"I won't," he replied.
"You will," she declared, "for it is the easiest way to earn money I have ever discovered."
Then she took a stick and beat him so fiercely that at last he got up, and agreed to do as she said.
She washed his long beard until it was as white as snow, and she shaved his head to make him look bald and venerable. Then she brought him a flowing black robe with a girdle at the middle; and when he was dressed, lo! he looked fully as wise as either Socrates or Sophocles.
"You must have a new name," she said, "for no one will ever believe that Perry Smith is a Wise Man. So I shall hereafter call you Pericles, the Wisest Man of Gotham!"
She then led him into the streets, and to all they met she declared,
"This is Pericles, the wisest man in the world."
"What does he know?" they asked.
"Everything, and much else," she replied.
Then came a carter, and putting a piece of money in the hand of Pericles, he enquired,