THE VILLAGE STORE. 



349 



other form. The arts and sciences are continually varying, 

 their course being onward and upward. In manner of loco- 

 motion we have gone from the pack-horse to the lightning 

 train ; in modes of transmitting news, from the plodding mail 

 coach to the electric telegraph. In our habitations we have 

 advanced from the colonial log hut to magnificent residences, 

 with their wen-like bay windows, their mansard roofs, their 

 towers and their mortgages. The plain public buildings of 

 the olden time are succeeded by massive piles, which cost piles 

 as massive, and which an unconsulted posterity must pay for. 

 As before intimated, change and advancement are accompani- 

 ments of all things sublunary, with one exception, and that 

 is the Village Store. I have known this institution for over 

 forty years, and in that period there has been little alteration 

 in its outward and inward appearance, the mode of conduct- 

 ing it, and the personnel of its conductor and his patrons. 



There was the hitching post with its well gnawed top ; the 

 porch filled up with dry goods, soap and candle boxes, and 

 the rakes, shovels and hoes piled up around the outside of the 

 door as of old. On entering the door there was the same 

 trim array of nail kegs to greet the eye. In them were the 

 different gradations, from the festive " three-penny-fine " to 

 the lordly " spike." Not so prominent to me now, but stand- 

 ing out then in bold relief, my first recollections of the grocery 

 store are in connection with the candy jars. Short-necked, 

 apoplectic fellows that they are, with their brass-capped heads; 

 there they stand, just as they stood in my boyhood's days, the 

 centre of attraction for juvenile eyes. Their contents don't 

 seem to have been disturbed. The one on the left is shotted 

 with " sour-balls," the next with mint stick, the next with 

 lemon candy, and then came a jar with "lickerish," followed 

 by another containing "secrets." These latter had printed 

 mottoes around them, as now, and were much aff'ected by the 

 youthful swains at school. These passed them over to the big 



