Page:Tales in Political Economy by Millicent Garrett Fawcett.djvu/93

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IV.]
FOREIGN TRADE.
83

use he could make of his newly-gained wealth. One old man, who had waited till the ship came home before he supplied himself with a new jersey that he very much needed, came up to Mrs. Collins with money in his hand to buy one. "I'm very sorry, I'm sure," she said, "that I can't supply you. I sent away half-a-dozen, that would have fitted you exactly, in the Carrier Pigeon, and since that I've been busy making new suits for my husband and children, and so I haven't got any jerseys for sale at present." "Perhaps you'll be having some in a week or so," said the old man. "Well, I can't say, I'm sure," said she; "they say the Carrier Pigeon is to sail again in three weeks, and I want to make up a good parcel of things to send in it, for we get such good prices over there." "Well," he said, "if it's the price you're thinking of, I will give you as much for a jersey as it would sell for in San Francisco." "That's 30s.," she said. Now that was just double what the old man had paid for his last jersey; but he had a great deal more money now than he had then, and he wanted