“What the ferryman said was, ‘A curse on those who come so loaded’ (for he grumbled and contended that his old crazy craft might have sprung a leak under such a pressure of traffic).
“ ‘Yet,’ said I in reply, ‘you have no lack of custom. As it is this day’s business has left many disappointed, and I see upon the further bank the fires of those who have been kept waiting the whole day. They will be a hundred or more to claim your services by morning.’
“ ‘That is true,’ he answered, ‘but luckily few come as loaded as you or with so many beasts. This is none the less a good place of traffic, for it is the only passage across the water for many miles up and down stream, and serves the main road through the kingdom.’
“I asked him why had he not thought to meet the pressure by purchasing larger boats, or more of them, and hiring more men; since it was clear there was profit in the place, and a greater demand of travellers than he could accommodate.
“He answered again in the surly tone which people use when they boast of changeless custom, that the old boat had been good enough for his father and had served him all his own life, and was good enough for him. By this reply I saw that he was without the funds for replacing his old boat by more and better craft. This my discovery was the beginning of all that followed.
“Before striking my camp the next day I first put the old ferryman in a reasonable humour by giving him good food and drink and treating him honestly in my conversation. When I saw that he was in a mood to be approached I suggested that we should enter a kind of partnership.
“ ‘I am,’ said I, ‘quite at my leisure. I am under no need to go forward until I choose. I have thought of hiring someone of these habitations which I see in yonder grove, and of making a long sojourn here, for the perpetual spectacle of all this traffic crossing and re-crossing a great river under the mountains is a delight.’
“The old ferryman answered that he needed no partner, that he earned all that he needed by his trade and that he preferred to be alone. He also said that my foreign face was distasteful to him, and that grand people were often less trustworthy than they seemed.
“ ‘Your sentiments,’ I answered, ‘are a proof of your wisdom, and also do you honour. But has it not occurred to you that if in the place of this one old craft half a dozen good new boats, much larger and properly manned, were provided, more comers would be tempted to pass here, there would be less delay, both the volume of traffic and the pace would be increased? I cannot but think it an excellent proposition.’
“I have found, my dear nephews, that obstinate old men are easier to shepherd into financial schemes than any other sort: nor was I here disappointed.
“The old mule made the admission which all such men make after the first conventional delays. He said: ‘That is all very well, but who is to pay for them?’
“I replied quietly that I would. ‘I shall be delighted,’ said I, ‘to furnish half a dozen new boats and to pay for the men to row them until the new turnover begins. All I ask is that you shall still keep your present earnings, but share with me in equal amounts the new and extra earnings which my plan will almost certainly produce.’
“It took me some time to rub into his rusty head the terms of my very favourable proposal. He kept on mixing up the division of any future profits and the division of his present income. Never did I appreciate more than during my conversations with this stupid granfer the necessity for patience in spreading a commercial snare. I was at fearful pains to get the thing into his obtuse brain. He could be no poorer, for I asked nothing of his present earnings: he might be much richer, for he would have half any future additions. I would guarantee him the income he was already earning on condition that the much larger income to be earned by my methods should, over and above that guaranteed revenue of his, be equally divided between us.
“He still seemed to think that there was some flaw or catch somewhere. He wanted the thing, simple as it was, explained to him over and over again. At last he got it clear; he got by heart and repeated the refrain: ‘Cannot be poorer, may be richer.’ Nor did it occur to him to wonder why I was so oddly generous.
“I had our contract drawn up in due form, witnessed and sealed. I then caused to be constructed by the local shipwrights four first-class flat boats, some ten diram long by five wide. I saw to it that they should be painted in gay colours and in general have that vulgar violence so attractive to the masses. On their completion I added them to the existing capital of the ferry line.
“At the same time I pointed out to him who was now my partner something which that same stupidity of his had made him miss, to wit, that as he had a monopoly his charges were far too low. ‘Moreover,’ said I, ‘when you consider what fine new boats I have put into service and how, as a consequence, the stream of traffic is increasing, to neglect the opportunity of profit is a great sin for which you will be answerable on the Day of Resurrection. Why, it was but yesterday that you passed over twice as many people, you assured me, as ever you did in any other one day in your life!’
“So wedded to custom was the old gentleman that he still
