The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-11-25

Miss Sally did not exactly keep a shop not
that there would have been anything in it if she
had. or that it would have been at all derogatory
70 BIER dignity. Born in no more exalted station
in life than her neighbors, she could AS well az
ford to sell as they TO buy; better perhaps in
view of the prices she had Still il was question
Of fact; and the fact was as she often asserted,
that she did not keep shop; she kept superfu-
Gus few of the articles that everybody wants
and she let the neigh bors have them for nothing
In the world but their accommodation. If she
accepted for them three times the price asked
down town, two miles or more away, that was
for her accommodation; they needn't take them
ut that or any other price it was optional and
no harm was done, she reasoned.
But as Mics Sally had no other visible means
bf support than that of her small house and
warden it hecame her to be quite wide awake in
the matter of this accommodation. So she sold
needles for cent apiece that she bought for a
cent a score, and darninecottou, aud knitting
yarn. and spool thread, and white cloth, and
eaginps, and buttons, and general small haber
dashery, together with pepper-rnInts. and chew
inegnm and iozenges, all at about two thou
sand per cent, and made good thing of it. So
that, while she appeared to have only a little
house and garden, various savings bank books
aiddpn away in unsupported recesses would have
.nld different story. Indeed, her subscription
to the minister's salary, as it was, gave her that
modicum of respect and consideration in the
parish nsually accorded to those who had the
power to confer benefits, and so did her contri-
buttons to the foreign missionary fund, and to
the Bethel Society and to the General Charita-
bic; and 1t was we'll known that the way she
first came to have superfiuous things
to dispose of as she did was
through work she undertook to do when she
made sun-bonnets for the Sioux spinsters, and
had more left over than she could use So, as
have intimated, Miss Saily's honse was nota
shop; anybody taking a eozy cup of tea by her
bright CRATE, with thin slices Of buttered toast
handed by Meg. and a relish of smoked tongue,
would meyer have suspected that the big closet
beside the chimney held countless boxes of her
business. supplies, we'll a pile of braided
rugs that BY day overlaii the pretty bright car
bet on her floor. And, indeed, a person actually
coming to buy, and sitting on q remote chair
near the door. while unconcernedly Miss Sally
opened the big closet and took down this box
and that box, rummaeing with cool indifference
TO the purchasers possible impatience perhaps
not finding thu article till the last box of all
reached. and perhaps not till eisurely returning
10 the first box. after which every box had to be
restored to it's place before the article was de-
ivered to the customer-any person, / say,
undergoing this ordeal would be very sure Miss
Sally did not keep shop, and would be likely
60 wish either that she did or that she herself
had gone down town for her bargain. There
was certainly nothing like shop moreover
when you tapped, and voice said 'Come in"
and you were served with the ball OF tape You
wished, Just taken out of the work basket be-
side the worthy woman sitting at the window,
and all with no ceremony at all.
Most of Miss SalIy's customers were women.
the wives end wayfarers of the neighborhood,
with now and then child for his pennyworth
of candy. If MISS Sally was lavishly inclined
that day, the child got whole stick; but all her
DAYS were not lavish ones aud he was more often
allowed to bite of his portion; with Gibraltar
or Nelson ball tina. could not be done, SO she
did not keep Gibraltars. Now and then, mad
vertensly "a il were, she set Jar of picked
limos on her window sill. as if purely oy acct
dent, till better place were found, aud that
dav the pennies poured In till the cRsk of lines
In the cellar way was exhausted, and she was
make lest picked lines should pail on the rural
appetite. More often Meg made a painful of
fresh Rolasses candy. and that, stretched into
sticks, was set up behind the pane. as if merely
to cool. and made an equally rapid disappearance
with the hines.
Another feature OF Miss Sally's commercial
career was that she did not sell to everyone
Had person come 10 and demanded anything
after the custom of shoppers, saying simply and
directly II want a parrr of pins Miss Sally
otyk,fo Nd Ron hoe
~Aave replied, My dear, they sell pins down
sown," and not pin would that person have
lrawn from her stock of papers. But, had one
run IN and thrown herself half breathiessly into
the first chair. and said, "Oh. dear Miss Sally,
here's Nelly dressing for the quarterly concert,
and not a pin in the house. / declare don't
know where all the pius go to- / should think
thered been enough lost TO raise the level of the
EARTH j wonder If you can't find paper TO spare
me" then the pins would have been forthcoming
with dignifed. leisurely movement even if it
we're only row of them that was wanted. That
shild might GO bnttoness who came for buttons
10 "A business way; but ir he said, PLEASE. Miss
sally. ma wants 10 know If you can't 'commodate
aer with enough buttons for my tier: she couldn't
somehow get down town TO day, and she wants
10 finish II up, he got his moneys worth, as
Miss Sally reckoned buttons The candy and
the picked lines proved the only exceptions to
this practice-not that Miss Sally had any ten
dpeer feelings toward their purchasers: she
cause both articles must De worked off before
sofIenirg
So you NAV understand Miss Sally did not
keen shop. And when, at twilight, she went
put 10 tasten refractory shutter, IL was an ex-
.eedineiy Improper question addressed to her by
woman. with bundle in her arms, ''Can You
;ell ne If this is Miss Sally Payson's shops'
There IS no such place that [ know OF. said
Miss Sally, with freezing dignity The Novem
ter night was coid, and she retreated into the
ARID IN rita NJ, 49, 49,
never ANYTHING like the insolence of the
common people new-a-days. to which Meg, with
a profound conviction that she was not one of
them. replied that. indeed, she might have
thought so If shed seen the woman over fields
refuse the broken vietnals that morning
Refuse our cold foed2' cried Miss Sally:
Dear dear wllat are coming tot"
"Ree'larly refused il. said Meg, twisting up
Ier wisp OF always escaping back hair; said
5he didn't want nnbodys sonr provender; said
aid the pease porridge was no bettern swill: said
ieeent folks would a had pie baked for her
come Thanksgiving, bnt she hadn't nothing TO be