there'll be a little life in
it--yes."

"Say," asked Heller, "do you take your shirt off at night or keep it
on?"

"In summer I take it off."

So Heller took his shirt off too, and lay down in the creaking bed.
Soon he began to snore loudly. But Huerlin's curiosity was not yet
exhausted. "Are you asleep, Heller?"

"No."

"There's plenty of time.... Tell me, you're a sailmaker, aren't you?"

"I was--a master sailmaker."

"And now--?"

"And now--you must think a lot of me, to ask such silly questions."

"Oh, you needn't be so snippy! You old fool, you may have been a master
sailmaker, but that's not so much. I was a manufacturer--I owned a
factory, do you understand?"

"You needn't shout at me--I knew that before. And after that, what did
you manufacture?"

"What do you mean, after that?"

"You know what I mean--in jail."

Huerlin emitted a bleating laugh. "Oh, I suppose you're one of the pious
kind--a psalm-singer, eh?"

"I? That's the last thing! No, I'm not pious--but at the same time I've
never been in jail."

"You wouldn't have been at home there. Most of the people there are
fine fellows."

"O Lord! Fine fellows of your sort? You're right--I shouldn't have
liked it."

"Some people have got to talk, whether they know what they're talking
about or not."

"Just what I was thinking."

"Oh, come now, be a good fellow! What made you give up the sailmaking?"

"Oh, don't bother me! The business was all right, but the devil got
into it somehow. It was my wife's fault."

"Your wife? Did she drink?"

"That would have been too much. No, I did all the drinking that was
done, as is mostly the case, not the wife. But it was her fault just
the same."

"Was it? What did she do?"

"Don't ask so many questions!"

"Have you got any childen?"

"One boy--in America."

"Sensible fellow--a man's better off there."

"You'd think so--but he's always writing for money, the rascal! He's
married, too. When he went away, I said to him, 'Friedel,' I said,
'good luck to you, and take care of yourself; do whatever you like--but
if you marry, there'll be trouble.' Well, now he's got himself into it.
Say, were you ever married?"

"No--but you see man can get into trouble even without a wife--don't
you think so?"

"That's according to the man. I'd have my own shop today, if it hadn't
been for my fool of a wife."

"H'm--!"

"Did you say anything?"

Huerlin was silent, and pretended to be asleep. He had