Part 22 (2/2)

Lying about were household utensils, shi+p-rigging, furniture and a hundred other things which had nothing to do with the grocery business

As I entered the store the first afternoon I noticed a Bible open at Judges and a number of slips of paper on which questions had been written On ers froed one another and de like it On the third,that there were other stores we decided to buy our things elsewhere This was not so easily accoet a flatiron?” I inquired at the Postoffice when I first entered the village

”Most likely at Burridge's,” was the reply

”Do you knohere I can get a pair of row-locks?” I asked of a boy as lounging about the town dock

”At Burridge's,” he replied

When anted oars, pickles of a certain variety, golden syrup, and a dozen other things which were essential at tie's, so that at last he obtained a very fair portion of our trade despite the condition of his store

During all these earlier dealings there cropped up so curt and dry in his conversation One day we lost a fruit jar which he had loaned, and I took one very ize he interrupted me with, ”A jar's a jar, isn't it?”

Another tiht cents for a can of potted ham which had proved stale, he exclai,” and forthwith pulled the money out of the loose jacket of his ju were good ”If it isn't,” he replied, with a peculiar elevation of the eyebrows, ”your money is You can have that back”

”That's the way you do business, is it?”

”Yes, sir,” he replied, and his long upper lip thinned out along the line of the lower one like a vise

I was in search of a rocking-chair one day and was directed to Burridge's as the only place likely to have any!

”Do you keep furniture?” I inquired

”So-chair?”

”No, sir”

A day or two later I was in search of a table and on going to Burridge's found that he had gone to a neighboring city

”Have you got a table?” I inquired of the clerk

”I don't know,” he replied ”There's some furniture in the back room, but I don't know as I dare to sell any of it while he's away”

”Why?”

”Well, he don't like me to sell any of it He's kind of queer that way

I dunno what he intends to do with it Gar!” he added in a strangely electric way, ”he's a queer s back there--chairs and tables and everything He's got a lot more in a loft up the street here He never seems to want to sell any of 'em Heard him tell people he didn't have any”

I shook o back and look anyway There's no har if he has one”