The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily 8 · 8

<p>The lights are already out of the boat before the question is asked, which is how they prefer their transactions: paid, laughing, and gone. The old man's cry is five plain words in the German, wo bleibt nun mein Lohn, where does my wage remain, as if the wage were a thing that should have stayed put and has slipped away with the passengers.</p><p>The undercurrent is the gap between what the giver thinks is payment and what the receiver can actually use. The gold did not count; whatever his wage is, it is something else. The word Lohn, a labourer's word, keeps the exchange in the world of work, and the tale is about to name a currency humbler than gold.</p>

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