MS-WU-MSS008-2-47

[1018] scrolled leaflet containing the instructions for use. [1019] Mt^Mr
Saposcat parted the edges of the paper and held up the box for his
wife to look inside. [1020] But she, instead of looking at the pen,
looked at him. [1021] He named the price. [1022] Might it not be better, she
said, to let him have it the day before, to give him time to
get used to the nib? [1023] You are right, he said, I had not thought
of that. [1024] Or even two days before, she said, to give him time to
change the nib if it does not suit him.

[1025] A bird, its yellow beak
agape to show it was singing, adorned the lid, which Mr Saposcat
now put on again. [1026] He wrapped with expert hands the box in tissue-
paper and slipped over it a narrow rubber band. [1027] He was not pleas-
ed. [1028] It is a medium nib, he said, and it will certainly suit him.
^[⃞][1029] This conversation was renewed the next day. [1030] Mr Saposcat said,
Might if^[⁁]t[^t] not be better if we just lent him the pen and told him
he could keep it for his own, if he passed?

[1031] Then we must do so
at once, said Mrs Saposcat, otherwise there is no point in it.
[1032] To which Mr Saposcat made, after a silence, a first objection,
and then, after a second silence, a second objection. [1033] He first
objected that his son, if he received the pen forthwith, would
have time to break it, or lose it, before the paper.

[1034] He then^{[⁁] secondly} [^secondly]
objected that his son, if he rec^e[⁁][^e]ived the pen immediately, and
assuming he neither broke nor lost it, would have time to get so
used to it and, by comparing it with the pens of his less im-
poverished friends, so familiar with its defects, that its
possession would no longer tempt him. [1035] I did not know it was an
inferior article, said M^Mrs Saposcat. [1036] Mr Saposcat laid^{[⁁] placed} [^placed] his hand
on the table-cloth and sat gazing at it for some time. [1037] Then he