take to rambling again."

"There you go," said Tom, somewhat testily, as he lit a cigar, and lay
down on his bed to enjoy it; "you are never content; I knew it wouldn't
last; you're a rolling stone, and will end in being a beggar. Do you
really mean to say that you intend to give up a lucrative profession and
become a vagrant?--for such you will be, if you take to wandering about
the country without any object in view."

"Indeed, I do," answered Ned. "How often am I to tell you that I don't
and _won't_ consider the making of money the chief good of this world?
Doubtless, it is an uncommonly necessary thing, especially to those who
have families to support; but I am firmly convinced that this life was
meant to be enjoyed, and I mean to enjoy it accordingly."

"I agree with you, Ned, heartily; but if every one enjoyed life as you
propose to do, and took to rambling over the face of the earth, there
would be no work done, and nothing could be had for love or money--
except what grew spontaneously; and that would be a joyful state of
things, wouldn't it?"

Tom Collins, indulging the belief that he had taken up an unassailable
position, propelled from his lips a long thin cloud of smoke, and smiled
through it at his friend.

"Your style of reasoning is rather wild, to say the least of it,"
answered Ned, as he rubbed down his colours on the bottom of a broken
plate. "In the first place, you assume that I propose to spend _all_ my
life in rambling; and, in the second place, you found your argument on
the absurd supposition that everybody else must find their sole
enjoyment in the same occupation."

"How I wish," sighed Tom Collins, smoking languidly, "that there was no
such thing as reasoning. You would be a much more agreeable fellow,
Ned, if you didn't argue."

"It takes two to make an argument," remarked Ned. "Well, but couldn't
you _converse_ without arguing?"

"Certainly, if you would never contradict what I say, nor make an
incorrect statement, nor draw a wrong conclusion, nor object to being
contradicted when I think you are in the wrong."

Tom sighed deeply, and drew comfort from his cigar. In a few minutes he
resumed,--"Well, but what do you mean by enjoying life?"

Ned Sinton pondered the question a few seconds, and then replied--

"I mean this:--the way to enjoy life is to do all the good you can, by
working just enough to support yourself and your family, if you have
one; to assist in spreading t