The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-07-30

GAN the better If they never did. A
new trade has double chance. As for
the little great things often come from
small beginnings. Fortunes have been
made out of gingerbread before now I'll
be bound, or If not that, out of something
no bigger. No, Hetty, depend upon it, If
your gingerbread is best, folks will want
it. And If your teaching or sewing is
only second best, they won't. It's the law
of human nature, and a very good law,
too, though it cuts the wrong way some
times, like all laws"
"Aunt Polly, you're genius" cried
Hetty, warmed into sudden glow by this
vigorous common-sense. az can make
good gingerbread, and it's just as you say,
| neither of US know enough to teach well,
and we are both poor hands at sewing,
and we should have much better chance
| if we tried to do what we can and not
what we can't. Why shouldn't make
gingerbread 2 Dely'd help me, and If
folks liked our things and bought them,
we could live and keep together. We
could make kind of shop of this room,
couldn't we2 What do you think 2"
"'Tisn't a bit bad place for such
trade" said Aunt Polly, slowly measuring
the room with her eyes. "Being on
corner is an advantage, you see; and
there's that double winder on the street
gives frst-rate chance to show what
you've got to sell. never did see no use
in that winder before. My father he had
it cut for a kind of within like, and we all
thought it was notionsl in him but, as
they say, keep thing long enough and
use'll turn up. It's sort of gain for you,
too, having the house 80 old.fashioned.
Folks has hankering for such things,
nowadays-the Lord knows why. / hear
'em going on about it when I'm out tail
orin'; calling ugly things QUAINT and
lovely, because they're old. Hetty, with
sudden inspiration-"h here's an idea for
you, be 'quaintl' Don't try for a shop /;
keep the room room, and make it as
old-fashioned looking as you can, and I'll
bet cookie that your gingerbread III be
twice as popular with one set of folks,
and if it's first-rate gingerbread, the other
set, who don't care for old things, will like
it just as we'll"
What bracing thing is word in
season. Aunt Polly's little seed of sugs
gestion grew and spread like Jacks tabled
bean stalk.
"Your light biscuits always turn GU t
WE'LL" said Della.
"And my snaps. Grandmother always
liked them so much. And you're good
hand at loaf bread, you know. Aunt Polly,
| seem to smell fortune in the air. We
will begin at once, just as soon as l can
get half barrel of -four and put an ad.
vertisement in the paper
Hetty had ready wit, and Aunt Polly 8
hint as to "quaintness was not lost
upon her. The advertisement, when it
appeared the next day but one, ran thus
AFTER Monday next, the Old Time
Bakery, corner of Farewell and Martin
streets, will be prepared to furnish, to
order, fresh bread, buns, biscuits, and
grandmother's gingerbread, all home.
made"
People smiled over the little notice, but
the odd wording stuck in their memories,
as odd things will, and more than one
person went out of his way during the
next week to take look into the wide,
low window, within which, on broad,
napkin-covered shelf, stood rows of bis.
cults, light and white, buns, each glazed
with shining lumber brown, and loaves of
gingerbread, whose complexion and smell
were enough to vouch for their excellence
Acting on Aunt Polly's suggestion, Hetty
had set forth her wares on plates of the
oldest and oldest pattern which could be
found in grandmother's closet. A queer
tall pitcher fanked them on either side
and round the window frame she had
twined the long, luxuriant shoots of q
, potted ivy. Altogether the effect was
pretty, and no one need be told that the
| nit bod for haa,, faI -
the reception of yeast and corks, or thai
the plates had long since been RELOCATED
to kitchen use as too shabby for better
occasions.
, "Hain't ye no white chsny," remarked
| their first customer, an old woman, as sht
counted out the pennies for half dozer
, biscuit. at would kind of set your cakel
, off"
, owe used what we had" replied
| Hetty, automatically. "But hope you
biscuits will taste just as good as if they
| came off white plate"
| This old woman, two others, and littl,
, boy, were the only customers the first day
, "Tisn't bit good beginning" de
clared Della, pouring the money received
; out of an old fashioned china teacaddy
I which Hetty had unearthed in an up
, stairs closet and brought down to serve a
; a till. 1.-TWO dozen biscuits, that twenty
| four cents, loaf OF gingerbread, ano
. about half the buns. That's fifty.thre,
, cents in all. What did you say the ma
terial cost ?"
, "About seventy cents. But then ",
, have our supper and breakfast out o
them, and nearly half the stock to sell a
, reduced rate tomorrow. We shan
lose anything, reckon, but we shan
gain much either"
l "Rome wasn't built all in a minute
r You will do yet" remarked Aunt Polly
who had dropped in to hear the result o
a the first days sales.
Q But two days-three-a week went by
Q aud still trade did not materially improve
and it took all Aunt Polly's wise saw
and hopeful auguries to keep their spirit
up. Each day showed the same record
l. no loss, but almost no gain. Toward tn,
b end of the second week, matters mended
|, Mrs. Corliss, the wife of a wealthy manu-
. facturer, having an errand in Farewell
:, street, happened to pass the little window
Q and her bric-a-brac loving eyes wer,
| caupht at onca nv ita unusnaI annearance