holding up his head, and looking straight at him with his steady gray eyes;
`a man must work and save when he's young if he don't want to be
a beggar or a slave when he's old. I believe in a man enjoying himself
as well as you do, but my notion of that is to have a good farm,
well stocked and paid for, by and by, and then to take it easy,
perhaps when my back is a little stiffer than it is now.'

`But a man must have a little fun when he is young,' I said.
`What's the use of having money when you're old and rusty,
and can't take pleasure in anything?'

`A man needn't be so very old at forty,' he says then,
`and twenty years' steady work will put all of us youngsters
well up the ladder. Besides, I don't call it fun getting half-drunk
with a lot of blackguards at a low pothouse or a shanty,
listening to the stupid talk and boasting lies of a pack of loafers and worse.
They're fit for nothing better; but you and Jim are. Now, look here,
I've got a small contract from Mr. Andrews for a lot of fencing stuff.
It will pay us wages and something over. If you like to go in with me,
we'll go share and share. I know what hands you both are
at splitting and fencing. What do you say?'

Jim, poor Jim, was inclined to take George's offer. He was that good-hearted
that a kind word would turn him any time. But I was put out
at his laying it down so about the Dalys and us shantying and gaffing,
and I do think now that some folks are born so as they can't do without
a taste of some sort of fun once in a way. I can't put it out clear,
but it ought to be fixed somehow for us chaps that haven't got
the gift of working all day and every day, but can do two days' work in one
when we like, that we should have our allowance of reasonable fun and pleasure