The Confidence-Man Chapters 21 and 22

In which a Missouri bachelor, clad in the skins of wild beasts and armed with blunt scepticism, sparingly dispenses his harsh verdicts on nature, boys, and men, engaging in a spirited debate with an herb-doctor and a philosophical intelligence agent about trust, human frailty, and the prospects of moral growth. Most curiously, amid their jarring dialogue, echoes of nature’s mercy and man’s frailties intertwine, casting light on the uneasy dance between doubt and confidence that underpins their strange commerce.