pound
less than the market price and good beans for two cents a quart less.
It sounds at first like rather picayune saving but it counts up at the
end of the year. Then every stall in the market had its bargain of
meats--wholesome bits but unattractive to the careless buyer. We
bought here for fifty cents enough round steak for several good meals
of hash. We couldn't have bought it for less than a dollar in the
suburbs and even at that we wouldn't have known anything about it for
the store was too far for Ruth to make a personal visit and the
butcher himself would never have mentioned such an odd end to a member
of our neighborhood.

We enjoyed wandering around this big market which in itself was like a
trip to another land. Later one of our favorite amusements was to
come down here at night and watch the hustling crowds and the lights
and the pretty colors and confusion. It reminded Ruth, she said, of a
country fair. She always carried a pad and pencil and made notes of
good places to buy. I still have those and am referring to them now as
I write this.

"Blanks," she writes (I omit the name), "nice clean store with
pleasant salesman. Has good soup bones."

Again, "Blank and Blank--good place to buy sausage."

Here too the market gardeners gathered as early as four o'clock with
their vegetables fresh from the suburbs. They did mostly a wholesale
business but if one knew how it was always possible to buy of them a
cabbage or a head of lettuce or a few apples or a peck of potatoes.
They were a genial, ruddy-cheeked lot and after a while they came to
know Ruth. Often I'd go up there with her before work and she with a
basket on her arm would buy for the day. It was always, "Good morning,
miss," in answer to her smile. They were respectful whether I was
along or not. But for that matter I never knew anyone who wasn't
respectful to Ruth. They used to like to see her come, I think, for
she stood out in rather marked contrast to the bowed figures of the
other women. Later on they used to save out for her any particularly
choice vegetable they might have. She insisted however in paying them
an extra penny for such things.

From the market we went down a series of narrow streets which led to
the water front. Here the vessels from the Banks come in to unload.
The air was salty and though to us at first the wharves seemed dirty
we got used to them, after a while, and enjoyed the smell of the fish
fresh from the water.

S