There was a large assortment of rags , the fine ones in one heap , and the coarse ones in another , as they should be . They had all much to tell , but no one more than the shirt-collar , for he was a hopeless braggart . ' I have had a terrible number of love affairs ! ' he said . ` They give me no peace . I was such a fine gentleman , so stiff with starch ! I had a boot-jack and a hair-brush , which I never used ! You should just have seen me then ! Never shall I forget my first love ! She was a girdle , so delicate and soft and pretty ! She threw herself into a wash-tub for my sake ! Then there was a widow , who glowed with love for me . But I left her alone , till she became black . Then there was the dancer , who inflicted the wound which has caused me to be here now ; she was very violent ! My own hair-brush was in love with me , and lost all her hair in consequence . Yes , I have experienced much in that line ; but I grieve most of all for the garter,-I mean , the girdle , who threw herself into a wash-tub . I have much on my conscience ; it is high time for me to become white paper ! ' And so he did ! he became white paper , the very paper on which this story is printed . And that was because he had boasted so terribly about things which were not true .
We should take this to heart , so that it may not happen to us , for we can not indeed tell if we may not some day come to the rag-bag , and be made into white paper , on which will be printed our whole history , even the most secret parts , so that we too go XXXXX the world relating it , like the shirt-collar .
about as because for in into of on than to