uled, though she insisted that her little experience with a few
customers had fully satisfied her that our ill-natured neighbors were
making great profits out of the immense retail trade they were doing.

But if our little household was thus harmonious on the strawberry
question, the Tetchys were very far from being on good terms with us.
They had as great a run that season as ever. Indeed, we heard that their
customers had so increased as to oblige them to purchase fruit in order
to supply the demand. How they managed about more cream I never
learned,--whether they got a new cow, or whether that with the iron tail
was required to do extra duty, was a mystery which the neighbors were
never permitted to penetrate. Their customers must have been equally
ignorant, as we never heard of their complaining; but I have little
doubt that Mrs. Tetchy could tell, to a drop, how much water a quart of
milk would bear without the cheat being detected.

It may seem uncharitable to speak thus of one's neighbors, but the
Tetchys showed themselves unfriendly to us just in proportion as we gave
evidence of beginning to succeed. They might have aided us materially,
without injuring themselves in the least. But they had become possessed
with the absurd fear, that we, on a single acre and a half, were about
raising strawberries enough to ruin their business. Then my mother's
having entertained a dozen or two of transient customers was well known
to them, for they watched us with unsleeping jealousy; and they were
sure we intended to set up another garden. So, although they saw they
had a demand for more than their grounds produced, a demand, moreover,
that was actually increasing, and this without any abatement in price,
yet they preferred procuring their extra supplies from others a great
way off to purchasing from us who were close at hand. Such purchases
would be just so much encouragement to what they regarded as a rival
establishment, which they desired to see suppressed. Hence all
intercourse between the families ceased, and we heard nothing but the
ill-natured remarks they made about our doings, which other neighbors
were kind enough to repeat to us,--the carrying of such things to and
fro being considered by some an indispensable part of true neighborly
kindness. It is quite probable, however, that these were all pretty well
amplified on their way, as I have noted that an ill-natured speech, like
a bouncing lie, generally grows by re