"Trick," said Joe. "_Joke_, did you say? It was ratherly past a
joke to expect me to carry a load of broken stones all the way
here, when there was plenty on the spot. I'm not such a fool as
you've taken me for," said Joe. The jolly-jist took off his
spectacles, and glowered at Joe without them. Then he put them on
again, and glowered at Joe with them; and then he laughed, and
asked Joe, if he thought there could be no difference in stones.
"Why!" answered Joe, "you hardly have the face to tell me that one
bag of stones isn't as good as another bag of stones; and surely to
man you'll never be so conceited as to say that you can break
stones better than old Abraham Atchisson, who breaks them for his
bread, and breaks them all day long and every day."
With that the old man laughed again, and told Joe to sit down; and
then he asked him what he thought made him take so much trouble
seeking bits of stone on the fells, if he could get what he wanted
on the road-side. "Well," Joe said, "if I must tell you the truth,
I thought you were rather soft in the head; but it made no matter
what I thought, so long as you paid me so well for going with you."
As Joe said this, it came into his head that it was better to
flatter a fool than to fight him; and after all, that there might
be something in the old man liking stones of his own breaking
better than those of other folks' breaking.
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