"I'm not going to tell you never to take a drink," he said. "I'm not going to say, as so many old fools do -- Learn a lesson from me. Look what drink did to me -- that would be a lot of nonsense. You're getting around now, seeing a lot of things -- a lot of things you never saw before. Well, let me tell you something. Anything that concerns people -- be very careful about it. If you see something you're sure is wrong, don't be sure. If it's people, be very careful. Now, you'll forgive me, but I must tell you, because you're a man I respect, so I don't mind trying to tell you that it's not right, it's foolish, to criticize the way any people happen to be. I haven't the slightest idea who you are -- where you're from -- how you came about -- what made you the way you are -- but I feel pleased about these things and I'm grateful. As a man gets closer to the end of his time he feels more and more grateful for the good people who're going to go on when he's gone. I might not be telling you this if I weren't drunk, so that alone is a good example of why it's wrong to have ideas about people who do things that everyone likes to feel aren't right. It's very important for me to tell you these things and for you to know them. Therefore, it is a good thing that I am drunk and that I am telling you. Can you understand what I'm saying?"
"I'm not sure, Mr. Grogan," Homer said.
"I'm telling you," the old telegraph operator said, "something that may embarrass you. And I could not tell you unless I were drunk. I'm telling you this -- be grateful for yourself. Yes, for yourself. Be thankful. Understand that what a man is is something he can be grateful for, and ought to be grateful for, because if he is good, his goodness is not his alone, it's mine too, and the other fellow's. It's his only to protect and to spread around for me and for everybody else in the world. What you have is good, so be thankful for it. It will be welcomed by everyone you meet at one time or another. They will know you the minute they see you."
Now for some reason Homer remembered the girl at Bethel Rooms and the way she spoke to him, and as he remembered the old telegraph operator went on.
"They will know that you will not betray them or hurt them. They will know that you will not despise them after the whole world has despised them. They will know that you will see in them what the world has failed to see. You must know about that. You must not be embarrassed by it. You are a great man, fourteen years old. Who has made you great, nobody knows, but as it is true, know that it is true, be humble before it, and protect it. Do you understand?"
The messenger was extremely embarrassed, and it was very difficult for him to say, "I guess so, Mr. Grogan."
