Richard hesitated. He had never heard of such a thing as anybody offering more for a thing than was asked, and he looked incredulously at the handful of silver and copper that the merchant held out. "You had better take it and go home," the man added. "Think how surprised your mother will be! You can tell her that she has a fine young son--Conrad Waibling said so." Richard still hesitated, and Waibling withdrew the money. "You may ask any one in the market," he said impatiently, "and if you get a better price than mine I say no more." "Thank you," said Richard soberly, "I will come back if I get no other offer." He took his cloth to the oldest of the merchants and asked him if he would better Waibling's price, but the man shook his head. "More than it is worth," he said. "Nobody will give you that, my boy." And from two others he got the same reply. He went back to Waibling finally, left the cloth and took his price. He had never seen a silver penny before. It had a cross on one side and the King's head on the other, as the common pennies did; it was rather tarnished, but he rubbed it on his jacket to brighten it. He thought he would like to have it bright and shining when he showed it to his mother. All the time that he was sitting on a bank by the roadside, a little way out of the town, eating his bread and cheese, he was polishing the silver penny. A young man who rode by just then, with a black-eyed young woman behind him, reined in his horse and looked down with some amusement. "What art doing, lad?" he asked. "It's my silver penny," said Richard. "I wanted it to be fine and bonny to show mother." "Ha!" said the young man. "Let's see." Richard held up the penny. "Who gave you that, my boy?" "Master Waibling the cloth-merchant," said Richard, and he told the story of the bargain. The young man looked grave. "Barbara," he said to the girl, "art anxious to get home? Because I have business with this same Waibling, and I want to find him before he leaves the town." The girl smiled demurely. "That's like thee, Robert," she said. "Ever since I married thee,--and long before, it's been the same. I won't hinder thee. Leave me at Mary Lavender's and I'll have a look about her garden." The two rode off at a brisk pace, and Richard saw them halt at a gate not far away, and while the girl went in the man mounted his horse again and came back. "Jump thee up behind me, young chap," he ordered, "and we'll see to this. The silver penny is not good. He probably got it in some trade and passed it off on the first person who would take it. Look at this one." Edrupt held up a silver penny from his own purse. "I didn't know," said Richard slowly. "I thought all pennies were alike."