DARTSCHO.  I met Micho just now, and he told me that you had sent for me.

BARSSEGH.  I have something important to speak with you about. [He sits down.] Where were you just now?

DARTSCHO.  At George’s, the coal man.  He owed us some money, and I have been to see him seven times this week on that account.

BARSSEGH.  He is very unpunctual.  But how does it stand?  Has he paid?

DARTSCHO.  Of course!  What do you take me for?  I stayed in the store as if nailed there, and when a new customer came in I repeated my demand.  There was nothing left for him to do but to pay me, for shame’s sake.

BARSSEGH.  That pleases me in you, my son.  Go on like that and you will get on in the world.  Look at me!  There was a time when they beat me over the head and called me by my given name.  Then they called me Barssegh, and finally “Mr.”  Barssegh.  When I was as old as you are I was nothing, and now I am a man who stands for something.  If my father, Matus, were still alive he would be proud of me.  I tell you all this so that you will spare no pains to make yourself a master and make people forget that you are the son of a driver.  A son can raise up the name of his father; he can also drag it down into the dust.

DARTSCHO.  You see best of all what trouble I take, Mr. Barssegh.  When I open the store in the morning, I never wait until Micho comes, but I take the broom in my hand and sweep out the store.  And how I behave with the customers, you yourself see.

BARSSEGH.  Yes, I see it; I see it, my son, and it is on that account I am so good to you.  Only wait till next year and you shall be my partner.  I will supply the money and you the labor.

DARTSCHO.  May God give you a long life for that!  I seem to myself like a tree which you have planted.  I hope I will still bear fruit and you will have your joy in me.  Do you know that I have gotten rid of those damaged goods?

BARSSEGH.  Is it possible?

DARTSCHO.  It’s a fact.

BARSSEGH.  To whom have you sold them?

DARTSCHO.  To a man from Signach.  I laid two good pieces on top so that he did not notice it.  Let him groan now.

BARSSEGH.  And how?  On credit?

DARTSCHO.  Am I then crazy?  Have I ever sold damaged goods on credit, that you make such a supposition?  Of course I took something off for it, but made believe I only did it to please him.  He paid me the full sum at once; and if he is now boasting how cheap he bought the goods, I hope he will sing my praises also.

BARSSEGH.  Do you know, dear Dartscho, you are a fine fellow?  Yes, I have always said that you would amount to something.

DARTSCHO.  God grant it!  What commands have you, Mr. Barssegh?  There is no one in the store.

BARSSEGH.  Oh, right!  I had almost forgotten.  If Ossep Gulabianz comes to borrow money, give him nothing.

DARTSCHO.  What has happened?