STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. IO5 



"He spoke of the grass and flowers and trees, 

 Of the singing birds and the humming bees; 

 Then talked of the haying, and wondered whether 

 The cloud in the west would bring foul weather." 

 In short, he made himself as agreeable as possible. When 

 he rose to take his leave he said in a casual way that he hoped 

 we would consign our apples to his firm, yet he had not given 

 us the remotest reason for so doing. We appreciated the effort 

 he had made but we gave him no consignment that year. 



In our business correspondence my name is usually used, 

 signed M. A. Bass. Much to the amusement of our friends 

 many letters come with a Mr. prefixed. But when some of the 

 men who have so long solicited our patronage chance to discover 

 that their Mr. M. A. Bass represents only two old maids after 

 all, we are often dropped like a hot coal. Our own townsmen 

 have become accustomed to the situation and are not afraid 

 of us. 



Perhaps men have some grounds for avoiding business trans- 

 actions with women. Women who are compelled to be their 

 own businesss managers are sometimes heard to complain that 

 men are always ready to take advantage of them ; that men 

 charge them a higher price for labor than they would charge a 

 man ; that men are not willing to work for them, etc., etc. 

 There may be some truth in these charges. People are apt to be 

 about as good as you expect them to be. When a woman is 

 suspicious and exacting a m.an often meets her with a like spirit. 

 If she expects to be cheated he does not want to disappoint her. 

 As for ourselves we have no complaints to make. From the 

 first we have had many friends among the men of our town. 

 They have been interested in our venture and anxious for our 

 success. Some of them have done work for us when they have 

 refused to work for men. They are pleased when we make 

 fortunate sales and disappointed when we are unsuccessful. We 

 consider every man our friend until he has proved himself 

 unworthy of our confidence. We never try to drive sharp 

 bargains but intend to give value for value and expect to receive 

 the same from others. Only in rare cases have we received 

 other than honorable dealings from men. We have reason to 

 trust them. We realize our ignorance of many of the unwritten 

 laws of business and doubtless we often transgress ; but we have 

 found men very lenient toward us and we are gradually learning 

 the wavs of the world. 



