Riches vs. Happiness. 28j 



He calculates that time is money, and spendin' a few 

 days among these hills and lakes, he'd regard as a reck- 

 less waste, like the waste of a man who spends his dollars 

 in card-playin', horse-racin,' cock-fightin', and drinkin,' 

 and spreein' them away. He wouldn't enj oy himself 

 here at all, because his heart wouldn't be among the 

 hills and lakes. Well, may be, he looks at me, and 

 wonders that I don't seem onhappy and sorrowful, 

 away off here, on what he regards as the outside of 

 creation, and, may be, pities my forlorn condition. 

 He wonders how I can content myself in this region, 

 where there ain't any paved streets, and carriages, and 

 carts, and stores, and fine houses, and thousands of 

 people. He thinks in his heart, I'm a poor ignorant 

 creeter, and that my lot in life is a hard one. Well, 

 he's right enough in thinkin' I'm poor and ignorant, 

 but if he'd give me his fine house and his carriage, and 

 all his rich goods, and ask me to live cooped up in 

 the city, listenin' to the dull sounds that come up from 

 the streets and the work-shops, and all the other manu- 

 factories of noises, and breathin' the stenches, and foul 

 air, that comes up from the filthy places, everywhere 

 around him, I wouldn't look at it. My lot in life 

 ain't half as hard as h^5, and I'd tell him so. I'm a 



