erate smoker. Of course we cannot prove our opinion to be correct,
but we are inclined to believe that if all the smoke that had issued
from Jarwin's lips, from the period of his commencing down to that
terrible day when he lost his last plug, could have been collected in
one vast cloud, it would have been sufficient to have kept a factory
chimney going for a month or six weeks. The poor man knew his weakness.
He had several times tried to get rid of the habit which had enslaved
him, and, by failing, had come to know the tyrannical power of his
master. He had once been compelled by circumstances to forego his
favourite indulgence for three entire days, and retained so vivid a
recollection of his sufferings that he made up his mind never more to
strive for freedom, but to enjoy his pipe as long as he lived--to swim
with the current, in fact, and take it easy. It was of no use that
several men, who objected to smoking from principle, and had themselves
gone through the struggle and come off victorious, pointed out that if
he went on at his present rate, it would cut short his life. Jarwin
didn't believe _that_. He _felt_ well and hearty, and said that he "was
too tough, by a long way, to be floored by baccy; besides, if his life
was to be short, he saw no reason why it should not be a pleasant one."
It was vain for these disagreeable men of principle to urge that when
his health began to give way he would not find life very pleasant, and
then "baccy" would fail to relieve him. Stuff and nonsense? Did not
Jarwin know that hundreds of thousands of _old_ men enjoyed their pipes
to the very last. He also knew that a great many men had filled early
graves owing to the use of tobacco, but he chose to shut his eyes to
this fact--moreover, although a great truth, it was a difficult truth to
prove.

It was of still less use that those tiresome men of principle
demonstrated that the money spent in tobacco would, if accumulated, form
a snug little fortune to retire upon in his old age. John only laughed
at this. "Wot did he want with a fortin in his old age," he would say;
"he would rather work to the last for his three B's--his bread and beer
and baccy--an' die in harness. A man couldn't get on like a man without
them three B's, and he wosn't goin' for to deprive hisself of none of
'em, not he; besides, his opponents were bad argifiers," he was wont to
say, with a chuckle, "for if, as they said, baccy would be the means