'What is a bad thing?' said I.

'Why to be poor, dear.'

'You talk like a fool,' said I, 'riches and poverty are only different
forms of necessity.'

'You should not call me a fool, dear; you should not call your own mother
a fool.'

'You are not my mother,' said I.

'Not your mother, dear?--no, no more I am; but your calling me fool put
me in mind of my dear son, who often used to call me fool--and you just
now looked as he sometimes did, with a blob of foam on your lip.'

'After all, I don't know that you are not my mother.'

'Don't you, dear? I'm glad of it; I wish you would make it out.'

'How should I make it out? who can speak from his own knowledge as to the
circumstances of his birth? Besides, before attempting to establish our
relationship, it would be necessary to prove that such people exist.'

'What people, dear?'

'You and I.'

'Lord, child, you are mad; that book has made you so.'

'Don't abuse it,' said I; 'the book is an excellent one, that is,
provided it exists.'

'I wish it did not,' said the old woman; 'but it shan't long; I'll burn
it, or fling it into the river--the voices at night tell me to do so.'

'Tell the voices,' said I, 'that they talk nonsense; the book, if it
exists, is a good book, it contains a deep moral; have you read it all?'

'All the funny parts, dear; all about taking things, and the manner it
was done; as for the rest, I could not exactly make it out.'

'Then the book is not to blame; I repeat that the book is a good book,
and contains deep morality, always supposing that there is such a thing
as morality, which is the same thing as supposing that there is anything
at all.'

'Anything at all! Why ain't we here on this bridge, in my booth, with my
stall and my--'

'Apples and pears, baked hot, you would say--I don't know; all is a
mystery, a deep question. It is a question, and probably always will be,
whether there is a world, and consequently apples and pears; and,
provided there be a world, whether that world be like an apple or a
pear.'

'Don't talk so, dear.'

'I won't; we will suppose that we all exist--world, ourselves, apples,
and pears: so you wish to get rid of the book?'

'Yes, dear, I wish you would take it.'

'I have read it, and have no further use for it; I do not need books: in
a little time, perhaps, I shall not have a place wherein to deposit
myself, far less books.'

'Then I will fling it into the river.'

'Don't do that;