"Have you any red calico like this?" I asked of the saleswoman
behind the counter.
"No, sir," she said, "but we have it in Turkey red."
Turkey red again! I surrendered.
"All right," I said, "give me Turkey red."
"How much, sir?" she asked.
"I don't know--say five yards."
She looked at me rather strangely, but measured off five yards of
Turkey-red calico. Then she rapped on the counter and called out
"Cash!" A little girl, with yellow hair in two long plaits, came
slowly up. The lady wrote the number of yards, the name of the
goods, her own number, the price, the amount of the bank-note I
handed her, and some other matters, probably the color of my eyes
and the direction and velocity of the wind, on a slip of paper. She
then copied all this into a little book which she kept by her. Then
she handed the slip of paper, the money, and the Turkey red to the
yellow-haired girl. This young person copied the slip into a little
book she carried, and then she went away with the calico, the paper
slip, and the money.
After a very long time--during which the little girl probably took
the goods, the money, and the slip to some central desk, where the
note was received, its amount and number entered in a book, change
given to the girl, a copy of the slip made and entered, girl's entry
examined and approved, goods wrapped up, girl registered, plaits
counted and entered on a slip of paper and copied by the girl in her
book, girl taken to a hydrant and washed, number of towel entered on
a paper slip and copied by the girl in her book, value of my note
and amount of change branded somewhere on the child, and said
process noted on a slip of paper and copied in her book--the girl
came to me, bringing my change and the package of Turkey-red calico.
I had time for but very little work at the office that afternoon,
and when I reached home I handed the package of calico to my wife.
She unrolled it and exclaimed:
"Why, this don't match the piece I gave you!"
"Match it!" I cried. "Oh no! it don't match it. You didn't want that
matched. You were mistaken. What you wanted was Turkey red--third
counter to the left. I mean, Turkey red is what they use."
My wife looked at me in amazement, and then I detailed to her my
troubles.
"Well," said she, "this Turkey red is a great deal prettier than
what I had, and you've got so much of it that I needn't use the
other at all. I wish I had thought of Turkey red before."
"I wish from the bottom of my heart you had," said I.