Excerpt from If Wishes Were Horses Pending the funeral he had considerately gone for his midday dinner and also his tea to Mrs. Peacock 's. She was his aunt, and lived close by. To-day, he intended going back to the normal state of things. Aunt Polly, the ignoble trade which she carried on, and her bibulous husband, jarred on his susceptibilities. Aunt Polly had no pretensions. She was Slovenly in appearance and never quite dressed. In addition she had an unpleasant habit of speaking her mind, very Often at the top of her voice. On his way home Martin had to pass her shop, whose window shamed the street with an agglomeration of disreputable articles - dilapidated furniture, odd lots of china, Old spoons and forks, sad-looking engravings - the flotsam and jetsam that come into the hands of the general dealer. Through the doorway one saw vistas of discolored clothing, male and female; and stacks of old boots and shoes stood on Shelves and lay about in the corners. As though this exhibition were not enough to make Aunt Polly 's shocking occupation patent to a censorious world it was emphasized in staring lettering over the shop window. That Signboard caused Martin a lot of secret shame. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.