Page:Tales in Political Economy by Millicent Garrett Fawcett.djvu/25

 nothing that was not washed ashore, so they obtained altogether a very motley collection. Their rule was that whoever found anything was the owner of it, or, as it was more tersely expressed by the sailors, "Findings is keepings." The consequence of this rule was that there was very soon a great deal of buying and selling in the little community. Three men, for instance, succeeded in hauling to the shore a case which proved to contain twelve dozen pairs of boots of various sizes. This bit of good luck made them for a time quite the capitalists of the little community. In exchange for the boots, which were very sorely needed by their companions, they obtained a share of the most useful things that had been found. One man, who had found a case of spirits, came and offered a bottle of rum for a pair of boots. Another man had found a box of carpenter's tools, and it so happened that he was quite unable to use them to advantage, whereas one of the men who had found the boots was a carpenter by trade, and very much longed to possess the box of tools. A harder bargain never was struck than between