MR. URBAN AND A CO UNTR Y HO USE. 243 



fruits, but between the destruction of baskets, small 

 prices, or the payment of vagabond berry-pickers 

 from the town, (who trampled down more in value 

 than they gathered,) he abandoned that scheme ; lie 

 thinks he never bought a cow, but he paid one third 

 more than she was worth, to the shrewd neighbors 

 who hemmed him in ; if labor was twenty dollars a 

 month, he could never get it under twenty-five ; his 

 breeding sows inevitably devoured the half of their 

 litters, though his watchfulness was constant (per- 

 haps too constant.) As for horses, he never bargains 

 for one now, but he insists that he should have a 

 spavin or two and the heaves, and by strict insistance 

 on this, he has the satisfaction of knowing some of 

 the defects in advance a satisfaction he never had 

 until he adopted the rule ; he had undertaken the sale 

 of milk in a weak moment of resolve, but he found 

 he was selling large quarts, whereas his rivals in the 

 traffic were all selling small quarts he was selling 

 pure milk, and the neighbors were cooling down their 

 overheated cans with an infusion of cool spring water. 



In short, Mr. Stimpson declares that between dis- 

 contented and overpaid laborers he could not realize 

 four per cent, upon his purchase, with his own super- 

 vision and anxieties, (which were immense,) thrown 

 into the bargain. 



" And yet you would purchase ? " 



