SHOPPING FOR POSTAGE STAMPS
“You keep stamps, don’t you?”
“Yes, Miss; what kind?”
“Why, I don’t know. But I want something that will go well with blue note paper.”
“Yes, miss; do you want letter postage?”
“Of course! I want to post letters, not chairs or tables!”
“Where are the letters to? United States?”
“Be careful young man, or I’ll report you for rudeness. I won’t tell you where the letter is going, it’s private correspondence, but it is in the United States.”
“Then you want a two-cent stamp; here you are.”
“Oh, red ones! Never! Do you suppose I’d put that sickly shade of crushed gooseberry juice on my robin’s egg blue envelopes? Is this the nearest thing you have in two-cent stamps?”
“The very latest style, I assure you.”
“Well, they won’t do. Why, they aren’t fit for anything, unless to make a stamp plate with. Haven’t you any blue ones?”
“Yes, we have a nice line of blue ones, at five cents each.”
“Oh, the price doesn’t matter; let me see them, please.”
“Here they are, beautiful shade of blue.”
“H’m; good enough shade, but it doesn’t quite harmonize with my envelopes. You see they are a sorty of greenishy-blue, and your stamps are more indigoish. Do you expect any new ones in?”
“Well, not any different colors.”
“Oh, dear, that’s always the way! But maybe I could take some of these and dye them with my Easter egg dyes, to match my paper. I did that with some lace, and it worked awfully well! What’s the lightest color you have?”
“These pale green ones are as light as any. But if you dye them blue you can’t use them.”
“Why not?”
“The government won’t allow it.”
“How mean! As if it made any difference to them what color stationery people use! It almost makes me want to be a suffragette when I hear of such tyranny! Not that I’d really be one! I’m too fearfully afraid of a mouse! But I’d like to have a few rights about postage stamps. I do think the selection is very limited. There’s more beauty and variety in cigar bands. Well, I’ll look at these violet ones. How much are they?”
“These are three cents apiece.”
“H’m, two for five cents, I suppose. Well, I could get violet note paper, and use violet ink; then these stamps would do nicely.”
“And they’d match your eyes fairly well, too.”
“Isn’t that queer! Everybody says I have violet eyes, but, really they’re not a bit the color of these stamps, you know.”
“No? Look at me and let me see; well, no, they’re not exactly the same shade, but they’re violet eyes, all right. How many stamps will you have?”
“Two, please; but won’t you give them to me out of the middle of the sheet? Those around the edge seem a little faded.”
“We can’t tear stamps out of the middle of a sheet!”
“Oh, yes, you can, if you try—if I ask you to try! I’ll take that one, and that one!”
“Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter. This one did you say? And this one?”
“Yes, please. Will you wrap them up in a neat parcel, and send them? Good morning.”