St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-04-21
NEW TO THE GROCER.


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ehe grocer sat. ON . high stool, his el-
bows ON the counter aud his face bur
led in his hands. The Brooklyn man
came in to get . asquarter's worth OF
eggs.
Hello" he said, what's the matter
now?"
m thinking" said the grocer, shat
a. man who said that all the fools
are not dead knew precisely what he
was talking about"
How could you think otherwise" q"
remarked the Brooklyn man, with true
Bro1klyn hunor, with all the custom
ers fou have?"
"Hold on" said the grocer, "this is
- pike. Let me tell you about it. A
l1EtR while ago was sitting here do
ingtnothing in particular. when in
rushed very pleasant looking young
maa He had lot of bills in his hand,
FAnd he wanted to know if could let
hih have a ten-dollar bill for small
g. He said that he wanted to send
1dollars away in letter, and didn't
like to put small bills in an envelope.
Well, I'm a pretty good-natured sort
Of 4 man and l told him that would
be very glad to oblige him. So, while
I went into the drawer to get the bill,
he counted out ten dollars SO that !
could hear him, and then fished out an
envelope into which he placed the bill
thas gave him. Then he started out
of the store. He didn't seem in great
hurry, and SO. when, in counting over
the money that he had given me,
found that there was only nine dollars
I didn't have any suspicious of in
territorial wrong-doing on his part, but
credited The matter e , very natural
mistake.
well. I called him back, and he was
very apologetic; said it was . curious
mistake for him, and a few other things
that 1 don't remember. AS matter Of
fact he talked so fast and so smooth
that hN N3fsof what he said escaped me in
my ad1iration for his oratorical pow
ers. While he was talking he was fish
ing around in his pockets for an odd
dollar, Apparently he couldn't find one,
for he e9nally said:
"sWell ! guess I'll have to give you
your bill back until can get that other
dollar. Then he looked at the envelope
in his hand and continued: Gee! that's
too bad. I've gone and sealed that en-
velepe- up and it's addressed and
stamped and your ten-dollar bill is in
side. sI'll>ssll you what we might do,
though. he went ON, after . moments
thought. .Yop give me my nine small
billt and Ill 60 out and get the other
bilE In the meantime you hold on to
this envelope and when 1 COME back
I'll give you the entire ten dollars.
and we won't have to.open up my let
ter at ALL
'Wen xvSr I couldnt - any
k0rm this arrangement. snd said
yes without a moments hesitation.
What makes me so darn mad now is
that I was excessively polite to the
duck. Why, fairly bowed him out of
the store, and after he had gone l
carefully placed the envelope in my
cash drawer and locked it up. Then
waited for fully an hour for the young
man to come back. and when he failed
to show up l took the envelope out
and ripped it open, not with any idea
in my head that anything was wrong.
but simply because l was impatient
with the man for being so inconsider-
ate after had done him favor. Well.
there was a neatly-folded piece of pa
per in the envelope. and on it was writ
ten in a neat hand: I'll be back when
the robins nest again.
''Say, even then it was a full min
ute before the truth dawned on me.
When it did hit me it came like ton
of brick. oh, you gosh burned fool
1 murmured and sat down to think.
l was still thinking when you came in.
and I'll start in again when you go
out"
up in Reutenville, where lived be-
fore I came to Brooklyn" said the
Brooklyn man, I'VE used to call that
"Oh, you did. en-" said the grocer,
''well, 1 don't know what they call it
in Brooklyn, but it's ,od game, and
when get broke in the grocery busi-
ness I'm going to try it on some guy
and the grocer went back to
his thoughts. while his friend walked
CMn