Adventures in Contentment

"Shall I deliver the set at once," he said, "or can you wait until the first of February?" At that critical moment a floating spar of an idea swept my way and I seized upon it as the last hope of the lost. "I don't understand," I said, as though I had not heard his last question, "how you dare go about with all this treasure upon you. Are you not afraid of being stopped in the road and robbed? Why, I've seen the time when, if I had known you carried such things as these, such cures for sick hearts, I think I should have stopped you myself!" "Say, you are an odd one," said Mr. Dixon. "Why do you sell such priceless things as these?" I asked, looking at him sharply. "Why do I sell them?" and he looked still more perplexed. "To make money, of course; same reason you raise corn." "But here is wealth," I said, pursuing my advantage. "If you have these you have something more valuable than money." Mr. Dixon politely said nothing. Like a wise angler, having failed to land me at the first rush, he let me have line. Then I thought of Ruskin's words, "Nor can any noble thing be wealth except to a noble person." And that prompted me to say to Mr. Dixon: "These things are not yours; they are mine. You never owned them; but I will sell them to you." He looked at me in amazement, and then glanced around--evidently to discover if there were a convenient way of escape.