WHICH WAS WORSE!

BLEAR was the grocer. Harry Careless was the nice young customer. Careless was new to the neighbourhood. Blear was old in it. He was so old in that neighbourhood that almost all the neighbours knew him. They called him skinflint, extortioner, liar, and some, cheat. This caused him to be on unhappy terms with nearly all who traded with him. For convenience sake they brought off him, and for conscience sake they grumbled.

Blear got hardened to hard words. What cared he for hard words, while he could continue his hard dealings? His customers were poor, and compelled to submit. He trusted from week to week where he was sure. No place was so handy, and they were poor. But the hardest autocrat will have his lonesome times. Blear sighed for a customer who did not grumble.

Careless came and supplied the want. Careless seldom asked the price of anything beforehand. Careless never demurred when he promptly settled at the end of every week. Careless seemed to let nothing trouble him. He was all smiles; showed kindness to the poor; laughed as Blear constantly reminded him of the increased prices; and if he showed contempt for anything, it was for money. Blear had never seen such a customer before. If Blear’s heart was open to anybody, it was to Careless. It the heart of Careless was closed to anybody, it was to Blear.

Months passed, Careless proved constant, and Blear, admiring his style of dealing, cheated him twice as much as he did any that he disliked.

Careless thought nothing of money. Blear thought everything of it. He might as well have it as anybody else. If goods rose five shillings a week on anybody else’s bill, they rose ten without fail on that of the gay, ungrumbling, indifferent Careless. He was the only real gentleman he dealt with – so Blear often told him.

“You always want the best, act the best, never refuse a living price. That’s the way I like to see a man. Buy the best without a fight, and do the thing that’s handsome. I call you my friend. And as a friend to your interests, I would ask you only one thing. Save your money to buy more groceries instead of being too good to the poor.”

Careless appreciated Blear. Blear thought he appreciated Careless. He esteemed if he did not estimate him; and the more he esteemed the more he cheated that careless man. SO prompt, so cheerful, so generous. No grumbler.

Blear, in time, even became confidential with Careless; he liked Careless, and Careless liked him so well. Careless also became confidential with Blear.

Towards the end of the year, Careless confided in the friendship of Blear so completely that he borrowed a couple of hundred pounds of Blear, just for three days, for a speculation in hand. Careless was in haste, and Blear merely took a memorandum from his reliable friend Careless, true as steel – “Cash, £200. Careless.”

Harry Careless was so careless that Blear never set eyes on him again. And Blear thinks it possible he shall never see the money. This carelessness is a great evil in this world, and people who see too sharp do not always see the farthest.