In the old days, when trade in Boston shops and stores lasted only in winter and early spring, enterprising Yankees went along rural roads and sold the most stale goods there. For example, ladies' hats that have gone out of fashion. This was the favorite pastime of traveling traders - Yankee peddlers.
Sam Tolman could sell his goods to anyone, because he knew how to flatter the buyer, joke with him, and deceive him. This peddler was a true Yankee.
One day in early spring, he took two huge boxes of ladies’ hats under his arms and set off on a long journey to the Cape Cod Peninsula. The women in this remote corner did not know what kind of hats were now worn on the mainland. And if they heard any rumors, then where could they get such hats?
That spring, so tiny and airy hats were in fashion that a great many of them fit into two boxes. Sam would never have sold them out in less than two weeks. And he had to return to Boston no later than ten days later!
What did he come up with then?
These hats were of two styles: one was like a flat plate, and the other was like a curved, flirty gravy boat.
So Sam Tolman told the women on the island that this year all the Boston ladies were wearing two hats at once: a plate in front and a gravy boat in the back.
Cape Cod fashionistas, of course, bought two hats for themselves and their daughters and nieces, so Sam Tolman returned to Boston even less than ten days later.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru