to be green.
This was in accordance with the instructions which Lucy had given him.
He found great difficulty, however, in making the shopman understand
what he wanted. To all that Rollo said, the shopman smiled, and said
only, "Yes, sir, yes, sir," and took down continually scarfs and aprons
of different kinds, and showed them to Rollo, to see if any of them were
what he wanted.

At last, by pointing to a large one that had a green ground, and saying,
"Color like that," and then to a small one of a different kind, and
saying, "Small, like that," the shopman began to understand.

"Yes, sir," said the shopman; "yes, sir; I understand. Must one
make--make. See!"

So saying, the shopman opened a door in the back side of the shop, and
showed Rollo and Charles the entrance to a room in the rear, where the
boys had heard before the sound of a continual thumping, and where now
they saw several silk looms, with girls at work at them, weaving scarfs.

"Ah, yes," said Rollo. "You mean that you can make me one. That will be
a good plan, Charley," he added. "Lucy will like it all the better if I
tell her it was made on purpose for her.

"When can you have it done?" asked Rollo.

"Yes, sir," said the shopman, bowing and smiling; "yes, sir; yes, sir."

"When?" repeated Rollo. "What time?"

"Ah, yes, sir," said the shopman. "The time. All time, every time.
Yesterday."

"Yesterday!" repeated Rollo, puzzled.

"To-morrow," said the man, correcting himself. He had said yesterday by
mistake for to-morrow. "To-morrow. To-morrow he will be ready--the
scarf."

"What time to-morrow shall I come?" asked Rollo.

"Yes, sir," said the shopman, bowing again, and smiling in a very
complacent manner. "Yes, sir, to-morrow."

"But what _time_ to-morrow?" repeated Rollo, speaking very distinctly,
and emphasizing very strongly the word _time_. "What time?"

"O, every time," said the man; "all time. You shall have him every time
to-morrow, because you see he will make begin the work on him this day."

"Very well," said Rollo, "then I will come to-morrow, about noon."

So Rollo and Charles bade the shopman good by, and went out of the shop.

"Is that what they call speaking English?" asked Charles.

"So it seems," said Rollo. "Sometimes they speak a great deal worse than
that, and yet call it speaking English."

So Rollo and Charles got into the carriage again. Rollo took out his
wallet, and made a memorandum of the name of the shop