Now two
shillings a head, on one hundred sheep, represents ten pounds, leaving
eight pounds which the dealer earned by his keen insight into human
nature.

This dealer carried on business with a brother, and they were to be
seen for very many years at all the large Hampshire summer sheep
fairs, where indeed, sometimes, when prices were rising, they owned
nearly all the sheep offered for sale, having bought them up
beforehand. As in a favourable summer when there was plenty of keep
and a good prospect of abundant roots prices would rise as much as
10s. a head during the months of the big fairs, and as at a single
fair as many as 30,000 sheep would be for sale, the chances of profit
offered to the courageous dealer with capital are manifest.

Though risen from small beginnings, these brothers amassed
considerable fortunes, all of which, it was said, they invested in
real estate, so that they were known at one time to be worth at least
L100,000; and, as they continued in business for some years after the
time of which I am writing, they must have exceeded that sum
considerably as a total, though the values of land began to fall away
towards the end of their active existence.

The more energetic of the two used very original phrases, in which he
extolled the physical virtues of flocks he had to sell; referring to
their size, he would say, "Just look at their backs! look at their
backs! they be as long as a wet Sunday!" Watching him, you could see
that while giving full attention to his customer, and keeping him in a
good humour with pleasant chat, while a bargain was proceeding, his
glance perpetually wandered to the moving crowd around the pens, and
that he had not only eyes, but ears, open to catch any impression
bearing on the progress of the general trade. He knew everybody, and
intuition told him upon what business they were present.

These two dealers combined money-lending with sheep-dealing; if a
buyer had not the ready cash they would give credit for the purchase
price, the sheep forming the security; it being understood that when
they were again for sale the lenders should have the selling of them
on commission.

Speaking of horse-dealers I referred to the custom of giving "luck
money," otherwise called "chap money." The word "chap" takes its
derivation from the Anglo-Saxon _ceap_ price or bargain, and
_ceapean_, to bargain, whence come the words "chop," to exchange;
"cheap," "Cheapside," "Mealcheapen Stre