uty.

"BUY A BROOM! BUY A BROOM!"

Last summer while on our vacation trip along the sea-coast we made our
plans so as to stop over a train at Barnstable that we might have time to
take a look at that ancient burgh, but found to our dismay when it was
too late, that of _time_ we had altogether too much, for when we stepped
out of the car it was seven o'clock in the morning, and our train would
not leave till four in the afternoon! And to make matters worse it began
to rain. We managed, however, at intervals when the rain held up, to get
a pretty good idea of the place, but were driven back to the station by
the persistent drizzle long before noon; and there we seemed destined to
spend five tedious hours, with not much of anything to do, except to get
the way-bills of the Old Colony Railroad by heart, and commit to memory
whatever might be available in the other advertisements posted on the
walls.

[Illustration: THE BLIND BROOM-MAKER OF BARNSTABLE.]

We were beginning to be desperate, when my companion, strolling about,
discovered a small placard saying that fruit was for sale in the freight
depot. I set out to explore, having visions of apples and pears, but
especially peaches and grapes before me.

Passing the wide freightage doors, I came to a narrow one which was wide
open; so I first looked, and then walked in. It was an unfinished place
where a slim young woman was busy about her housework, while a
sick-looking man was "standing round." There was a cooking-stove, and she
was taking pies out of the oven, which she set in a row on a cumbrous
wooden bench that filled all the opposite end of the room, and under it
were stored bunches of something unknown to me which I found afterwards
was broom-corn. She was pretty and girlish, and had blue eyes, and fair
hair.

She asked me to sit down, and told me they had been living there off and
on for three years. "We used to live in 'Commons,' but we did not like,
and so came up here. My husband is not well, and I go out washing, and
take in washing."

It was a very queer place to live in, but neat and comfortable, yet it
seemed just as if they might have been moving, and had merely stopped
here over night and set up their stove in order to cook something to eat.

Upon inquiring for the fruit, about which it began to seem as if there
must be either a mistake or a mystery for nothing of the kind was to be
seen except the dish of apples left over from the pies, sh