"Gentleman and
lady not got big pocket," he would say. How in the world he knew that
they had but little money puzzled me. "Lady berry much talk--American
lady always berry much talk. She say 'This curio number one,' but never
buy. English daimio lady come to my store no berry much talk; English
gentleman no big pocket. When she leave my store I say, 'Me presentie
you.'" What little Inchie means by this is that he feels that this
English lady is refined and really admires his beautiful things, but
cannot afford to buy them. He appreciates her delicacy, and, in his
quaint pidgin English, begs to be allowed the privilege of giving her
this little inexpensive trifle to take away.

[Illustration: THE CARPENTER]

Very often, when I was spending a morning in Inchie's little curio
store, a Kobe merchant would drop in to buy--a pompous fellow and burly,
asking the price of everything he saw. "How much is this? and how much
is that?" he would say, and "What do you suppose you'd charge for that?"
Inchie would look up at the merchant and blink with almost a scared
expression, so meek was it. The merchant, like the great bully that he
was, feeling satisfied that he was cowing the little man, would pick up
a piece of ivory and say, "How much?" "Four dollars," answers Inchie.
"Very dear," replies the merchant sternly. Then Inchie would pick up
another piece of ivory, putting away the former, and say with a
scared expression, as though the merchant had frightened him down, "I
charge two dollars for this." "I will give you one and a half dollar,"
urges the merchant. And little Inchie, puckering his brow and in a
melancholy voice, says, "I takee," the merchant going off highly
delighted, convinced that he has been robbing all round.

Immediately after he had left the store, the change in Inchie was
extraordinary. He was no longer meek and melancholy, but gleeful and
triumphant, and longing to tell me what had happened. "The merchant from
Kobe he berry much cheat, that man," he said, with a chuckle. "I show
him number one curio, I ask him number one cheap price, and he say,
'Berry de-ar.' Then I show him no number one curio and ask him more
double price. He say, 'I no pay that; I give half that.' He take away
curio at half that price, and that very good for me. I make more money
like that than when I sell good curio." Then Inchie explained how very
easy it is to deceive the average traveller. He does not stand a chance
against the Jap