Page 197 - down-and-out-in-paris-and-london

norance. I said to him, surprised:
‘You seem to know a lot about stars.’
‘Not a great lot. I know a bit, though. I got two letters
from the Astronomer Royal thanking me for writing about
meteors. Now and again I go out at night and watch for me-
teors. The stars are a free show; it don’t cost anything to use
your eyes.’
‘What a good idea! I should never have thought of it.’
‘Well, you got to take an interest in something. It don’t
follow that because a man’s on the road he can’t think of
anything but tea-and-two-slices.’
‘But isn’t it very hard to take an interest in things—things
like stars—living this life?’
‘Screeving, you mean? Not necessarily. It don’t need turn
you into a bloody rabbit—that is, not if you set your mind
to it.’
‘It seems to have that effect on most people.’
‘Of course. Look at Paddy—a tea-swilling old mooch-
er, only fit to scrounge for fag-ends. That’s the way most of
them go. I despise them. But you don’t NEED to get like
that. If you’ve got any education, it don’t matter to you if
you’re on the road for the rest of your life.’
‘Well, I’ve found just the contrary,’ I said. ‘It seems to me
that when you take a man’s money away he’s fit for nothing
from that moment.’
‘No, not necessarily. If you set yourself to it, you can live
the same life, rich or poor. You can still keep on with your
books and your ideas. You just got to say to yourself, ‘I’m a
free man in HERE‘‘—he tapped his forehead—‘and you’re

1 Down and Out in Paris and London