OR, WITH BRAINS, SIR. 255 



so I asked what he meant by large quantities. 'Many 

 dozens a day,' said he, and then he repeated his remark 

 about the difficulty of obtaining it preventing still larger 

 sales. As he seemed busy, I did not trouble him with 

 further questions. Now, Harriet, let us rake up the little 

 we do know about lettuce, and see what we can figure 

 out of it. Do you remember what we used to pay for 

 lettuce last spring?" 



"About eight or ten cents." 



" Well, if we paid, as consumers, eight cents, the pro- 

 vision store must have taken three cents for their profit, 

 and the down-town 'Jobber' got three or more cents for 

 his share, so that the grower only received about two 

 cents per head. That seems a very small price ; but let 

 us reckon up what the grower could do with it as a crop." 



Here my husband stopped suddenly, took out pencil 

 and paper, and became deeply absorbed in some calcula- 

 tions. In a moment or so he looked up and said, "Ac- 

 cording to the books, lettuce must be planted one foot 

 apart each way. Now, if I am not mistaken, one acre 

 filled with plants one foot apart would contain forty-three 

 thousand five hundred and sixty plants." 



" Forty-three thousand plants ? Goodness, Robert ! 

 How could we ever take care of such an immense number ? " 



Paying no attention to my remark he went on : " Forty- 



