As I was only a baby when I began to go to school, I was
often sent down-stairs for a half hour's recreation not permitted
to the older ones. I think I looked upon both school and shop
entirely as places of entertainment for little children.
The front shop-window was especially interesting to us children,
for there were in it a few glass jars containing sticks of
striped barley-candy, and red and white peppermint-drops, and
that delectable achievement of the ancient confectioner's art,
the "Salem gibraltar." One of my first recollections of my father
is connected with that window. He had taken me into the shop with
him after dinner,--I was perhaps two years old,--and I was
playing beside him on the counter when one of his old sea-
comrades came in, whom we knew as "Captain Cross." The Captain
tried to make friends with me, and, to seal the bond, asked my
father to take down from its place of exhibition a strip of red
peppermints dropped on white paper, in a style I particularly
admired, which he twisted around my neck, saying, "Now I've
bought you! Now you are my girl.
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