e ducks lay on planks, their legs fastened with string, their
eyes dazed with terror or fatigue.

A cargo of scented soap and perfume, the damaged rout of a chemist's
shop, fascinated the younger women, stirring their instinctive delight
in luxury; and for a few pence they gratified the longing of their
hearts.

The children pricked their ears at the sudden blare of a tin trumpet,
the squeaking of a mechanical doll. And they stared in amazement at
the painted toys, surprised that the world contained such beautiful
things. The mothers, harassed with petty cares, anxiously considered
the prices; then the pennies were counted, and the child clasped in its
small hands a Noah's ark, a wax doll, or a wooden sword.

Chook stared at the vegetable stalls with murder in his eyes, for here
stood slant-eyed Mongolians behind heaps of potatoes, onions, cabbages,
beans, and cauliflowers, crying the prices in broken English, or
chattering with their neighbours in barbaric, guttural sounds. To
Chook they were the scum of the earth, less than human, taking the
bread out of his mouth, selling cheaply because they lived like vermin
in their gardens.

But he forgot them in watching the Jews driving bargains in second-hand
clothes, renovated with secret processes handed down from the Ark.
Coats and trousers, equipped for their last adventure with mysterious
darns and patches, cheated the eye like a painted beauty at a ball.
Women's finery lay in disordered heaps--silk blouses covered with
tawdry lace, skirts heavy with gaudy trimming--the draggled plumage of
fine birds that had come to grief. But here buyer and seller met on
level terms, for each knew to a hair the value of the sorry garments;
and they chaffered with crafty eyes, each searching for the silent
thought behind the spoken lie.

Chook stared at the bookstall with contempt, wondering how people found
the time and patience to read. One side was packed with the forgotten
lumber of bookshelves--an odd volume of sermons, a collection of
scientific essays, a technical work out of date. And the men, anxious
to improve their minds, stared at the titles with the curious reverence
of the illiterate for a printed book. At their elbows boys gloated
over the pages of a penny dreadful, and the women fingered penny
novelettes with rapid movements, trying to judge the contents from the
gaudy cover.

The crowd at the provision stall brought Chook to a standstill again.
Enormous fl