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Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936

"From Mine Own People"

You'll do quite enough bad work
without knowing it. And, Dickie, as I love you and as I know you love me, I am
not going to let you cut off your nose to spite your face for all the gold in
England. That's settled. Now swear."
"Don't know, said Dick. "I've been trying to make myself angry, but I can"t,
you're so abominably reasonable. There will be a row on Dickenson's Weekly, I
fancy."
"Why the Dickenson do you want to work on a weekly paper? It's slow bleeding of
power."
"It brings in the very desirable dollars," said Dick, his hands in his pockets.
Torpenhow watched him with large contempt. "Why, I thought it was a man!" said
he. "It's a child."
"No, it isn't," said Dick, wheeling quickly. "You've no notion what the
certainty of cash means to a man who has always wanted it badly. Nothing will
pay me for some of my life's joys; on that Chinese pig-boat, for instance, when
we ate bread and jam for every meal, because Ho-Wang wouldn't allow us
anything better, and it all tasted of pig,--Chinese pig. I've worked for this,
I've sweated and I've starved for this, line on line and month after month. And
now I've got it I am going to make the most of it while it lasts. Let them pay-
-they've no knowledge.


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