"All right, Body, me boy. Ye got yerself a partner," Smudge told him. They shook hands on the deal, then wiped the wet dung off their hands onto their pants and started to work on their next great enterprise: Smudge and Bodkin--Dried Dung Dealers to the town of Criminy.

"Looks like we're in another foul smelling business, eh, Smudge?"

"Aye, Body, right ye are, but no business that makes ye money smells bad enough to make ye want to stop doing it, eh?"

"Ye realize, that when everything be said and done, we may have to cut the mayor in for a percentage," Bodkin said.

"Wha' for?"

"Well, he is supplying us with the raw material, after all," Bodkin told him, nodding toward the nearest horse's rump.

Smudge thought about it for a while, then said, "Aye, yer right. If anyone has a better insight on 'ow to dish out crap around 'ere than the mayor, I don't know who it might be."

"Right, but I don't think he'll want to get his hands dirty, working at this end o' the business," Bodkin allowed, sweeping another pile of straw together.

"Not a bit, I'm sure. 'E'll be what they call a silent partner and it will just be us that the good people look forward to seeing, as we come up the street selling our aromatic wares, as it were."

"Oh, aye, they'll be glad to us, right enough, but from a goodly distance, o' course," Bodkin added with a wink.