HINDRANCES AND HELPS 



dicker that I ever traded with— I '11 say that 

 for ye." 



And the horse is transferred to his keeping. 



"S'pose you throw in the halter and blanket, 

 Squire, don't ye?" 



"Give him the halter and blanket, Patrick." 



"And, Patrick, you ain't nary old curry- 

 comb you don't use, you could let me have?" 



"Give him a curry-comb, Pat." 



"Squire, you 're a clever man. Got most 

 through y'r hayin'?" 



"Nearly." 



"Well, I 'm glad on 't. Had kind o' ketchin' 

 weather up our way." 



And with this return to general and polite 

 conversation, the bargaining is over. It may 

 be amusing, but it is not inspiriting or elevat- 

 ing. Yet very much of the country trade is 

 full of this miserable chaffering. If I have a 

 few acres of woodland to sell, the purchaser 

 spends an hour in impressing upon me his 

 "idee" — that it is scattered and mangy, and 

 has been pirated upon, and that wood is "dull," 

 with no prospect of its rising; if it is a cow 

 that I venture in the market, the proposed 

 purchaser is equally voluble in descriptive 

 epithets, far from complimentary; she is 

 "pooty well on in years," rather scrawny, "not 



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