286 
A CRUSADE IN THE EAST. 
certainly has no visible means of support. It takes uncom¬ 
monly little to satisfy him, so far as I can see.” 
Yusef. —“ Yet that little appears to be enough. He takes 
it easy, as you may perceive, and doesn’t seem at all un- 
happy.” 
General.— “ Faugh ! what a barbarous life ! A fine look 
ing fellow like that fooling away his time basking in the sun 
like a great mud-turtle. Why, in our country he might earn 
his dollar a day.” 
Yusef. — ££ True, 0 General, but he’d have to work.” 
General .— 1 “ Of course he would—ten hours a day, at 
least. Then you see he’d have the pleasure of spending his 
money. He’d pay a tolerably high price for a small cabin to 
live in; and a tolerably high price for something to eat, and 
tolerably high prices for clothing for himself and family, and 
at the end of a week, after six days of honest toil, digging a 
well or down in a coal-pit, perhaps, he’d feel tolerably tired, 
and sleep soundly till the morning of the seventh.” 
Yusef. — ££ To my poor understanding, 0 General, that 
seems rather a melancholy life—not a hopeful one at least. 
I can only say that touching the matter of labor, I am in the 
dark as to what it ends in.” 
General (smiling).— ££ Why, it ends in labor, to be sure ; 
the man labors for money; and when he gets it he labors 
either to keep it or spend it. But don’t you perceive the dif¬ 
ference between a mere animal existence, and that noble am¬ 
bition which inspires a civilized people to seek for active, 
positive, or palpable happiness—something they can hold in 
their hands and look at. In our country, there are men who 
go thousands of miles by land and water (some try to go in 
the air) to dig up gold in order that they may be happy. 
When they get a hundred thousand dollars they only want 
another hundred thousand, and when they get that they only 
want half a million more, by which time they might be per¬ 
fectly happy only for some other ,want. Sometimes when 
they haven’t any other want in particular, they lose all their 
money by some visitation of providence—a fire or flood, or die 
of a fever just as they are going to be perfectly happy.” 
