The old man filled his pipe again from a bag of tobacco that he carried in his pocket.
"Well, you are an old bird," said Laurence sardonically.
"Family isn't the only thing," was old Timothy's calm response. "'Tisn't even the main thing."
"Oh, what is, in your opinion?"
"Why, a man's work—his ideas."
"Work? I thought you didn't work."
"I don't work for a boss, or for a society that only wants to exploit me, and I haven't these many years. I've gone hungry rather, lived with the lowest and off them too, rather than that. Once I got out of that hell, I wouldn't go back into it, sooner starve.... But I work for what I'm interested in."
"And what's that?"
"The big change that's coming, Larry. The day when there'll be real freedom for every man."
The old man paused, then said abruptly: