I'm just the same old two-an'-sixpence that I was before I went away.

That is, I'm always tired an' always poor an' always wishin' I didn't have to do any work.
But when there comes a time when I get a chance to do somethin' wrong an' make somethin' by it, I don't do it, although there was a time when I would have done it.

I don't keep from doin' it for anything that I can make, 'cause I always go home a good deal worse off than I might have been.

I hope you get something out of what I'm tellin' you, Mr.
Bartram ?" "But, Sam, my dear fellow," said the young man, "all this doesn't mean anything; that is, so far as religion goes.

You are simply trying to live right, whereas you used to live wrong.