Oh! Christina!/Chapter 9
IX
THE CHEAP SALE
ON the first morning of the sale Christina set out for school at the usual hour, but not in her usual spirits. Miss Purvis sought to comfort her with the promise that she would be allowed to help in the shop after school hours; but Christina's extreme disappointment was not so easily cured. Until the last moment the girl had hoped that her aunt would allow her to miss school for one day at least, and as she left the shop she could hardly see the bills in the window for tears.
Within half-an-hour, however, her depression was changed into delight. She burst into the shop with an ear-piercing whoop, and danced wildly in front of a table laden with articles, each of which was ticketed with a large "6."
"Christina, what has happened?" cried Miss Purvis, whose only customer so far had been a child demanding change for a penny.
"Measles!" shouted Christina jubilantly.
"What?"
"Measles, auntie! A lot o' the weans has got measles, an' the schule's to be shut for a fortnicht. Is that no' champion? I'll no' miss ony o' the sale noo!" Christina danced round behind the counter, and came to rest beside her relative.
"Measles! How dreadful!" sighed Miss Purvis. "I do hope you aren't going to"
"Och, I had them when I was young," said Christina. "Ye needna be feart for me, auntie. But is't no' champion? You an' me'll ha'e fine fun thegether. Eh?"
"Of—of course I shall be glad of your—help, Christina," said Miss Purvis, feeling her niece's eye upon her. "How long did you say the school was to be closed?"
"A fortnicht—maybe langer, if mair weans gets the measles. Jessie Ann M'Kirdy promised me she wud try an' get them frae her wee brither next week, so we'll maybe get a month's holiday."
Miss Purvis looked horrified, but said nothing.
"Hoo ha'e ye been gettin' on?" inquired Christina, coming to business.
"There has been nothing doing so far," replied the other, endeavouring to speak naturally. The prospect of Christina's company in the shop for weeks was almost too much for her. "I'm afraid our sale is going to be a disappointment," she added despondently; "I feel it in my bones."
"That's jist yer rheumatics, auntie," said Christina cheerfully. "It's early yet. I ken o' twa-three folk that'll be comin' to buy the day."
"Oh! Christina! You don't mean to say that you have been asking people to come"
"What for no'? There's the doctor's leddy, an' Mistress Beaton, an' a frien' o' Mistress Beaton's that's comin' to buy heaps o' yer auld toys for a children's hospital. I didna mean to let bug aboot it—I meant to surprise ye—but I see ye're needin' something to cheer ye up. A face like a fiddle doesna bring custom."
"I'm sure you meant well," said Miss Purvis, "but I wish you had not"
"I wish ye had got bigger bills for the winda," Christina remarked. "Thur yins is nae show. An' ye should ha'e got them printit wi' Great Sale, no' jist Sale. But never heed, auntie. We'll manage fine. I hope we sell a lot o' the saxpenny things. Some o' them's been terrible rejooced. D'ye no' think we micht get mair nor saxpence for the bottles o' scent an' the cork-soles. Eh, auntie?"
Miss Purvis shook her head. "I should never have bought perfume to retail at a shilling, and there are so many cheaper qualities of soles on the market now-a-days."
"Whisht!" said Christina suddenly. "Here somebody comin'! Oh, it's jist Miss M'Indoe. We'll no' get muckle oot o' her. She'll be wantin' to knock doon yer rejooced prices, auntie. Dinna be saft wi' her."
"Hush, Christina!"
A prim lady entered the shop and, after greeting Miss Purvis, announced that she had just come in to take a look round, not that she really required anything at the moment.
While Miss Purvis, with sundry remarks on the weather, was directing the customer's attention to goods laid out on the counter, Christina went quietly round to the table bearing the sixpenny bargains. There she stood at attention.
Ere long she was disgusted to observe that her aunt was weak enough to accept ninepence for a photo-frame which had already been reduced to a shilling.
At last Miss M'Indoe came over to the table.
"Ninepence each, mem," said Christina in a low respectful tone of voice. "They're terrible rejooced," she added.
Miss M'Indoe fingered a bottle of "White Rose," and sniffed disdainfully.
"Ye can tak' twa things for a shillin', mem," whispered Christina, "if—if ye'll no' tell onybody."
And the end of it was that Miss M'Indoe purchased a bottle of perfume and a little yellow box "made of wood that grew near Burns's cottage"—in Germany.
No sooner had the lady departed than Christina was rejoiced by the entrance of Mrs. MacDougall's maid, the Stornoway girl whom she had befriended at the doctor's door. Flora had just received her first month's wages and desired to buy something to send home to her mother.
Miss Purvis, being free, would have attended to the girl, but Christina gave her a look which plainly said "Leave this to me!" And ere long Miss Purvis was engaged with the minister, who required a particular sort of twine which Miss Purvis knew she had, if she could only lay hands on it. She was getting rather flurried when Christina quietly observed—
"You'll get the twine in the broon boax, in the third drawer, ablow the shelf whaur ye keep the hair-ile, auntie."
"Christina knows the business, Miss Purvis," Mr. Beaton remarked, smiling. And Christina glowed with pride while she showed Flora framed photographs of Kilmabeg.
"Ye should buy yin o' thur, Flora," she advised. "See! here yin wi' Mistress MacDougall's hoose in it. Yer mither wud like fine to see whaur ye are. Eh?"
"Put I will haf peen sending my sister a post-card wis that same picture a week pefore to-morrow," said Flora.
"But it wud be nice for ye to ha'e this pictur', Flora, if ye was leavin' yer place here. Eh?"
"Well, well, I will pe thinking apout it, Teeny. Now I will pe puying somesing my mother can mek use for."
"This wey for the bargains, then!" said Christina briskly, and led the way to the sixpenny table. "Ninepence each," she whispered, with a comprehensive wave of her hand. "But, seem' yer a frien' o' mines, Flora, I'll rejooce it to saxpence."
Whereupon Flora beamed, and within the space of twenty minutes fell to four separate temptations, including a pair of cork soles.
"Weel, auntie," remarked Christina, when the twain were alone, about mid-day, "we're no' daein' that bad—are we?"
"Indeed," returned Miss Purvis, quite brightly, "I think we are doing very well."
"Hooray!" cried Christina. "An' the leddies ha'e to come yet! It'll be a busy day afore it's done, auntie! My! is't no' champion aboot the measles?"
"You must not rejoice at the misfortunes of other people, Christina," said her aunt solemnly. "The measles must be making a number of people very wretched at this very moment."
"Ay, they're awfu' kitly <ref>Kitly=tickly.<ref> things, the measles. Are ye no' gettin' hungry, auntie? I think we best get wur dinner early, an' be ready for the rush i' the efternune. Hoo's yer rheumatics noo?"
Miss Purvis smiled. "They seem to have gone, dear," she answered. Then the smile vanished.
"Christina!"
"Uh-ha?"
"Who turned all the price-tickets upside down?"
"Me!" said Christina proudly. "I done it to cod Miss M'Indoe. Ye've got to be fly for her. So I turned a' the saxes into nines, an' tell't her she could buy twa things for a shillin', if she didna tell onybody. I hope she tells everybody!"
"Christina, go and put the tickets right at once."
"What wey? Ye'll sell faur niair things if the customers think they're knockin' doon yer prices. It's fair enough—is't no'?"
Miss Purvis looked doubtful. To her the method seemed barely honest and very undignified.
"I'll change them, if ye like," said Christina at last, "but if Miss M'Indoe comes in again, ye'll be nickit, auntie."
And Miss Purvis was thenceforth speechless on the question.
The sale lasted ten days, and the total result, if not all that Christina had expected, was a great deal more than her aunt had dared to hope for.