The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1905-03-31

--ys-- =. IS

odds and ends. Nothing in the regular
way at regular prices.
lie knew trick worth two Of that
He had a craze for the antique. Any
thing in that line-chipped and cracked
china, never mind how Clipped and
cracked; rickety old furniture, never
mind how rickety; miscellaneous lots,
the more miscellaneous the better
these were his hobby. And some kind
Of good luck or good judgment, or both
combined, stood always at his elbow,
invisibly guarding his interests.
These ugly, crooked, pock marked
little men generally prosper, especially
if they live on bread and salt butter, or
bread and no butter, with an Occa-
sional herring and an ample supply Of
potatoes, with perhaps, at long inter
walls, little bit of meat, wisely select
ed, and bought Oh the political economy
principle.
And what finer spot in all the wide
world for living economically is there
than Clare Market, where the cheap
eniIg process goes on INCREASINGLY the
whole year through, from early in the
morning til late in the night, when the
grease and tar lamps are f1aring In the
wind?
Little Maze Believe could nave told
you something about that.
She was intimately acquainted with
all the entanglements and tOrtuous
windings OF Clare Market, and, young
as she was, had grown in the habit Of
lingering by the side OF pale-faced
women who stood before the butchers
board striving TO coax the man in the
blue flannel apron 10 take a halfpenny
n pound less, or at least TO cut off
little OF the superf1uods fat with which
the meat was fringed-cfforts which
were very rarely successful.
When Little Make-Believe witnessed
the conclusion Of sp-h q bargain she
would run to some convenient window
sill, where with an imaginary knife
she would cut away all the imaginary
fat from an imaginary piece OF meat,
and hand ii to an imaginary poor wom-
an, saying, with the air Of q trader
who is doing splendid stroke Of bust
ness:
There, viii that suit yer at tup-
pence n pound? Never mind the money.
Pay me when yer likew
AT the end of thirty-thS,2 years You
might have multiplied by fourteen the
fourteen sovereigns Thomas Dexter
found in his fathers old-fashioncd
niGhtcap, and have multiplied that
again by fourteen, ana you would still
have fallen short of the extent Of his
riches.
Not that he had any idea how much
he was worth. That he had no dispo-
stiOn to count and gloat over his
money ana possessions was sufficient
proof that the grain OF his nature was
not mcrcenary.
He was simply man cngrossed in
his business, and he attended To il
patiently and shrcwdly until his shop
became crowded with the strangcst
collection Of odds and ends that were
ever gathered under one roof.
He took premises at the back OF his
shop, and almost before he could look
around they became crowded also. Old
armor old brasses, old carvings, old
lace, old cnamels, old furniture, filled
every nook and corner. AMI when n
certain crratic taste for anything an
cient and hideous came into vogue ii
was as good as little fortune to him.
Prosperity did not change him in the
least. From crooked, ugly, pock-
marked young man, he grew into a
crooked, ugly. poCk-marked middle
aged man, and further on into n
crooked, ugly, pock-markcd old man.
Despising everything new, he never
from the day he set up as his own
master wore new coat new hat, or
new pair of boots. Anything second
hand In the way of clothing suited him
IL IL was large enough, and as il was
not the slightest consequence If il were
many sizes too large, his appearance
generally was that of clumsily done
up bundle.
AS for the money he accumulated, he
kept IL anywhere except in bauk-in
corners of his shop not accessible 10
customers, under the flooring, in the
broken ceiling, in the walls, in old
iiddles. in cobwebbed crevices. tied up
in bits OF cid calico and canvas and
chamois leather bags.
Some of these packages looked like
diminutive legs Of mutton. some like
fingers and thumbs with large bread
poulticcs on them.
He had the greatest difficulty in
squeezing himself OF night into the
little room at the back of his shop in
which he slept, so packed was il with
valuable oddments.
Suspended over his head, in the shape
of net. by means of pieces of string
tied to the bare rafters of the ceiling,
was his fathers nightcap, the tassel. as
you looked up, being the first part of IL
that met your eyes.
A man OF imagination might have
conjured up the outlines OF old Dexter
ghost standing on his head in his night.
cap in reversal of the laws OF nature
with his legs sticking upward through
the roof.
Into this nightcap Thomas Dexter for
many years had been in the habit OF
throwing an odd piece of gold or silver
upon every occasion OF his making O
good bargain. and it was now so heav
lily weighted that, as he lay abed gaz
ing at IL, there was really n danger OF
the strings giving way and Of its fall
ing upon his crooked nose and making
/ IL crnnk pdnr