Summary

In Part I, while reading comics, Joe heard a peddler calling. The train, Noony, “rattled past the house” (3). The peddler kept calling. Joe pulled his patch over his eye and ran to the window. Seeing no one, he returned to bed (3).

The peddler kept calling. He was sitting with his cart and pony near the tree in the yard. Joe returned to the window, demanding to know what the peddler wanted. He explained he was selling things.

After rummaging through his cabinet, Joe ran downstairs with a pair of pajamas and “a lamb’s shoulder blade” to trade (5). Though skeptical, the peddler let Joe look through his chest. After laying out the knickknacks, Joe chose a jar painted with the words: “Poor Mans Friend . . . Prepared only by Beach & Barnicott, Successors to the Late Dr. Roberts, Bridport” (7). The peddler gave it to Joe...