In Which We Take Much Treasure

"Well, why not?" demanded Lafitte. "Go on."

"A fellow doesn't like to."

"But what did you do?"

"Very little. I found I could not do very much. I gave some buildings
to schools, that sort of thing. No one thanked me much. A good many
called me a Socialist."

"What's that--a Socialist?"

"I can't tell you. Nobody knows. But really, I suppose, a Socialist is
a man born before the world got used to steam and electricity. Those
things made a lot of changes, you see, and in the confusion some
people didn't get quite as square a deal as they deserved; or at
least, they didn't think they had. It takes time, really, as I
suppose, to settle down after any great change. It's like moving a
house."

"I see," said Jimmy sagely. "But, Black Bart, you always seemed to me
like as if, now, well, like you was studyin' or something, somehow.
Ain't you never had no good times before?"

"No. This is about the first really good time I ever had in all my
life. You see, you can't really understand things that you look at
from a long way off--you've got to get right in with folks to know
what folks are. Don't you think so?"

"I know it!" answered Jimmy, with conviction. And I recalled, though
he did not, the fact that he bathed daily, Lafitte weekly, yet no
gulf was fixed between their portions of the general humanity.

"It must be nice to be rich," ventured Lafitte presently. "I'm going
to be, some day."