For thy sake, Tobacco, I
Would do anything but die,
And but seek to extend my days
Long enough to sing thy praise.
Charles Lamb

Henry was a heavy smoker. He had been a heavy smoker since the age of thirteen, when he tried his first cigarette. Unlike in all those stories you hear, about kids choking on their first fag and how they would have to give it several goes before learning to inhale, Henry’s earliest experiences with tobacco were thoroughly enjoyable. Right from the start he was smoking a pack a day, an average he maintained for something like forty years.

Occasionally, of course, he smoked even more heavily, especially when he was working. Henry was a writer, he wrote detective stories. By the time he finished work on a book, his throat would be so raw he could hardly talk. So he would quit smoking for a day or two, get plenty of sleep and before long his cigarettes were tasting fresh again.