“There’s nothing like measuring, I find, indeed,” replied Carlo, as he looked closely at the end of his rule, which, since he spoke last, he had put into the cube to take its depth in the inside. “This is not as deep by a quarter of an inch, Signor Piedro, measured within as it is measured without.”
Piedro changed colour terribly, and seizing hold of the tin box, endeavoured to wrest it from the youth who measured so accurately. Carlo held his prize fast, and lifting it above his head, he ran into the midst of the square where the little market was held, exclaiming, “A discovery! a discovery! that concerns all who love sugar-plums. A discovery! a discovery that concerns all who have ever bought the sweetest, and most admirable sugar-plums ever sold in Naples.”
The crowd gathered from all parts of the square as he spoke.
“We have bought,” and “We have bought of those sugar-plums,” cried several little voices at once, “if you mean Piedro’s.”
“The same,” continued Carlo—“he who, out of gratitude to his numerous customers, gives, or promises to give, burnt almonds gratis.”
“Excellent they were!” cried several voices. “We all know Piedro well; but what’s your discovery?”
“My discovery is,” said Carlo, “that you, none of you, know Piedro. Look you here; look at this box—this is his measure; it has a false bottom—it holds only three-quarters as much as it ought to do; and his numerous customers have all been cheated of one-quarter of every measure of the admirable sugar-plums they have bought from him. ‘Think twice of a good bargain,’ says the proverb.”
“So we have been finely duped, indeed,” cried some of the bystanders, looking at one another with a mortified air. “Full of courtesy, full of craft!” [317] “So this is the meaning of his burnt almonds gratis,” cried others; all joined in an uproar of indignation, except one, who, as he stood behind the rest, expressed in his countenance silent surprise and sorrow.
“Is this Piedro a relation of yours?” said Carlo, going up to this silent person. “I am sorry, if he be, that I have published his disgrace, for I would not hurt you. You don’t sell sugar-plums as he does, I’m sure; for my little sister Rosetta has often bought from you. Can this Piedro be a friend of yours?”
“I wished to have been his friend; but I see I can’t,” said Francisco. “He is a neighbour of ours, and I pitied him; but since he is at his old tricks again, there’s an end of the matter. I have reason to be obliged to you, for I was nearly taken in. He has behaved so well for some time past, that I intended this very evening to have gone to him, and to have told him that I was willing to do for him what he has long begged of me to do—to enter into partnership with him.”