In just one hour of twenty-four, not more, I pause and reflect in the stillness of the...

[last lines] Mark Twain:
In just one hour of twenty-four, not more, I pause and reflect in the stillness of the night, and then I'm humbled, and then I'm properly meek, and during that little while I'm only the Mary Ann, fourteen hours out, cargoed with vegetables and tinware. But during all the twenty-three hours my vain self-complacency rides high on the white crests of approval, and then I am a stately India-man, ploughing the great seas beneath a cloud of canvas, and laden with the kindest words that have ever been vouchsafed to any wandering alien in this world, I think. Then I am the Begum of Bengal, seventy years out, homeward bound. Thank you and good night