Page 40 (1/2)
Mrs Caffyn's house was a rooe near the church, with a
bo in which were displayed bottles of 'suckers,' and of Day &
Martin's blacking, cotton stuffs, a bag of nuts and so-blue, drapery,
treacle, starch, tea, tobacco and snuff, cheese, nesia, pills, sulphur, dill-
water, Dalby's Carminative, and steel-drops There was also a s and tin ware A boy was behind the
counter When Mrs Caffyn was out he always asked the customers who
desired any article, the sale of which was in any degree an art, to
call again when she returned He went as far as those things which
were put up in packets, such as ere called 'grits' for ruel, and he was also authorised to venture on pennyworths of
liquorice and peppermints, but the sale of half-a-dozen yards of
cotton print was as otiation of a treaty of
peace would be to achildren, went into the shop when Mrs Caffyn was
not to be seen there, and, if she had to go to Dorking or Letherhead
on business, she always chose the middle of the day, when the folk
were busy at their homes or in the fields Poor woman! she was much
tried Half the people who dealt with her were in her debt, but she
could not press theed by the score from their farms, but as they were not
sufficiently philosophic, or sufficiently considerate for their
fellows to hang or drown theed to consume