wider--I mean what
I say. How did Rowton manage to git you fellers up so early, I wonder.
Give out thet he'd hire the first ten that come, did he? An' gives each
feller his dinner an' a hat.

"I was half afeered you wouldn't be open yet, Rowton--but I was
determined to git ahead o' the Christmus crowd, an' I started by
starlight. I ca'culate to meet 'em all a-goin' back.

"Well, I vow, ef yo' sto'e don't look purty. Wish _she_ could see it.
She'd have some idee of New York. But, of co'se, I couldn't fetch her
to-day, an' me a-comin' specially to pick out her Christmus gif'. She's
jest like a child. Ef she s'picions befo' hand what she's a-goin' to
git, why, she don't want it.

"I notice when I set on these soap-boxes, my pockets is jest about even
with yo' cash-drawer, Rowton. Well, that's what we're here for. Fetch
out all yo' purties, now, an' lay 'em along on the counter. You know
_her_, an' she ain't to be fooled in quality. Reckon I _will_ walk
around a little an' see what you've got. I 'ain't got a idee on earth
what to buy, from a broach to a barouche. Let's look over some o' yo'
silver things, Rowton. Josh Porter showed me a butter-dish you sold him
with a silver cow on the led of it, an' I was a-wonderin' ef, maybe,
you didn't have another.

"That's it. That's a mighty fine idee, a statue like that is. It sort o'
designates a thing. D'rec'ly a person saw the cow, now, he'd s'picion
the butter inside the dish. Of co'se, he'd know they wouldn't hardly be
hay in it--no, ez you say, 'nor a calf.' No doubt wife'll be a-wantin'
one o' these cow-topped ones quick ez she sees Josh's wife's. She'll see
the p'int in a minute--of the cow, I mean. But, of co'se, I wouldn't
think o' gittin' her the same thing Josh's got for Helen, noways. We're
too near neighbors for that. Th' ain't no fun in borryin' duplicates
over a stile when company drops in sudden, without a minute's warnin'.

"No, you needn't call my attention to that tiltin' ice-pitcher. I seen
it soon ez I approached the case. Didn't you take notice to me a-liftin'
my hat? That was what I was a-bowin' to, that pitcher was. No, that's
the thing wife hankers after, an' I know it, an' it's the one thing I'll
never buy her. Not thet I'd begrudge it to her--but to tell the truth
it'd pleg me to have to live with the thing. I wouldn't mind it on
Sundays or when they was company in the house, but I like to take off my
coat, hot days, an' set around in my shirt-sleev