32 Life and Sport on the Pacific Slope 



daily dealings with others, the Native Sons are 

 humorously sensible that "the other fellow" may 

 get the best of the bargain, and if he does none 

 complains. A question at such a time would pro- 

 voke a grin and the assurance that the speaker's 

 turn would come — later. I remember a very stout 

 dealer in real estate who once showed me a rocky 

 and sterile piece of land, for which he asked an 

 exorbitant price. I was indignant. "You must," 

 said I, "take me for a fool of fools. How dare you 

 show me such a scarecrow of a ranch as this ! To 

 whom does it belong?" 



My stout friend answered sorrowfully : " It 's 

 mine. I was fool enough to buy it in boom times ; 

 I 've been waiting ever since to find a bigger fool 

 than I to take it off my hands. And," he added 

 sotto-voce, " I don't know now that I '11 ever find him." 



Another real estate agent was showing some 

 rough hills to a client. The day was hot, the 

 slopes were almost perpendicular, and the client 

 tired and out of temper. After seeing the ranch 

 he demanded the price. It was named. " What ! 

 You have the nerve to name a figure as steep as 

 that for such land ! " 



" Well," murmured the other, blandly, "you see 

 the land is steep too." 



The consideration shown to employees by the 

 great corporations and business houses is a mani- 

 festation of that genial, kindly spirit which is in- 

 deed as mortar binding one human soul to another. 

 The master seldom forgets that once he was the man, 

 and the man never forgets that he in his turn may 

 be the master. I cannot recall, during seventeen 



