No easy task, his counting.

Five was the limit of his numerals.

When he had counted five, he began over again and counted a second five.

Three fives he found in all, and two sticks over; and thus, at the end of it, he possessed as definite a knowledge of the number of sticks as would be possessed by the average white man by means of the single number _seventeen_.
More it was, far more, than his avarice had demanded.

Yet he was unsurprised.