Are you any better than me?"

O,--er--why, certainly not."

Are you as good? Come!"

Indeed, I--the fact is you take me so suddenly--"

Suddenly? What is there sudden about it? It isn't a difficult question

is it? Or doubtful? Just measure us on the only fair lines--the lines

of merit--and of course you'll admit that a journeyman chairmaker that

earns his twenty dollars a week, and has had the good and genuine culture

of contact with men, and care, and hardship, and failure, and success,

and downs and ups and ups and downs, is just a trifle the superior of a

young fellow like you, who doesn't know how to do anything that's

valuable, can't earn his living in any secure and steady way, hasn't had

any experience of life and its seriousness, hasn't any culture but the

artificial culture of books, which adorns but doesn't really educate

-come! if I wouldn't scorn an earldom, what the devil right have you

to do it!"

Tracy dissembled his joy, though he wanted to thank the chair-maker for

that last remark. Presently a thought struck him, and he spoke up

briskly and said:

"But look here, I really can't quite get the hang of your notions--your

154

The American Claimant