"This first clause is perfectly just," said he, "for without it Mathurin would _give_, and not _lend_." Secondly.

He engaged to deliver _five litres_ on _every hectolitre_.
"This clause is no less just than the other," thought he; "for without it Mathurin would do me a service without compensation; he would inflict upon himself a privation--he would renounce his cherished enterprise--he would enable me to accomplish mine--he would cause me to enjoy for a year the fruits of his savings, and all this gratuitously.

Since he delays the cultivation of his land, since he enables me to realize a lucrative labor, it is quite natural that I should let him partake, in a certain proportion, of the profits which I shall gain by the sacrifice he makes of his own." On his side, Mathurin, who was something of a scholar, made this calculation: "Since, by virtue of the first clause, the sack of corn will return to me at the end of a year," he said to himself, "I shall be able to lend it again; it will return to me at the end of the second year; I may lend it again, and so on, to all eternity.

However, I cannot deny that it will have been eaten long ago.

It is singular that I should be perpetually the owner of a sack of corn, although the one I have lent has been consumed for ever.