human
No connection with the business next door,
gpt
Why, you told us that they were brothers--twins,
human
So they are! So they are! Don't you see they are twins from a family point of view only. In business, of course, they are desperately opposed to each other. That is why they are so prosperous,
gpt
Are they prosperous? I never heard of such a thing as buying and selling Resolutions. How can one buy a Good Resolution?
human
Or exchange Bad Resolutions, said Willie.
gpt
It is quite wicked.
human
Not at all. Not at all. So many people make Good Resolutions and never carry them out, therefore if there were no place where you could dispose of them they would be wasted.
gpt
But Bad Resolutions? Nobody makes Bad Resolutions--at least they ought not to, and I don't believe it is true!
human
Pardon me, interrupted the Zankiwank.
gpt
If you make a Good Resolution and don't carry it out--doesn't it become a Bad Resolution? Answer me that.
human
It seems to me to be nonsense--and worse than nonsense--for one brother to deal in Bad Resolutions and the other in Good Resolutions. Why do not they become a Firm and mix the two together?
gpt
You horrify me! Mix the Good and the Bad together? That would never do. The Best Resolutions in the world would be contaminated if they were all warehoused under one roof. Besides, the Wimble is himself full of Good Resolutions, so that he can mingle with the Bad without suffering any evil, while the Wamble is differently constituted!
human
Who, then, collects the Resolutions?
gpt
Oh, a person of no Resolution whatever. He commenced life with only one Resolution, and he lost it, or it got mislaid, or he never made use of it, or something equally unfortunate, and so he was christened Want of Resolution, and he does the collecting work very well, considering all things.