write
a book.

DEVLIN
'Tis a bargain surely.

NAGLE
A man wearin' a watch and chain like that would get
credit anywhere he'd be known, though 'twould be
no use to a stranger.

DEVLIN
Leave me see how 'twould look on me. (_The stranger
hands him the watch, and Devlin adjusts it to his vest
front, walks up and down the room, and looks in the
glass_) Bedad, but you're right. It does make a man
feel good, and maybe better than he is.

NAGLE
A man walki