DEVLIN (handing a box)
You’ll find plenty in that.

NAGLE
All the comfort some of us have in this world is a
smoke, that’s when we have the tobacco, of course.

DEVLIN There’ll be smokin’ enough in the next world, they say, but that’s cold comfort to a man without the fillin’s of a pipe or a match to light it.

NAGLE
’Tis a great misfortune to be born at all.

DEVLIN That’s what I’ve often been thinkin’.  And many’s the time I’ve cursed the day that my father met my mother. (Sadly) ’Twould be better for us all in spite of what the clergy say that we were all Protestants, or else died before we came to the use of reason.  But things might be worse.

NAGLE Trouble comes to us all, and ’tis a consolation to know that the King must die as well as the beggar.  Think of me, and I after losin’ my return ticket to Carlow, and I must be there to-night even if I have to walk every step of the way.

DEVLIN
And haven’t you the price of your ticket?

NAGLE The devil a penny at all have I, and unless I can sell my watch to buy my ticket with, I’ll lose my job, and then my wife and family must go to the workhouse.

DEVLIN God himself seems to be no friend of the poor.  That was a terrible calamity to befall a stranger.  How much will your ticket cost?

NAGLE Ten shillin’s, and I’m willin’ to part with my watch for that triflin’ sum, though ’twas my poor father’s, rest his soul. (Holds watch in his hand) Look at it, ’tis as fine a timepiece as eyes ever rested on.  A solid silver watch, and a chain of solid gold, and all for ten shillin’s.  And history enough attached to it to write a book.

DEVLIN
’Tis a bargain surely.

NAGLE A man wearin’ a watch and chain like that would get credit anywhere he’d be known, though ’twould be no use to a stranger.

DEVLIN Leave me see how ’twould look on me. (The stranger hands him the watch, and Devlin adjusts it to his vest front, walks up and down the room, and looks in the glass) Bedad, but you’re right.  It does make a man feel good, and maybe better than he is.

NAGLE A man walkin’ into a friend’s house with ornamentation on him like that would get the lend of anythin’.

DEVLIN (confidently)
I believe he would.

NAGLE
Indeed you may say so.

DEVLIN
And you’ll sell it for ten shillin’s.

NAGLE
Yes, if you’ll be quick about it, because I must catch
the train and get home as soon as I can.

DEVLIN
Does it keep good time?

NAGLE
’Tis the best timekeeper that ever was.

DEVLIN (places watch to his ear)
It has a good strong tick, anyway.  I’ll give you the
ten shillin’s for it.  Here you are.

NAGLE (takes the money)
Thank you kindly, though it nearly breaks my heart
to part with it.