“Yes, I always do that. I buy from one woman during the season, who agrees to furnish me at the regular market price.”
“Which you will always find to be two or three cents above what you can get them for in the market.”
“You always buy in market.”
“I bought these from a woman at the door.”
“Did she only ask eight cents for them?”
“Oh no! She asked ten cents, and pretended that she got twelve and a half for the same quality of berries yesterday. But I never give these people what they ask.”
“While I never can find it in my heart to ask a poor, tired-looking woman at my door, to take a cent less for her fruit than she asks me. A cent or two, while it is of little account to me, must be of great importance to her.”
“You are a very poor economist, I see,” said Mrs. Mier. “If that is the way you deal with every one, your husband no doubt finds his expense account a very serious item.”
“I don’t know about that. He never complains. He allows me a certain sum every week to keep the house, and find my own and the children’s clothes; and so far from ever calling on him for more, I always have fifty or a hundred dollars lying by me.”
“You must have a precious large allowance then, considering your want of economy in paying everybody just what they ask for their things.”