“Here is another fool, for anyone could tell as much as this man does.”

Still, she went to see Sophocles, and, dropping a penny upon his plate, she asked,

“Tell me, O wise man, how shall I drive my husband to work?”

“By starving him,” answered Sophocles; “if you refuse to feed him he must find a way to feed himself.”

“That is true,” she thought, as she went away; “but any fool could have told me that.  This wise man is a fraud; even my husband is as wise as he.”

Then she stopped short and slapped her hand against her forehead.

“Why,” she cried, “I will make a Wise Man of Perry, my husband, and then he can earn money without working!”

So she went to her husband and said,

“Get up, Perry Smith, and wash yourself; for I am going to make a Wise Man of you.”

“I won’t,” he replied.

“You will,” she declared, “for it is the easiest way to earn money I have ever discovered.”

Then she took a stick and beat him so fiercely that at last he got up, and agreed to do as she said.

She washed his long beard until it was as white as snow, and she shaved his head to make him look bald and venerable.  Then she brought him a flowing black robe with a girdle at the middle; and when he was dressed, he looked fully as wise as either Socrates or Sophocles.

“You must have a new name,” she said, “for no one will ever believe that Perry Smith is a Wise Man.  So I shall hereafter call you Pericles, the Wisest Man of Gotham!”

She then led him into the streets, and to all they met she declared,

“This is Pericles, the wisest man in the world.”

“What does he know?” they asked.

“Everything, and much else,” she replied.

Then came a carter, and putting a piece of money in the hand of Pericles, he enquired,

“Pray tell me of your wisdom what is wrong with my mare?”

“How should I know?” asked Pericles.

“I thought you knew everything,” returned the carter, in surprise.

“I do,” declared Pericles; “but you have not told me what her symptoms are.”

“She refuses to eat anything,” said the carter.

“Then she is not hungry,” returned Pericles; “for neither man nor beast will refuse to eat when hungry.”

And the people who heard him whispered together and said,

“Surely this is a wise man, for he has told the carter what is wrong with his mare.”

After a few days the fame of Pericles’ sayings came to the ears of both Socrates and Sophocles, and they resolved to see him, for each feared he would prove more wise than they were, knowing themselves to be arrant humbugs.  So one morning the three wise men met together outside the hut of Pericles, and they sat themselves down upon stools, facing each other, while a great crowd of people gathered around to hear the words of wisdom that dropped from their lips.