human
Are you glad you gave up gardening?
gpt
Can't say I am now, he replied.
human
There's more money in this, but the work's too hard. I miss my sleep, too.
gpt
You can always go back,
human
I wonder, he replied.
gpt
I'd like to. This being at every one's beck and call who happens to have a shilling is what I'm tired of.
human
What about tips?
gpt
I get plenty of them, he said.
human
In fact, if the clock registers tenpence or one and fourpence or one and tenpence I practically always get the odd twopence. That's all right. It's the people who don't want to tip but daren't not do it that I can't stand. And there are such lots of them. That's what makes taxi-drivers look so contemptuous like--the tips. People think we want the tips; but there's a time when we'd rather go without them than get them like that.
gpt
Then there are the fares who always know a quicker way than we do. They're terrors. They keep on tapping on the glass to direct us, when we know all about it all the time. It's them that leads to some of the accidents, because they take your eyes off the road.
human
But the pedestrians are the worst,
gpt
The pedestrians?
human
Yes, the people who walk across the road without giving a thought to the fact that there might be a vehicle coming. The people that never learn. The people that call you names or make faces at you after you've saved their silly lives by blowing the hooter at them. Every minute of the day one is having trouble with them, and it gets on one's nerves. It's them that makes a taxi-driver look old sooner than a woman.
gpt
So you'll go back to the land?
human
I don't know, he said.
gpt
I'd like to, but petrol gets into the blood, you know.
human
Dr. Grenfell remarked that the tourist traffic [to Labrador] was beginning to grow. Life in winter was very attractive, and was enjoyed as people enjoyed winter in Norway. One of his few personal reminiscences was how he fell through the ice and expected to be frozen to death.