One Hundred Years of Solitude

that he did not want to hear
anything about the situation
in the country because he was
growing rich in his workshop
made Úrsula laugh when it
reached her ears. With her
terrible practical sense she
could not understand the
colonels business as he
exchanged little fishes for
gold coins and then converted
the coins into little fishes, and
so on, with the result that he
had to work all the harder