"She has stepped out for a moment. Please may I serve you?"
"No, I reckon I"ll come again when some of them are in. I"ll go over to Blinker"s and trade this morning."
Heavens! Was I to stand still and see customers go over to the rival store? Had I missed my vocation after all my dreams? Was storekeeping not what I was cut out for?
"I"m sorry you won"t stay and see these new ginghams," I faltered. A gleam in her eye emboldened me to proceed. "They are making them up so pretty in Richmond now."
"Well, I wonder if they are! Are you from Richmond?"
"I have been visiting there but I am from Milton. I love to visit in Richmond. Don"t you? It is such a good way to get the new styles."
That had fetched her. She gave up all idea of trading with Blinker. What did he know of styles and the way ginghams were being made up in the city? I got down stacks of dry-goods and with my first customer began to plan a wonderful garment for the protracted meeting soon to take place.
Gingham was decided not to be fine enough for the occasion and a pretty piece of voile was chosen instead. A silk drop skirt must go with it and bunches of velvet ribbon must set it off. The farmer"s wife was having the time of her life and I was enjoying myself to the utmost. I measured off the material in a most professional manner, trembling for fear the customer would find out what a novice I was. I was thankful that she was to make it instead of me. With all of my learned talk about clothes, I could not have sewed up a pillowslip and had it fit the pillow.
Next on the program was chicken feed. The rats had devoured her supply of wheat saved for the poultry and the corn had not yet been harvested.
We had to go in the adjoining room for that and I had a chance to peep at my price list on the way. I persuaded her also into laying in a supply of canned soups and got her interested in a lawn mower and a patent churn. She declared she was coming over the next day with her husband and try to persuade him to purchase both of them for her.
"Men-folks are mighty slow to get implements for the women. I ain"t complaining of my old man, but he thinks he must have every new-fangled bit of farming machinery that comes along while I am churning with the same old big-at-the-bottom-and-little-at-the-top-little-thing-in-the- middle-goes-flippityflop churn that my mother had. As for the bit of lawn around the house that he "lows me,--that has to be cut with a sickle just when I can catch a hand to do it. Now if I had that little lawn mower I could run it myself and keep things kind of tidy like "round the house."
"Of course you could," I a.s.sented. "Now don"t you want some of this cheese? It is right fresh." I had noted a great new cheese in a gla.s.s case that had evidently been cut only that morning. "Do you ever make polenta? This cheese would be fine for that."
"No, do tell! I never even heard of it."
"Why, it is a great dish among the Italians and is the best thing you ever tasted."
"I"m a great hand for cooking and sho" do relish a new recipe."
"Take three cups of boiling water and one cup of corn meal and one cup of grated cheese, and a teaspoon of salt. Stir the meal into the boiling water and let it cook until it begins to get thick and then put in the cheese and salt and bake it in a well-greased pan. It is dandy eating."
"Well now, doesn"t that sound nice? Give me a pound of the cheese and one of those new pans to bake it in. My pans are all pretty nigh burnt out."
"Did you ever try any of this gla.s.sware for baking? It is so nice and clean and the crust looks so pretty showing through. To be sure it is more expensive than tin, but it is so satisfactory."
"I never heard of such a thing! Show it to me."
I had noticed with some surprise that Mr. Pore had a supply of the fire-proof gla.s.s just coming into general use. He was certainly a progressive buyer for one who was such a poor salesman. I sold her two gla.s.s baking dishes and then more dry-goods. It took three trips for us to carry out all her packages to the buggy. More purchasers had arrived in the meantime. I foresaw a busy time.
A little colored girl with three eggs tied up in a rag wanted to trade them for flour.
"My maw is makin" a cake fur the barsket fun"ral an" she ain"t got a Gawd"s mouth er flour in the house. She say if"n she can trade these here fur some flour she"ll be jes" a-kitin"."
"Whar you git them aigs?" asked an old uncle suspiciously. I had just sold him a plug of "eatin" terbaccer."
"I git "em out"n the nesses, whar they b"long," she a.s.serted, tossing her wrapped plaits scornfully.
"Yer ain"t got but one hen an" I done see yo" maw a-wringing her naick this ve"y mawnin"."
"What"n if"n yer did? That ole blue hen been layin" two three times er day lately, an" my maw she says she mus" about laid out by this time, so she up"n kilt her fer the barsket fun"ral goin" on at de same time of de big meetin". But laws a mussy! Do you know she was that full er aigs that it war distressful?" The child"s eyes were wistful at the remembrance.
"Well, well! n.o.body can"t tell "bout women an" hens. It seems lak n.o.body don"t speak up an" testify how much good they is in some sisters "til they is dead an" gone. Same way with hens! Same way with hens! Is yo" maw gwinter bile it or bake it?"
"Sh"ain"t "cided. If"n yer bile it yer gits soup extry an" if"n yer bake it yer gits stuffin" an" graby."
I was thankful for the little training I had in mathematics when it was up to me to convert eggs into flour. Some problem! I put in a little extra flour to make sure and the child skipped off.
At this juncture the Tucker twins, Mary Flannagan, and a troop of young men from Maxton blew in. I was secretly relieved that Miss Wilc.o.x was not of the party. Not that I minded her seeing me keep store, but I had a feeling she might be a little scornful of Annie Pore.
"Where is Annie?" cried Dum.
"We are nearly dead to see her," declared Dee.
"Gone driving with Sleepy. I am keeping store in her absence. His Lord High Muck-a-Muck has embarked for Richmond."
"What fun! What fun! We bid to help!"
"Maybe only one had better help, as purchasers coming in might be overcome by too many clerks," I laughed.
"You are right! Dee must be the one because she is so tactful," said Dum magnanimously.
So Dee took off her hat and got behind the candy and ginger ale side of the counter, and then such a buying and selling ensued as that country store had never witnessed.
Of course everybody treated everybody else and then had to be treated in turn. I stayed on the dry-goods side, and while I was not doing such a thriving business as Dee, still I had my hands full. The farmer"s wife had met some acquaintances and sent them to Pore"s to see the new clerk who could tell them so much about Richmond styles. I had to draw a gallon of kerosene for one customer, but Wink insisted upon doing this for me. I did not want him to one little bit. If I was to be storekeeper, I preferred being one, not just playing at it.
"I think you are wonderful, Page, to do this for Annie," he whispered to me as we made our way to the coal oil barrel.
"Nonsense! What is wonderful about it?"
"You are always kind to everybody but me."
"Do you want me to keep store for you?"
"No, I want you to keep house for me," he muttered.
"But I did not know you had a house," I teased.
He pumped vigorously at the coal oil.
"I intend to have one some day."
"A grand one, surely, if you expect to have a housekeeper!"
"Page, you know what I mean!" He looked longingly into my eyes that I knew were full of mischievous twinkles.
"All I know is, you have wasted about a quart of kerosene."
The floor was flooded. It is a difficult thing to pump coal oil and make love at the same time. Poor Wink had done both of his jobs badly. He looked aghast at the havoc he had caused.
"I am a bungling fool!" he cried.