d.

'No, no,' he said to Curdie; 'don't you pay any such sum. A little
pane like that cost only a quarter.'

'Well, to be certain,' said Curdie, 'I'll give a half.' For he doubted
the baker as well as the barber. 'Perhaps one day, if he finds he has
asked too much, he will bring me the difference.'

'Ha! ha!' laughed the barber. 'A fool and his money are soon parted.'

But as he took the coin from Curdie's hand he grasped it in affected
reconciliation and real satisfaction. In Curdie's, his was the cold
smooth leathery palm of a monkey. He looked up, almost expecting to
see him pop the money in his cheek; but he had not yet got so far as
that, though he was well on the road to it: then he would have no other
pocket.

'I'm glad that stone is gone, anyhow,' said the baker. 'It was the
bane of my life. I had no idea how easy it was to remove it. Give me
your pickaxes young miner, and I will show you how a baker can make the
stones fly.'

He caught the tool out of Curdie's hand, and flew at one of the
foundation stones of the gateway. But he jarred his arm terribly,
scarcely chipped the stone, dropped the mattock with a cry of pain, and
ran into his own shop. Curdie picked up his implement, and, looking
after the baker, saw bread in the window, and followed him in. But the
baker, ashamed of himself, and thinking he was coming to laugh at him,
popped out of the back door, and when Curdie entered, the baker's wife
came from the bakehouse to serve him. Curdie requested to know the
price of a certain good-sized loaf.

Now the baker's wife had been watching what had passed since first her
husband ran out of the shop, and she liked the look of Curdie. Also she
was more honest than her husband. Casting a glance to the back door,
she replied:

'That is not the best bread. I will sell you a loaf of what we bake
for ourselves.' And when she had spoken she laid a finger on her lips.
'Take care of yourself in this place, MY son,' she added. 'They do not
love strangers. I was once a stranger here, and I know what I say.'
Then fancying she heard her husband, 'That is a strange animal you
have,' she said, in a louder voice.

'Yes,' answered Curdie. 'She is no beauty, but she is very good, and
we love each other. Don't we, Lina?'

Lina looked up and whined. Curdie threw her the half of his loaf,
which she ate, while her master and the baker's wife talked a little.
Then the baker's wife gave them some water,