"That's a bad lookout in this world! Aren't you tired of living!" "Nearly," answered Helmsley quietly--"but not quite." Their looks met, and Tom's dark features relaxed into a smile.
"You're fairly patient!" he said, "for it's hard enough to be poor, but it's harder still to be old.

If I thought I should live to be as old as you are, I'd drown myself in the sea! There's no use in life without body's strength and heart's love." "Ah, tha be graat on the love business, Tom!" chuckled "Feathery" Joltram, lifting his massive body with a shake out of the depths of his comfortable chair.

"Zeems to me tha's zummat like the burd what cozies a new mate ivery zummer!" Tom o' the Gleam laughed, his strong even white teeth shining like a row of pearls between his black moustaches and short-cropped beard.
"You're a steady-going man, Feathery," he said, "and I'm a wastrel.

But I'm ne'er as fickle as you think.

I've but one love in the world that's left me--my kiddie." "Ay, an' 'ow's the kiddie ?" asked Matt Peke--"Thrivin' as iver ?" "Fine! As strong a little chap as you'll see between Quantocks and Land's End.