y for a thing
purchased. If I should go into a store, inquire the price of a book,
and, after learning the price, should say to the salesman, "I will
take the book," and he should wrap it up and give it to me and I
should then walk out with the book under my arm, he doubtless would
come to me and say in his politest manner: "Why, sir, you have
forgotten to pay me for it." Suppose I should say: "Oh, yes; but I
will come in to-morrow and pay." But if I happened to be a stranger,
and especially if there was a suspicious look about me, and he should
say they did not give credit in that store, and I was still inclined
to walk out with my book, he could insist that there had been no sale
and that I must give the book to him. The law would protect him in
taking it from me if he did not use undue force. The law assumes,
unless some different rule exists, that the buyer will always pay for
the thing purchased, yet in law there is no sale unless the purchase
money is actually paid.

Of course, credit may be given in a store--that may be the practice;
and if it is understood between buyer and seller that credit is to be
given, then a sale is complete as soon as the bargain is struck.
Indeed, so complete is the sale that if the buyer should say to the
salesman, "I will leave this here and return and take it in a short
time," and during his absence the store should be burned up and
everything perish, the buyer would be obliged to pay for the book. In
other words, after it had been sold, if still kept there the seller
would be merely the keeper, or bailee, which is the legal term, and he
would be obliged to use only ordinary care in keeping it. Suppose a
thief should come in and take it away--would the seller be responsible
for the loss? Not if he had used the same care in protecting it as in
protecting his own property.

Another illustration may be used to bring out the nature of a sale
more clearly. Suppose I have bought a particular work in a store,
either paying cash or buying it on credit, if that be the practice of
the store, and I should say to the salesman: "I am going down street
and on my return will call and take the book." During my absence I
meet a friend and tell him of my purchase, and he should say to me: "I
am very desirous to get that work; I am sure there is no other copy in
town. Will you not sell it to me?" Suppose I gave him an order,
directed to the seller, requesting him to deliver the work to the
person to