“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.”

“Oh, no!  I don’t do that, exactly, Mrs. Mier.  If I consider the price of a thing too high, I don’t buy it.”

“You paid too high for your strawberries today.”

“Perhaps I did; although I am by no means certain.”

“You can judge for yourself.  Mine cost but eight cents, and you own that they are superior to yours at ten cents.”

“Still, yours may have been too cheap, instead of mine too dear.”

“Too cheap!  That is funny!  I never saw any thing too cheap in my life.  The great trouble is, that every thing is too dear.  What do you mean by too cheap?”

“The person who sold them to you may not have made profit enough upon them to pay for her time and labor.  If this were the case, she sold them to you too cheap.”

“Suppose she paid too high for them?  Is the purchaser to pay for her error?”

“Whether she did so, it would be hard to tell; and even if she had made such a mistake, I think it would be more just and humane to pay her a price that would give her a fair profit, instead of taking from her the means of buying bread for her children.  At least, this is my way of reasoning.”

“And a precious lot of money it must take to support such a system of reasoning.  But how much, pray, do you have a week to keep the family?  I am curious to know.”

“Thirty-five dollars.”

“Thirty-five dollars!  You are jesting.”

“Oh, no!  That is exactly what I receive, and as I have said, I find the sum ample.”

“While I receive fifty dollars a week,” said Mrs. Mier, “and am forever calling on my husband to settle some bill or other for me.  And yet I never pay the exorbitant prices asked by everybody for every thing.  I am strictly economical in my family.  While other people pay their domestics a dollar and a half and two dollars a week, I give but a dollar and a quarter each to my cook and chambermaid, and require the chamber maid to help the washer-woman on Mondays.  Nothing is wasted in my kitchen, for I take care in marketing, not to allow room for waste.  I don’t know how it is that you save money on thirty-five dollars with your system, while I find fifty dollars inadequate with my system.”