skers. Having got into the store,
he very leisurely walked around, viewing the hardware, separately and
minutely, until one of the clerks edged up to him:

"What can we do for you to-day, sir?"

Looking _quarteringly_ at the clerk for about two full minutes, says
he--

"I'd dunno, just yet, mister, what yeou kin do."

"Those are nice hinges, real wrought," says the clerk, referring to an
article the "customer" had just been gazing at with evident interest.

"Rale wrought?" he asked, after another lapse of two minutes.

"They are, yes, sir," answered the clerk. Then followed another pause;
the Yankee with both his hands sunk deep into his trowsers' pockets, and
viewing the hinges at a respectful distance, in profound calculation,
three minutes full.

"They be, eh?" he at length responded.

"Yes, sir, _warranted_," replied the clerk. Another long pause. The
Yankee approached the hinges, two steps--picks up a bundle of the
article, looks knowingly at them two minutes--

"Yeou don't say so?"

"No doubt about that, at all," the clerk replies, rather pertly, as he
moves off to wait upon another customer, who bought some eight or ten
dollars' worth of cutlery and tools, paid for them, and cleared out,
while our Yankee genius was still reconnoitering the hinges.

"I say, mister, where's them made?" inquires the Yankee.

"In England, sir," replied the clerk.

"Not in _Neuw_ England, I'll bet a fo'pence!"

"No, not here--in Europe."

"I knowed they warn't made areound here, by a darn'd sight!"

"We've plenty of American hinges, if you wish them," said the clerk.

"I've seen _hinges_ made in _aour_ place, better'n them."

"Perhaps you have. We have finer hinges," answered the clerk.

"I 'spect you have; I don't call _them_ anything great, no how!"

"Well, here's a better article; better hinges--"

"Well, them's pooty nice," said the Yankee, interrupting the clerk, "but
they're small hinges."

"We have all sizes of them, sir, from half an inch to four inches."

"You hev?" inquiringly observed the Yankee, as the clerk again left him
and the hinges, to wait on another customer, who bought a keg of nails,
&c., and left.

"I see you've got brass hinges, tew!" again continued the Yankee, after
musing to himself for twenty minutes, _full_.

"O, yes, plenty of them," obligingly answered the clerk.

"How's them brass 'uns work?"

"Very well, I guess; used for lighter purposes," said the clerk.

"Put 'em o