12 A Rich Poor Man 



I had made what? Had he paid too much 

 for his money? 



I have another neighbor, by no means a rich 

 man, and by no means looked up to in the com- 

 munity, in fact, scarcely known, except to 

 the few who meet him out fishing, or who buy 

 crabs and oysters from him. He is a jolly old 

 negro, a man of sixty years of age, something 

 of a philosopher, with the resources of a 

 Yankee and the irresponsibility of a tramp. 

 With his wife and children he leads the life of 

 fisherman and gardener. His nets give him all 

 the fish he needs and to sell ; his garden patch 

 supplies him with vegetables for the year; in 

 summer he is his own master, refusing per- 

 sistently to work for others; in winter he 

 works for others if work presents itself, but as 

 the pork barrel is deep and vegetables plenty, 

 his actual need of money is small. Oysters 

 he can have for the getting. This man has a 

 genuine love of the sunlight and of untainted 

 air. When I sail him a race for home, and we 

 arrive wet with the spray which the breeze has 

 thrown at us, he is the first to proclaim his keen 

 enjoyment. He has never known what the 



