He must have
perceived the despair I fell into at this answer, for he asked: "Why
should I have minded doing for others what I should have been willing to
do for myself?"
"There are a great many things we are willing to do for ourselves that we
are not willing to do for others. But even on that principle, which I
think false and illogical, you could not be justified. A gentleman is not
willing to black _his own_ boots. It is offensive to his feelings, to his
self-respect; it is something he will not do if he can get anybody else to
do it for him."
"Then in America," said the Altrurian, "it is not offensive to the
feelings of a gentleman to let another do for him what he would not do for
himself?"
"Certainly not."
"Ah," he returned, "then we understand something altogether different by
the word gentleman in Altruria. I see, now, how I have committed a
mistake. I shall be more careful hereafter."
I thought I had better leave the subject, and, "By-the-way," I said, "how
would you like to take a little tramp with me to-day farther up into the
mountains?"
"I should be delighted," said the Altrurian, so gratefully that I was
ashamed to think why I was proposing the pleasure to him.
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