My best reaction was at a Rendezvous. I had a young fellow about 11 yrs old dogging me around camp, fingering every single bow and all the arrows. Questions would not stop and I made my mind up that one way or another he'd go home with a set. He was an enterprising young capitalist and quickly had a business set up with a small wagon, hauling water, scrounging firewood, whatever the order of the day availed. Toward the end of the week he had ventured into swapping and trading, getting the best of everyone until he had quite a bankroll and pile of swag.
He showed up to do the trade when I already had a bloviating pompous windbag offering me 1/3 of the price I had on a particular bow. Even after I explained cost of materials and that I only looked to make $5/hour on the prices marked, this pettifogging four-flusher continued to push for a lower price by starting to criticize the workmanship (despite zero knowlege of the subject). At that point, I turned to the kid and handed him the bow in question, told him to pick out any set of arrows he wanted for FREE. I said since he had been so handy around camp packing water and firewood, he deserved a bow equal to his stature as a hard working man. He laughed and said, "I guess it does pay to work hard!"
Best trade I ever made!
