have not already learned, in which they speedily become as adept as
their parents.

Those intended for a mercantile career are put into the shop at twelve
or fourteen, and after some experience in weighing-out and bargaining
by the side of a father or elder brother, they are left entirely to
themselves, being supplied with goods from the main shop as they need
them.

It is by this means that the multitudinous little box-shops which
are a feature of the towns are enabled to pay their way, this being
rendered possible by an expensive minutely retail trade. The average
English tradesman is a wholesale dealer compared to these petty
retailers, and very many middle-class English households take in
sufficient supplies at a time to stock one of their shops. One reason
for this is the hand-to-mouth manner in which the bulk of the people
live, with no notion of thrift. They earn their day's wage, and if
anything remains above the expense of living, it is invested in gay
clothing or jimcracks. Another reason is that those who could afford
it have seldom any member of their household whom they can trust as
housekeeper, of which more anon.

It seems ridiculous to send for sugar, tea, etc., by the ounce or
less; candles, boxes of matches, etc., one by one; needles, thread,
silk, in like proportion, even when cash is available, but such is the
practice here, and there is as much haggling over the price of one
candle as over that of an expensive article of clothing. Often quite
little children, who elsewhere would be considered babes, are sent out
to do the shopping, and these cheapen and bargain like the sharpest
old folk, with what seems an inherent talent.