"It didn't take a lot to satisfy that man."
"And he said, that these things, being the way they were, gave him no trouble attending on them, and so he was left with plenty of time for himself."
"I think the man you are telling me about was a joker; maybe you are a joker yourself for that matter."
"Tell me," said I, "the sort of things a person should want, for I am a young man, and everything one learns is so much to the good."
He rested his hammer and stared sideways down the road, and he remained so, pursing and relaxing his lips, for a little while. At last he said in a low voice—
"A person wants respect from other people.—If he doesn't get that, what does he signify more than a goat or a badger? We live by what folk think of us, and if they speak badly of a man doesn't that finish him for ever?"
"Do people speak well of you?" I asked.
"They speak badly of me," said he, "and the way I am now is this, that
I wouldn't have them say a good word of me at all."
"Would you tell me why the people speak badly of you?"
"You are travelling down the road," said he, "and I am staying where I am. We never met before in all the years, and we may never meet again, and so I'll tell you what is in my mind.—A person that has neighbours will have either friends or enemies, and it's likely enough that he'll have the last unless he has a meek spirit. And it's the same way with a man that's married, or a man that has a brother. For the neighbours will spy on you from dawn to dark, and talk about you in every place, and a wife will try to rule you in the house and out of the house until you are badgered to a skeleton, and a brother will ask you to give him whatever thing you value most in the world."