QUANTITY AND VALUE.
For what is worth in any thing
But so much money as ’twill bring?—Butler.
When emeralds were first discovered in America, a Spaniard carried one to a lapidary in Italy, and asked him what it was worth; he was told a hundred escudos. He produced a second, which was larger; and that was valued at three hundred. Overjoyed at this, he took the lapidary to his lodging and showed him a chest full; but the Italian, seeing so many, damped his joy by saying, “Ah ha, Señor! so many!—these are worth one escudo.”
Montenegro presented to the elder Almagro the first cat which was brought to South America, and was rewarded for it with six hundred pesos. The first couple of cats which were carried to Cuyaba sold for a pound of gold. There was a plague of rats in the settlement, and they were purchased as a speculation, which proved an excellent one. Their first kittens produced thirty oitavas each; the next generation were worth twenty; and the price gradually fell as the inhabitants were stocked with these beautiful and useful creatures.
Could every hailstone to a pearl be turned,
Pearls in the mart like oyster-shells were spurned!