We of the company could not stop laughing, but Reb Yitzchok-Aizik was very angry.
"Well, and you bargained with them? Won't they come for less?" he asked the messenger.
"Yes, I bargained, and they won't take a kopek less."
"Have their prices gone up so high as all that?" exclaimed Reb Yitzchok-Aizik, with a satirical laugh. "Why did you leave the wagons? We shall do without the tramps, that's all!"
"How could I tell? I didn't know what to do. I was afraid you would be displeased. Now I'll go and fetch the wagons back."
"Wait! Don't be in such a hurry, take time!"
Reb Yitzchok-Aizik began consulting with the company and with himself.
"What an idea! Who ever heard of such a thing? Poor people telling me what to do, haggling with me over my wanting to give them a good dinner and a nice present each, and saying they must be paid in rubles, otherwise it's no bargain, ha! ha! For two guldens each it's not worth their while? It cost them too much to stock the ware? Thirty kopeks wouldn't pay them? I like their impertinence! Mischief take them, I shall do without them!
"Let the musicians play! Where is the beadle? They can begin putting the veil on the bride."
But directly afterwards he waved his hands.