One day during the
past summer, while my peach-orchard was in full bearing, my foreman, who
attends market for me, fell sick. The peaches would not tarry in their
ripening, the pears were soft and blushing as sweet sixteen as they lay
upon their shelves, the cantelopes grew mellow upon their vines, the
tomato-beds called loudly to be relieved, and the very beans were
beginning to rattle in their pods for ripeness. I am not a good
salesman, and I was very sorry my foreman could not help me out; but
something must be done, so I made up a load of fruit and vegetables,
took them to the city to market, and sold them. While I was busily
occupied measuring peaches by the half and quarter peck, stolidly deaf
to the objurgations of my neighbor huckster on my right, to whom some
one had given bad money, and equally impervious to the blandishments of
an Irish customer in front of me, who could not be persuaded I meant to
require the price I had set upon my goods, my friend Mrs. Entresol came
along, trailing her parasol with one gloved hand, with the other
daintily lifting her skirts out of the dust and dirt. Bridget, following
her, toiled under the burden of a basket of good things. Mrs. Entresol
is an old acquaintance of mine, and I esteem her highly. Entresol has
just obtained a partnership in the retail dry-goods house for which he
has been a clerk during so many years; the firm is prosperous, and, if
he continues to be as industrious and prudent as he has been, I do not
doubt but my friend will in the course of time be able to retire from
business with money enough to buy a farm. My pears seemed to please Mrs.
Entresol; she approached my stall, looked at them, took one up. "What is
the price of your--" she began to inquire, when, looking up, she
recognized the vender of the coveted fruit. What in the world came over
the woman? I give you my word that, instead of speaking to me in her
usual way, and telling me how glad she was to see me, she started as if
something had stung her; she stammered, she blushed, and stood there
with the pear in her fingers, staring at me in the blankest way
imaginable. I must confess a little of her confusion imparted itself to
me. For a moment the thought entered my mind that I had, in selling my
own pears and peaches, been guilty of some really criminal action, such
as sheep-stealing, lying, or slandering, and it was not pleasant to be
caught in the act. But only for a moment; then I replied, "Good