the candle-maker,
'but don't take it illy if I call to mind the word of my uncle, the
blacksmith, who, when a loan was offered him, declined it, saying: "To
ply my own hammer, light though it be, I think best, rather than piece
it out heavier by welding to it a bit off a neighbor's hammer, though
that may have some weight to spare; otherwise, were the borrowed bit
suddenly wanted again, it might not split off at the welding, but too
much to one side or the other."'

"'Nonsense, friend China Aster, don't be so honest; your boy is
barefoot. Besides, a rich man lose by a poor man? Or a friend be the
worse by a friend? China Aster, I am afraid that, in leaning over into
your vats here, this, morning, you have spilled out your wisdom. Hush! I
won't hear any more. Where's your desk? Oh, here.' With that, Orchis
dashed off a check on his bank, and off-handedly presenting it, said:
'There, friend China Aster, is your one thousand dollars; when you make
it ten thousand, as you soon enough will (for experience, the only true
knowledge, teaches me that, for every one, good luck is in store), then,
China Aster, why, then you can return me the money or not, just as you
please. But, in any event, give yourself no concern, for I shall never
demand payment.'

"Now, as kind heaven will so have it that to a hungry man bread is a
great temptation, and, therefore, he is not too harshly to be blamed,
if, when freely offered, he take it, even though it be uncertain whether
he shall ever be able to reciprocate; so, to a poor man, proffered money
is equally enticing, and the worst that can be said of him, if he accept
it, is just what can be said in the other case of the hungry man. In
short, the poor candle-maker's scrupulous morality succumbed to his
unscrupulous necessity, as is now and then apt to be the case. He took
the check, and was about carefully putting it away for the present, when
Orchis, switching about again with his gold-headed cane, said:
'By-the-way, China Aster, it don't mean anything, but suppose you make a
little memorandum of this; won't do any harm, you know.' So China Aster
gave Orchis his note for one thousand dollars on demand. Orchis took it,
and looked at it a moment, 'Pooh, I told you, friend China Aster, I
wasn't going ever to make any _demand_.' Then tearing up the note, and
switching away again at the candle-boxes, said, carelessly; 'Put it at
four years.' So China Aster gave Orchis his note for one thousand