320 CHINESE LITERATURE
matter of fact, the best kind will not answer my purpose so well as the second or third best ; and although I fully recognise your good intentions, I must really ask to be allowed to please myself.'
" ' There is no objection, sir,' said the shopkeeper, ' to your pleasing yourself, but low-class goods are sold at a low price, and do not command the same rates as superior articles.'
" Thus they went on bandying arguments for a long time without coming to any definite agreement, until at last the soldier picked up the things he had chosen and tried to make off with them. The bystanders, however, all cried shame upon him and said he was a downright cheat, so that he was ultimately obliged to take some of the best kind and some of the inferior kind and put an end to the altercation.
" A little farther on our travellers saw a countryman who had just paid the price of some purchases he had succeeded in making, and was hurrying away with them, when the shopkeeper called after him, ' Sir ! sir ! you have paid me by mistake in finer silver than we are accustomed to use here, and I have to allow you a con- siderable discount in consequence. Of course this is a mere trifle to a gentleman of your rank and position, but still for my own sake I must ask leave to make it all right with you.' (
" ' Pray don't mention such a small matter,' replied the countryman, ' but oblige me by putting the amount to my credit for use at a future date when I come again to buy some more of your excellent wares.'
" ' No, no,' answered the shopkeeper, l you don't catch old birds with chaff. That trick was played upon me last year by another gentleman, and to this day I have
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