"The Cost of Living"
- Right off the bat, the narrator encourages an "adventurer" to go on a "vivid journey," though he himself must stay behind (0.1-2). Though a happy ending awaits the adventurer, the narrator can't go—he probably wouldn't obey instructions and would turn away, for, as he says, "The one-armed captain in the pirate harbor / Would know me in an instant for a Jonah" (0.3-4). That's a whale of a problem.
- None of the magical creatures he would come across could talk to him and allow the adventurer and himself to complete their magical journey (0.6-8). Plus he already knows the answer to any magical riddles the adventurer might come across from his own readings—but he learned it second-hand, not first-hand, the way the adventurer will experience it by finding it out for himself or herself (0.10-12). What he learned wasn't in an academic textbook, but was a tale told to him as a story (0.12).
- Instead of going out on a journey, the narrator decides to stay home and tend to the non-magical, mundane things, like fixing a vehicle's carburetor (0.13-14). He prefers those kinds of things to going on magical journeys—so they're not just ways to pass the time until the adventurer comes home (16-17). He's not big on going out much.
- When the adventurer returns, the narrator will listen to her story "With a complacently benign amazement / Believing it because it's you that tell it" (0.20-21). He'll trust in the adventurer's words and believe every sentence because he cares for her, because she is the one telling the story. Only once the adventurer has finished this regular routine (she ventures out, he stays home and asks questions when she gets back), will he tell her about "the cost of living" (0.22-24).
- We're not sure if he means your soul, or just the rent…