360 SKETCHES IN PROSE. 



to-day," in tones that cut me to the quick. In a sullen voice 

 I told him a gallon of New Orleans and a pan of his best No. 

 1 mackerel was what I was after, and to stir his stumps, as I 

 was in a hurry ; not that I was, but I thought a little bravado 

 was in order. But it was all assumed, for I stood in awe of 

 him. As I saw him turn his nose up at the disagreeable task 

 before him I experienced a secret joy until he appeared from 

 the lower regions. He seemed so disgusted with the moist- 

 grocery part of his duties that I would like to have given him 

 another similar order for the sake of having him get his deli- 

 cate hands soiled again. 



And then the airs he took on when off duty ! To see him 

 on a Sabbath morning, when he should have been at Sunday- 

 school, standing in front of the store talking to the hotel- 

 keeper's daughter, was a sight. Languidly leaning against 

 the porch he would be seen smoking what I will be bound 

 was a cigar of the Spanish brand — costing five cents ; a fabu- 

 lous price in those days, when you could get four for a penny — 

 and which I will be further bound, in any reasonable recog- 

 nizance, was not paid for, unless taking a five-cent piece out 

 of the till and dropping it in again could be called compensa- 

 tion. His hat would be stuck rakishly on the side of his head 

 and his fingers thrust in his pants' pockets, with the thumbs 

 pointing outward in the way still affected by sprigs older 

 than he. This habit, I may remark, dates so far back that I 

 can fancy Adam's little boys standing in that position ; that is, 

 if I could imagine them in trousers — which I cannot. As we 

 drove by. Bob would take his "five-center" from his lips, blow a 

 cloud, and bestowing a patronizing nod on father go on talk- 

 ing to Miss Boniface. Young store-tenders didn't wear paper 

 collars in those days nor part their hair in the middle, yet 

 they possessed an irresistible charm in the eyes of the village 

 maids that must have been due to their vocation. But I 

 know one thing, and that is that he became unbearable to me 



