On Sundays it was invariably chained up; for although it was no
breach of the Sabbath to use the pump in the backyard, the line was
drawn there, and it would have been voted by nine-tenths of Cowfold
as decidedly immoral to get water from the one outside. The shops
were a draper's, a grocer's, an ironmonger's, a butcher's and a
baker's. All these were regular shops, with shop-windows, and were
within sight of one another.
There were also other houses where things were sold; but these were
mere dwelling-houses, and were at the poorer and more remote ends of
Cowfold. None of the regular shops aforesaid were strictly what they
professed to be. Each of them diverged towards "the general." The
draper sold boots and shoes; the grocer sold drugs, stationery, horse
and cow medicines, and sheep ointment; and the ironmonger dealt in
crockery. Even the butcher was more than a butcher, for he was never
to be seen at his chopping block, and his wife did all the retail
work. He himself was in the "jobbing" line, and was always jogging
about in a cart, in the hind part of which, covered with a net, was a
calf or a couple of pigs. Three out of the four streets ran out in
cottages; but one was more aristocratic.
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