This page needs to be proofread.
vely a self-taught man.
- Methodically naught I've learned;
- but I have thought and speculated,
- and done much desultory reading.
- I started somewhat late in life,
- and then, you know, it's rather hard
- to plough ahead through page on page,
- and take in all of everything.
- I've done my history piecemeal;
- I never have had time for more.
- And, as one needs in days of trial
- some certainty to place one's trust in,
- I took religion intermittently.
- That way it goes more smoothly down.
- One should not read to swallow all,
- but rather see what one has use for.
MR. COTTON
- Ay, that is practical!
PEER [lights a cigar].
- Dear friends,
- just think of my career in general.
- In what case came I to the West?
- A poor young fellow, empty-handed.
- I had to battle sore for bread;
- trust me, I often found it hard.
- But life, my friends, ah, life is dear,
- and, as the phrase goes, death is bitter.
- Well! Luck, you see, was kind to me;
- old Fate, too, was accommodating.
- I prospered; and, by versatility,
- I prospered better still and better.
- In ten years' time I bore the name
- of Croesus 'mongst the Charleston shippers.
