n I behave decently when I'm dead? (_Moans_.)

_2nd Neighbour_. But, neighbour, you must die some time or another, you
know. Make the most of your time while you are alive.

_C. N_. Have you the heart to say such things to a man whom you are
going to shoot in a few minutes? How horrible! Oh, look here! if you
haven't got a prison, build one for me! or make one out of a cellar, and
lock me up in it; but don't shoot me--don't!

_W. J_. Well, old acquaintance, to want a prison all to your own cheek!
This is individualism, with a vengeance! It beats Auberon Herbert. But
who is going to shoot you?

_C. N_. Why, you. He said shoot the dog (_weeping_).

_W. J_. Well, citizen, I must say that either your estimate of yourself
is modest, or your conscience is bad, that you must take that title to
yourself! No; it _is_ a bad business, but not so bad as that. It's not
you that we're going to shoot, but a poor devil of a dog--a real dog,
with a tail, you know--who has taken to killing sheep. And I'm sorry to
say that social ethics have given me the job of shooting him. But come,
now, you shall do it for me: you used to be a great upholder of capital
punishment.

_C. N_. But what are you going to do with me, then? How are you going
to punish me?

_J. F_. Punish you? how can we punish you? who do you think is going to
do such work as that! People punish others because they like to; and we
don't like to. Once more, learn to live decently.

_G. N_. But how _am_ I to live?

_J. F_. You must work a little.

_C. N_. But what at, since you object to lawyers?

_J. F_. Look round you, friend, at the fields all yellowing for
harvest,--we will find you work to do.

_C. N_. (_Aside_: Ah, I see. This means hard labour for life, after all.
Well, I must submit. Unhappy Nupkins! _To_ FREEMAN) But who is to
employ me? You will have to find me a master; and perhaps he won't like
to employ me.

_J. F_. My friend, we no more have masters than we have prisons: the
first make the second. You must employ yourself: and you must also
employ something else.

_C. N_. What? I don't understand.

_J. F_. Mother Earth, and the traditions and devices of all the
generations of men whom she has nourished. All that is for you, Nupkins,
if you only knew it.

_C. N_. I still do not comprehend your apologue.

_J. F_. No? Well, we must put aside abstractions and get to the
concrete. What's this, citizen? (_show