"
"Merchant!" repeated the boy, thoughtfully. "I have nothing that I
could sell."
"Yet you can sell yourself. Do not look at me so angrily! I do not
mean that you should sell yourself as a slave, but do business with
your head, your work, and your good-will. Help me to wait on my
customers, to sell goods, and to praise them with pleasing manners,
and I will furnish you with food and clothing, and pay you monthly
wages besides, which you can give to your mother."
"I should have to stand behind the counter, and play the amiable to
people, as I have seen you do?"
"Yes, my son, that you would have to do."
"I should have to listen quietly to the gossips, spread out before
them the carpets, turbans, and Persian shawls; and, as I have seen
you do, cover the spots with my hands and praise the goods, and then
hear them scold, and bargain, and cheapen?"
"Really, you will make a good merchant; I see you have learned a
great deal already."
"I should, when the women stroll in and seat themselves at the
counter, have to wait on them humbly with coffee, and beg them to do
us the honor? Should have to hear them talk about their domestic
affairs, their cats, and their dogs, and appear to be delighted with
the sweetness of their voices, and the lustre of their eyes?"
"By your prophet, you are a finished merchant, and will make a
splendid salesman!"
"No, I shall not!" cried the boy.
Pages:
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43