ers, reserving the best for
customers who came to choose for themselves. Five minutes later she
was exchanging them for the largest in the sack under the direction of
an infuriated mother. This flustered her slightly, and when Mrs Green
arrived, complaining of rheumatic twinges in her leg, she decided to
try Pinkey's sympathetic manner.

"Ah, if anybody knows what rheumatism is, I do," she cried. "For years
I suffered cruelly, an' then I was persuaded to carry a new pertater in
me pocket, an' I've never 'ad ache or pain since; though gettin' cured,
to my mind, depends on the sort of life you've led."

Mrs Green, a woman with a past, flushed heavily.

"'Oo are yer slingin' off at?" she cried. "You and yer new pertater.
I'd smack yer face for two pins," and she walked out of the shop.

This made Mrs Partridge careful, and she served the next customers in
an amazing silence. Then she dined royally on the pick of the
ham-and-beef shop, and settled down for the afternoon. But she
recovered her tongue when Mrs Paterson wanted some lettuce for a salad.

"Which I could never understand people eatin' salads, as I shall always
consider bad for the stomach, an' descendin' to the lower animals," she
cried. "Nothing could make me believe I was meant to eat vegetables
raw when I can 'ave them boiled an' strained for 'alf an 'our."

In her eagerness to convert Mrs Paterson to her views, she forgot to
charge for the lettuce. When Chook and Pinkey arrived, she had
partially destroyed the business, and was regretting that she had been
too delicate to marry the greengrocer. She showed Chook the till
bulging with copper and silver.

"Yer've done us proud," cried Chook, staring.

Mrs Partridge sorted out ten shillings from the heap.

"That's Mrs Robins's account," she remarked.

"Wot made 'er pay?" inquired Pinkey, suspiciously. "Yer didn't go an'
ask 'er for it, did yer?"

"Not likely," said Mrs Partridge; "but when she complained of the peas
bein' eighteenpence a peck, I pointed out that if she considered
nothing too dear for 'er back, she should consider nothing too dear for
'er stomach, an' she ran 'ome to fetch this money an' nearly threw it
in my face."

"Me best customer," cried Pinkey in dismay. "She pays at the end of
the month like clockwork."

Mrs Partridge stared at the heap of silver, and changed the subject.

"It 'ud give me the creeps to sleep in the 'ouse with all that money,"
she remarked, "afte