This text is part of:
[366]
One day he went to a hosiery store, and said to the man, ‘I bought a pair of stockings here yesterday.
They looked very nice; but when I got home, I found two large holes in them; and I have come for another pair.
The man summoned his wife, and informed her of what the gentleman had said.’
‘Bless me!
Is it possible, sir?’
she exclaimed.
‘Yes,’ replied Friend Hopper, ‘I found they had holes as large as my hand.’
‘It is very strange,’ rejoined she; ‘for I am sure they were new. But if you have brought them back, of course we will change them.’
‘O,’ said he, ‘upon examination, I concluded that the big holes were made to put the feet in; and I liked the stockings so well, that I have come to buy another pair.’
At another time, he entered a crockery shop, where a young girl was tending.
He made up a very sorrowful face, and in whining tones, told her that he was in trouble and needed help.
She asked him to wait till the gentleman came; but he continued to beseech that she would take compassion on him. The girl began to be frightened by his importunity, and looked anxiously toward the door.
At last, the man of the shop came in; and Friend Hopper said, ‘This young woman thinks she cannot help me out of my trouble; but I think she can. The fact is, we are going to have company, and so ’
Boston, J. P. Jewett and Company; Cleveland, Ohio: Jewett, Proctor and Worthington; London; Low and Company, 1854.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.