ut
of my mouth by the robbers. I work hard all my days, and die working.
And I ain't never had a flutter. I've had nothing but work, work,
work. They talk about the dignity of labor. I tell you there ain't no
dignity in that sort of labor. My other choice is to herd with the
robbers, and I herd with them. I play that choice wide open to win. I
get the automobiles, and the porterhouse steaks, and the soft beds.

"Number two: There ain't much difference between playing halfway robber
like the railroad hauling that farmer's wheat to market, and playing
all robber and robbing the robbers like I do. And, besides, halfway
robbery is too slow a game for me to sit in. You don't win quick enough
for me."

"But what do you want to win for?" Dede demanded. "You have millions
and millions, already. You can't ride in more than one automobile at a
time, sleep in more than one bed at a time."

"Number three answers that," he said, "and here it is: Men and things
are so made that they have different likes. A rabbit likes a
vegetarian diet. A lynx likes meat. Ducks swim; chickens are scairt
of water. One man collects postage stamps, another man collects
butterflies. This man goes in for paintings, that man goes in for
yachts, and some other fellow for hunting big game. One man thinks
horse-racing is It, with a big I, and another man finds the biggest
satisfaction in actresses. They can't help these likes. They have
them, and what are they going to do about it? Now I like gambling. I
like to play the game. I want to play it big and play it quick. I'm
just made that way. And I play it."

"But why can't you do good with all your money?"

Daylight laughed.

"Doing good with your money! It's like slapping God in the face, as
much as to tell him that he don't know how to run his world and that
you'll be much obliged if he'll stand out of the way and give you a
chance. Thinking about God doesn't keep me sitting up nights, so I've
got another way of looking at it. Ain't it funny, to go around with
brass knuckles and a big club breaking folks' heads and taking their
money away from them until I've got a pile, and then, repenting of my
ways, going around and bandaging up the heads the other robbers are
breaking? I leave it to you. That's what doing good with money
amounts to. Every once in a while some robber turns soft-hearted and
takes to driving an ambulance. That's what Carnegie did. He smashed
heads in pi