"I'm just a miserable thing" , the narrator tells us. He tells us that he's just miserable because no one cares about him anymore. He's already so miserable that he doesn't even want to live with anyone else. He wants to be his own person, and he wants to make sure that no one else takes him in except for him. He asks if he can have the ring that belonged to his mother, and she tells him that it's platinum, which belonged to her. He says that if he loses it, he will have to pay her back with his life.