`My oath! -- same here.' `I've been there.' `My oath! -- you're right.'
`Take it from me!' and all that sort of thing. They understand women,
and have a contempt for 'em; and chaps that don't talk as they talk,
or do as they do, or see as they see, are either soft or ratty.
A good many reckon that `life ain't blanky well worth livin'';
sometimes they feel so blanky somehow that they wouldn't give a blank
whether they chucked it or not; but that sort never chuck it.
It's mostly the quiet men that do that, and if they've got any complaints
to make against the world they make 'em at the head station.
Why, I've known healthy, single, young fellows under twenty-five
who drank to drown their troubles -- some because they reckoned the world
didn't understand nor appreciate 'em -- as if it COULD!"

"If the world don't understand or appreciate you," said Mitchell solemnly,
as he reached for a burning stick to light his pipe -- "MAKE it!"

"To drown THEIR troubles!" continued Joe, in a tone of impatient contempt.
"The Oracle must be well on towards the sixties; he can take his glass
with any man, but you never saw him drunk."

"What's the Oracle to do with it?"

"Did you ever hear his history?"

"No. Do you know it?"

"Yes, though I don't think he has any idea that I do. Now, we were talking
about the Oracle a little while ago. We know he's an old ass;
a good many outsiders consider that he's a bit soft or ratty,
and, as we're likely to be mates together for some time