352 SKETCHES IN PROSE. 



it to the store along with her old rags, which was not so bad. 

 There is the cellar door leading to the subterranean store 

 house, where were stored mackerel, butter, oil, molasses and 

 other moist goods. Into this cavern, and when he had no 

 clerk, the genius of the store went with reluctance, whenever 

 his customer was morally shaky. The tidiness of the house- 

 keeper was generally reflected in the molasses jug ; were it 

 streaky, she was a slattern ; if clean, a model housewife. In 

 old times " wallets " were in vogue, but I don't see them any 

 more. Many a time have I gone to the store with one of those 

 double-ended bags thrown over my shoulders, with a jug in 

 one or each end. Once, w^hen quite a lad, I went on horse- 

 back, with a wallet before me containing a molasses and a 

 vinegar jug, in which situation I did not make a bad repre- 

 sentation of a Tartar horseman on his road from the wars, 

 with his enemies' heads at his saddle bow. Arriving at the 

 store I laid them on the ground while I tied my steed, which 

 suddenly shied, and planting his feet on the frail receptacles 

 of those antipodal commodities, crushed them to atoms. The 

 only witness, beside my horse or myself, was an old lady 

 standing on the store porch, who aggravated me beyond 

 endurance by showing me a countenance wreathed in smiles 

 — for I was blubbering at a great rate over my trouble — but I 

 forgave her after my arrival home, when mother told me that 

 the apparent smile was nothing more than a chronic contrac- 

 tion of the facial muscles, which showed the same through 

 sunshine and sorrow ; and such I afterwards saw for myself to 

 be the case. The storekeeper soon came to my assistance, and 

 with a cheerfulness heightened by the sale of two new jugs, 

 soon had me straightened up. 



There is the medicine closet as it stood of yore, but not' 

 filled as then. Where stand the stupefying " Mrs. Winslow," 

 " Pain Killer," '' Consumption Cures," and other compounds, 

 was an array of good old Thompsonian medicines; there was the 



