The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance

"'Takes two cents,' said the clerk, after weighing it. 'If there is writing inside, it will be twelve cents.' "'Mercy on me, but how you do charge!' "Here the thirteen men began to push up and bustle around, and talk about the old match-box delaying two dozen business letters; but the woman had lots of time. "'Then it will be two cents, eh?' "'If there is no writing inside,' observed the clerk. "'Well, there may be; I know she is a great hand to write. She's sending some flower-seed to her sister, and I suppose she has told her how to plant 'em ----' "'Two threes,' called out one of the crowd, as he tried to get at the window. "'Hurry up!' cried another. "'There ought to be a separate window here for women,' growled a third. "'Then it will take twelve cents?' she calmly queried, as she fumbled around for her purse. "'Yes.' "'Well, I'd better pay it, I guess.' "From one pocket she took two coppers, from her reticule she took a three-cent piece, from her purse she fished out a nickel; and it was only after a hunt of eighty seconds that she got the twelve cents together. She then consumed four minutes in licking on the stamps, asking where to post the box, and wondering if there was really any writing inside. "But woman proposes and man disposes. Twenty thousand dollars worth of business was being detained by a twelve-cent woman, and a tidal wave suddenly took her away from the window. In sixty seconds the thirteen men had been waited on and gone their ways, and the woman returned to the window, handed in the box, and said, 'Them stamps are licked on crooked; it won't make any difference, will it?'"