"That white sugar you sent Mrs.
Smith was table-salt, and she made a whole batch of cake out of it before she discovered her mistake.

She was out of temper when she flew in the store, I tell you.

I had not only to give her the sugar, but enough butter and eggs to make good her loss, and throw in a neck-tie to compensate her for waste of time.

Before she got away, in came the mother of the little girl to whom you had given a slab of molasses candy for bar-soap, and said that the child had brought nothing home but some streaks of molasses on her face.

Just as I was coming out to dinner the other boy brought back the porcelain eggs you had given him with word that 'Ma had biled 'em an hour, and she couldn't even budge the shells.' So you see, my son, that in a miscellaneous store you are quite out of your element." "It was that flirt of a Belle Marigold that upset him," said mother, laughing so that she spilled the gravy on the table-cloth.