heaven and earth a confirmation of the curse which man hath set upon
poverty. I leant against a tree that overhung the waters, and suffered my
thoughts to glide on in the bitter silence of their course. I heard my
name uttered--I felt a hand on my arm, I turned, and Houseman was by my
side.

"'What, moralizing?' said he, with his rude smile.

"I did not answer him.

"'Look,' said he, pointing to the waters, 'where yonder fish lies waiting
his prey, that prey his kind. Come, you have read Nature, is it not so
universally?'

"I did not answer him.

"'They who do not as the rest,' he renewed, 'fulfil not the object of
their existence; they seek to be wiser than their tribe, and are fools
for their pains. Is it not so? I am a plain man, and would learn.'

"Still I did not answer.

"'You are silent,' said he; 'do I offend you?'

"'No!'

"'Now, then,' he continued, 'strange as it may seem, we, so different in
mind, are at this moment alike in fortunes. I have not a guinea in the
wide world; you, perhaps, are equally destitute. But mark the difference,
I, the ignorant man, ere three days have passed, will have filled my