PERSONAL INTERPRETATION
Ned Shearer, the 18th Century comedian, was often very poor, and being more negligent than poor, was careless about his dress. A friend overtook him one day in the street and said to him, “Why, Ned, are you not ashamed to walk the streets with twenty holes in your stockings? Why don’t you get them mended?” Ned replied, “No, my friend. I’m above it, and if you have the pride of a gentleman you will act like me, and walk with twenty holes, rather than have one darn.” Puzzled by this response, his friend asked, “How do you make that out?” Ned replied, “Why, a hole is the accident of the day, but a darn is premeditated poverty.” 2500 Anecdotes For All Occasions, Edmund Fuller, Ed., page 81.
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