humbug, Master Joe.'

'And you a very small humbug, and there lies the difference between us.
The combinations in your mind are so few, that, as in a game of only three
cards, there is no skill in the playing; while in my nature, as in that
game called tarocco, there are half-a-dozen packs mixed up together, and
the address required to play them is considerable.'

'You have a very satisfactory estimate of your own abilities, Joe.'

'And why not? If a clever fellow didn't know he was clever, the opinion of
the world on his superiority would probably turn his brain.'

'And what do you say if his own vanity should do it?'

'There is really no way of explaining to a fellow like you--'

'What do you mean by a fellow like me?' broke in Dick, somewhat angrily.

'I mean this, that I'd as soon set to work to explain the theory of
exchequer bonds to an Eskimo, as to make an unimaginative man understand
something purely speculative. What you, and scores of fellows like you,
denominate vanity, is only another form of hopefulness. You and your
brethren--for you are a large family--do you know what it is to Hope! that
is, you have no idea of what it is to build on the foundation of certain
qualities you recognise in yourself, and to say that "if I can go so far
with such a gift, such another will help me on so much farther."'

'I tell you one thing I do hope, which is, that the next time I set out
a twelve miles' walk, I'll have a companion less imbued with
self-admiration.'

'And you might and might not find him pleasanter company. Cannot you see,
old fellow, that the very things you object to in me are what are wanting
in you? they are, so to say, the compliments of your own temperament.'

'Have you a cigar?'

'Two--take them both. I'd rather talk than smoke just now.'

'I am almost sorry for it, though it gives me the tobacco.'

'Are we on your father's property yet?'

'Yes; part of that village we came through belongs to us, and all this bog
here is ours.'

'Why don't you reclaim it? labour costs a mere nothing in this country.
Why don't you drain those tracts, and treat the soil with lime? I'd live
on potatoes, I'd make my family live on potatoes, and my son, and my
grandson, for three generations, but I'd win this land back to culture and
productiveness.'

'The fee-simple of the soil wouldn't pay the cost. It would be cheaper to
save the money and buy an estate.'

'That is one, and a very narrow view of it;