The simplicity of a vice may be as real as the simplicity of a virtue." Ah, David, David, I know not what to think of those strange words; but old Soolsby seemed well to understand thee, and he called thee "a first-best gentleman." Is my story long?
Well, it was so strange, and it fixed itself upon my mind so deeply, and thy writings at the hut have been so much in my hands and in my mind, that I have put it all down here.

When I asked Soolsby how it came he had been rumoured dead, he said that he himself had been the cause of it; but for what purpose he would not say, save that he was going a long voyage, and had made up his mind to return no more.

"I had a friend," he said, "and I was set to go and see that friend again....

But the years go on, and friends have an end.

Life spills faster than the years," he said.