The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1864-04-01
THE COUNTRY STORE.


bers. Those boxes are capital loaiing
places on pleasant summer evenings,
and many are the profound discus
sions on local and national topics, poll
tics, religion, &c., that have been
carried on by the occupants of the
box seats. Along the side OF the
store are exhibited some plows, q bar
rel of salt and few lunches Of SHIN
giles
A broad cellar door at the sides af-
t0rds ingress to the cellar for barrels
Of molassos, sugar, pork, &c. an ope-
ration which is greatly facilitated by
means of "lakel, as the boys call it,
depending from q beam which pro
trudes from the roof The junior
clerk aud the village boys amuse them-
selves by swinging on the "takel' when
the proprietor has gone to the city
with load Of eggs to ship away
1t is called the corner store to dis
tinguish it from the grocery store Of
inferior professions across the street
When the proprietor, BY strict attcn-
ton to business, frugahty and econo-
my, gets little 'forehand' he moves
the wooden store back and builds Il
magnificent two-story structure of red
brick, has a new sign painted, and from
that time on the store is known as the
"brick store.
The old wooden store affords stor-
age room for merchandise Of various
kinds, including flour, fish, feathers,
paper rags and old iron. "Dickef' is
extensively practiced at the country
store. Farm wives bring in butter
and eggs. and exchange them for cali
Goes and groceries. Frugal house
wives preserve their feathers and pa
per rags, which serve the purpose of
money at the store The boys are the
principal supphers Of old iron. They
confiscate all superannuated stove plate
on retired 'androns' they may find
about the house and exchange them
at the store for powder and shot when
the Fourth of July is near at hand.
Wicked little boys sell old iron ut the
front door, and after it has been con
veyed INTO the storehouse they slip
around to the back door and steal it,
to sell it over again, thereby giving
cheerful impetus to trade and com
meree.
In every properly conducted coun-
try store there is department devot-
ed to the sale of candy, raisins, figs
nuts, &c, which is the great attraction
for the little country boy, whose moth
er permits him to accompany her to
the village for the purpose of doing a
little trading. The cunning store
keeper that is the name he is known
by knows that little candy lavished
on the boy viii prove good invest
ment, as the heart of mother is
quickest reached through her child,
and he accordingly sweetens up little
johnny, graduating his hberality ac-
cording to the number Of acres of I'M
incumbered farming land which father
/ possesses, and the consequent value of
the family custom. We remember
that the sticks Of gratuitous candy
which the storekeeper thrust into our
Juvenile pockets We're not only seldom
but exceedingly abbreviated Our pa
ternal acre and half didn't seem to
dazzle the storekeoper to an alarming
extent
The village children believe that ev-
I erything in the way Of comforts and
Injuries is kept at the store, and they
accordingly look upon the storekeep-
ers children rs the most favored NOR
tails on earth The latter may have
candy and sweetmeats just when they
want them They wear store clothes
every day The storekeepers girl has
the finest and most richly dressed doll
in the neighborhood, and the store
keepers boy has the handsomest sled
and the best pair Of skates of any boy
for miles around. How many n coun-
try boy has wished his father was Il
storekeeper.
Frequently the proprietor Of the
country store is IA person of consider
able importance, in his neighborhood.
/ We have known cases where he pos
sessed the confidence of his neighbors
to such an extent that they elected
him Town Clerk. If, by honest indus
/ try and attention TO business, he has
elevated himself from the humble po-
sition of clerk to the dignity and inn
portance of sole proprietor OF the
brick store, the old settlers still call
him Arthur, if that is his given name,
the same as they did when as boy
and weighed out sugar to them and
filed their molasses jugs with two
and-siX."
A simple visit to the village IN which
one was raised, after an absence of
twelve years during which the boy has
become a man, dissipates many early
impressions. The church looms not
half SO grandly; the village green,
which to your boyish Imagination re-
sembled boundless prairie, on which
you and your schoolnates used to
chase the imaginary buffalo, has dwin-
died to the proportions of barren
and scanty goose pasture, and the
store on the corner, which once APP
peared more magnificent than Stew
arts does now, looks dingy and old,
and the hand of Time has apparently
hit il severe rap on the rldge-board,
chucking it about half story into the
ground.