They invite him to carry again; he refuses.
Now the argument--natural and right and proper--is ensuing with warmth.
Lao Chang, with the air of a hsien "gwan," sits in judgment upon them,
bringing to bear his long experience of coolies and the amount of
"heart-money" they receive, and has decided that the fellow should
receive a tenth of a dollar and twenty cash in addition for carrying the
heavier of the loads the remaining thirty li, as against ten cents
offered by the men. He is now extending philosophic advice to them all,
based on a knowledge of the coolie's life; the little meeting breaks up,
good feeling prevails, and the loads carried on merrily. I still linger,
sipping my tea. Lao Chang has grumbled because he has had to shell out
seven cash, and I have already drunk ten cups (he generally uses the tea
leaves afterwards for his personal use).
But wrangling about payment prevails always where Chinese congregate. In
China, by high and low, lies are told without the slightest apparent
compunction. One of the men in the above-mentioned dispute had an
irrepressible volubility of assertion. He at once flew into a temper,
adopting the style of the stage actor, proclaiming his virtue so that it
might have been heard at Yuen-nan-fu.
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