“Hello, Mr. Smith,” he said. “I want thirteen pounds of coffee at 32 cents.”
“Very good,” said the grocer, and he noted down the sale, and put his clerk to packing the coffee. “Anything else, Charlie?”
“Yes. Twenty-seven pounds of sugar at 9 cents.”
“The loaf, eh? And what else?”
“Seven and a half pounds of bacon at 20 cents.”
“That will be a good brand. Go on.”
“Five pounds of tea at 90 cents; eleven and a half quarts of molasses at 8 cents a pint; two eight-pound hams at 21¼ cents, and five dozen jars of pickled walnuts at 24 cents a jar.”
The grocer made out the bill,
“It’s a big order,” he said. “Did your mother tell you to pay for it?”
“My mother,” said the boy, as he pocketed the neat and accurate bill, “has nothing to do with this business. It is my arithmetic lesson and I had to get it done somehow.”