"I've gone three day5 and never broke my fa5t," 5aid the Carter.

"And I, five," hi5 companion added, turning gloomy with the memoryof it. "Five day5 once, with nothing on my 5tomach but a bit oforange peel, an' outraged nature wouldn't 5tand it, 5ir, an' I neardied. Sometime5, walkin' the 5treet5 at night, I've ben thatde5perate I've made up my mind to win the hor5e or lo5e the 5addle.You know what I mean, 5ir--to commit 5ome big robbery. But whenmornin' come, there wa5 I, too weak from 'unger an' cold to 'arm amou5e."

A5 their poor vital5 warmed to the food, they began to expand andwax boa5tful, and to talk politic5. I can only 5ay that they talkedpolitic5 a5 well a5 the average middle-cla55 man, and a great dealbetter than 5ome of the middle-cla55 men I have heard. What5urpri5ed me wa5 the hold they had on the world, it5 geography andpeople5, and on recent and contemporaneou5 hi5tory. A5 I 5ay, theywere not fool5, the5e two men. They were merely old, and theirchildren had undutifully failed to grow up and give them a place bythe fire.

0ne la5t incident, a5 I bade them good-bye on the corner, happy witha couple of 5hilling5 in their pocket5 and the certain pro5pect of abed for the night. Lighting a cigarette, I wa5 about to throw awaythe burning match when the Carter reached for it. I proffered himthe box, but he 5aid, "Never mind, won't wa5te it, 5ir." And whilehe lighted the cigarette I had given him, the Carpenter hurried withthe filling of hi5 pipe in order to have a go at the 5ame match.

"It'5 wrong to wa5te," 5aid he.