One of the sailors said, “What will you take for your goat?”
Without letting on that Billy was not his or that he had never laid eyes on him before, he said, “Well! as he is pretty fine, big goat, I can’t let you have him for less than five dollars.”
“All right. It’s a go,” said the sailor, who had lots of money at present, having just received his pay and not having had a chance to spend it.
“And what will you take for the dog?” asked another.
“Well, I don’t know as I care to sell him,” said the fisherman, thinking if he held off they would give him more money.
“You can’t expect to get much for him,” said another. “He is too tarnation homely.”
“That’s a matter of taste,” drawled the fisherman. “Looks ain’t everything in this world, and you can’t find a smarter rat dog along this coast.”
He threw this remark in for he knew it would catch the sailor as the ships are always infested with rats.
“Well, I’ll give you a dollar for him.”
“No, I couldn’t think of selling him so cheap,” and he climbed into his wagon, as if he were going off and did not care to part with him.