in the bag exactly as though it belonged to him.

"I'll cut it up into material for trousers; then the pieces won't be so
large, and I'll be able to sell it."

"You'd better leave enough for a whole suit in one piece," I said, "and
cut up the rest for trousers."

"You think so? Yes, maybe you're right."

We calculated how much would be necessary for a grown man's suit, and took
down the string from which the letters hung to measure our own clothes, so
as to be sure to get the measurements right. Then we cut into the edge of
the cloth, and tore it across. In addition to one complete suit, there was
enough left for two good-sized pairs of trousers.

Then the man offered to sell me other things out of his sack, and I bought
some coffee and a few rolls of tobacco. He put the money away in a leather
purse, and I saw how empty the purse was, and the circumstantial and
poverty-stricken fashion in which he put the money away, afterward feeling
the outside of his pocket.

"You haven't been able to sell me much," I said, "but I don't need any
more than that."

"Business is business," said he. "I don't complain."

It was quite decent of him.

While he was making ready to depart and clearing his bed of pine needles