nd doubt the newcomer will take some
of our custom; but it is our business to look after that. We
must work better than we have done hitherto; and that's all
about it."

'Mrs. Gregory was not convinced, but she said nothing.

'"You see," continued Gregory, "you must look a little
beyond the end of your nose. You wish that there should be
only one shoemaker in the place. The linendraper wishes that
there should be only one linendraper; the grocer only one
grocer; and so on through all the trades. Very well; don't
you remember when we had only one linendraper how dear
shirts used to be? And don't you remember some twenty years
ago, when there was only one smith? You could never get hold
of him; and when you did, his charges were tremendous. I
recollect him putting a bell to our front door. When he gave
me the bill, and I had seen the amount, I said to him, 'my
good fellow, I didn't order a silver bell.' 'And I have not
put up a silver bell,' was the reply. 'Oh! I thought from
the price it must have been silver,' said I. This vexed him,
and he answered, 'If you are not satisfied, go elsewhere.'
That was well enough; he was the only smith in the
neighbourhood. I could not send for a man from Pekin: he
would have been sure to be lost on the road, and I should
have been obliged to provide for his family."

'Gregory made some other good remarks to show that if
competition prevents a shopkeeper from selling his goods at
a high price, it enables him to buy from others at a cheap
rate. "So on the whole," concluded he, "do not let us fuss
and make ourselves ill. I would much rather have some
coffee, than be compelled to take medicine."'

Gregory must have had some of the saintly qualities of his great
namesakes to enable him to take so calm a view of the invasion of his
shoemaking monopoly. We trust that Mrs. Gregory was eventually convinced
by his wise and philosophical arguments, and still more, that the
generation of Frenchmen who enjoy such teaching from their early years
may emulate so bright an example.

We cannot refrain from making one more extract from our little manual.
The thirteenth section deals with 'The Rights and Duties of the Citizen'
and the third subsection treats as follows of:--

'POLITICAL DUTIES.

'The French people ought more than any other peop