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 Ave 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 toAvn, and the courts bring people here every feAV Aveeks. 
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 Avithin 
their walls. Barrels, ploughs, stoves, brooms, rakes and pitch- 
forks ; muslins, flannels, laces and shaAvls ; sometimes in Avinter, 
a dead porker is hung up by the heels at the door ; frequently, 
frozen foAvls, 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 floAvers. 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- 
ery, blankets, candles; cheese, and a fancy fan. 
And yet, in addition to this medley, there ai’e regular milliners’ 
shops and groceries in the place, and of a superior class, too. But 
so long as a village retains its rural character, so long Avill the coun- 
try “ store ” be found there ; it is only when it has become a young 
city that the shop and warehouse take the place of the convenient 
stoif, where so many Avants are supplied on the same spot. 
