The produce was mostly left to the women to sell.

On the fourth side of the square loads of hay and cordwood demanded the master mind, but small matters of fruit, vegetables, and poultry submitted to feminine judgement.

The men "unhitched," and went away on their own business; it was the wives you accosted, as they sat in the middle, with their knees drawn up and their skirts tucked close, vigilant in rusty bonnets, if you wished to buy.
Among them circulated the housewives of Elgin, pricing and comparing and acquiring; you could see it all from Dr Simmons's window, sitting in his chair that screwed up and down.

There was a little difficulty always about getting things home; only very ordinary people carried their own marketing.

Trifling articles, like eggs or radishes, might be smuggled into a brown wicker basket with covers; but it did not consort with elegance to "trapes" home with anything that looked inconvenient or had legs sticking out of it.