Jimmy wrapped up the green stuff carefully and dropped it into the basket carried by the colored man.

“Nine cents, sir,” he said; and the General handed him a dime and then moved to the next stall, holding the flowers close to his nose.

“You forgot your change,” cried Jimmy, and rushed after him with the one cent.

“Keep—­” But one look at the honest little face and he changed his sentence.

“Thank you, young man,” he said, and away he drove.

After that Jimmy looked for the General, and the General for Jimmy.  Their transactions were always carried on in a strictly business manner, although, to be sure, the General’s modest family of two did not require the unlimited sage and sweet marjoram that were ordered from time to time.

On the Saturday before Easter the little stand was gay with new wares.  In little nests of dried grasses lay eggs—­Easter eggs, bright pink and blue and purple and mottled.  Jimmy had invested in a dozen at forty cents the dozen, and he had hopes of doubling the money, for work surely counted for something, and he and the Little Mother had dyed them.

But somehow people passed them by.  Inside of the market there were finer nests, and eggs gilded and lettered, and Jimmy began to feel that his own precious eggs were very dull indeed.

But when the General appeared around the corner, the boy’s spirits rose.  Here, at any rate, was a good customer.

The General, however, was in a temper.  There had been an argument with the fish-man which had left him red in the face and very touchy.  So he bought two bunches of arbutus and nothing else.

“Any eggs, sir?” asked Jimmy.

“Eggs?” said the General, looking over the little stand.

“Easter eggs,” explained Jimmy.

“I’ve no use for such things,” said the General.

“Oh!” said Jimmy, and in spite of himself his voice trembled.  When one is the man of the family, and the Little Mother is sewing for dear life, and her work and the little stand in the market are all that pay the rent and buy food, it is sometimes hard to be brave.  But the General did not notice the tremble.

Jimmy tried again: 

“Any children, sir?  Children always like Easter eggs, you know.”

“No,” said the General; “no one but a son in the Philippines—­a son some six feet two in his stockings.”

“Any grandchildren, sir?” hopefully.

“Bless my soul,” said the General, testily, “what a lot of questions!” And he hurried off to his carriage.

Jimmy felt very forlorn.  The General had been his last hope.  The eggs were a dead loss.

At last it came time to close up, and he piled all of his wares in a basket.  Then he took out a little broom and began to sweep in an orderly way around his little stall.  He had a battered old dustpan, and as he carried it out to the street to empty it, he saw a stiff greenish-gray paper sticking out of the dirt.  Nothing in the world ever looks exactly like that but an American greenback, and, sure enough, when Jimmy pulled it out it proved to be a ten-dollar bill.