468 
RURAL HOURS. 
Then, again, there are seven taverns in our village, four of them 
on quite a large scale. As for the eating-houses — independently 
of the taverns — their number is quite humiliating ; it looks as 
though we must needs be a very gormandizing people : there 
are some dozen of them — Lunches, Recesses, Restaurants, &c., 
&c., or whatever else they may be called, and yet this little place 
is quite out of the world, off the great routes. It is, however, the 
county town, and the courts bring people here every few weeks. 
But to return to the " store ;" there are half a dozen of these 
on quite a large scale. It is amusing to note the variety within 
tlieir walls. Barrels, ploughs, stoves, brooms, rakes and pitch- 
forks ; muslins, flannels, laces and shawls ; sometimes in winter, 
a dead porker is hung up by the heels at the door ; frequently, 
frozen fowls, turkeys and geese, garnish the entrance. The shelves 
are filled with a thousand things required by civilized man, in the 
long list of his wants. Here you see a display of glass and crock- 
ery, imported, perhaps, directly by this inland firm, from the Eu- 
ropean manufacturer ; there you observe a pile of silks and satins ; 
this is a roll of carpeting, that a box of artificial flowers. At the 
same counter you may buy kid gloves and a spade ; a lace veil 
and a jug of molasses ; a satin dress and a broom ; looking-glasses, 
grass-seed, fire-irons, Valenciennes lace, butter and eggs, embroid- 
oy, blankets, candles, cheese, and a fancy fan. 
And yet, in addition to this medley, there are regular milliners' 
sliops and groceries in the place, and of a superior class, too. But 
so long as a village retains its rural character, so long will the coun- 
try " store " be found there ; it is only when it has become a young 
city that the shop and warehouse takt- the place of the convenient 
store, where so many wants are supplied on the same spot. 
