Erewhon Revisited Twenty Years Later, Both by the Original Discoverer of the Country and by His SonButler, Samuel
Philosophy
Erewhon Revisited Twenty Years Later, Both by the Original Discoverer of the Country and by His Son
Butler, Samuel
Satire; Utopian fiction; Utopias -- Fiction
Hanky tried to beat him down, assuring him that no curiosity dealer
would give half as much, and my father so far yielded as to take £4,
10s. in silver, which, as I have already explained, would not be worth
more than half a sovereign in gold. At this figure a bargain was
struck, and the Professors paid up without offering him a single
Musical Bank coin. They wanted to include the boots in the purchase,
but here my father stood out.
But he could not stand out as regards another matter, which caused him
some anxiety. Panky insisted that my father should give them a receipt
for the money, and there was an altercation between the Professors
on this point, much longer than I can here find space to give. Hanky
argued that a receipt was useless, inasmuch as it would be ruin to my
father ever to refer to the subject again. Panky, however, was anxious,
not lest my father should again claim the money, but (though he did
not say so outright) lest Hanky should claim the whole purchase as his
own. In so the end Panky, for a wonder, carried the day, and a receipt
was drawn up to the effect that the undersigned acknowledged to have
received from Professors Hanky and Panky the sum of £4, 10s. (I
translate the amount), as joint purchasers of certain pieces of yellow
ore, a blanket, and sundry articles found without an owner in the
King’s preserves. This paper was dated, as the permit had been, XIX.
xii. 29.
My father, generally so ready, was at his wits’ end for a name, and
could think of none but Mr. Nosnibor’s. Happily, remembering that
this gentleman had also been called Senoj--a name common enough in
Erewhon--he signed himself “Senoj, Under-ranger.”
Panky was now satisfied. “We will put it in the bag,” he said, “with
the pieces of yellow ore.”
“Put it where you like,” said Hanky contemptuously; and into the bag it
was put.
When all was now concluded, my father laughingly said, “If you have
dealt unfairly by me, I forgive you. My motto is, ‘Forgive us our
trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.’”
“Repeat those last words,” said Panky eagerly. My father was alarmed at
his manner, but thought it safer to repeat them.
“You hear that, Hanky? I am convinced; I have not another word to
say. The man is a true Erewhonian; he has our corrupt reading of the
Sunchild’s prayer.”
“Please explain.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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