The Tale of Ginger and Pickles

Once upon a time there was a village shop called “Ginger and Pickles." It was a small little shop just the right size for dolls, rabbits and mice. The rabbits were always a little bit afraid of Pickles and the mice were rather afraid of Ginger but that never stopped them from shopping there. Ginger and Pickles were the owners of the store. Ginger was a yellow cat, and Pickles was a dog. Although it was such a small shop it sold nearly everything. Tabitha Twitchit kept the only other shop in the village but she did not give credit. Ginger and Pickles gave unlimited credit. Now the meaning of "credit" is this—when a customer buys something, instead of the customer paying for it—she says she will pay another time and this information is written down in a book of who owes money. The customers come again and again, and buy large quantities! And the sales were enormous, ten times as large as Tabitha Twitchit's! All in spite of some customers being afraid of Ginger and Pickles, but there is no money in the register. They never paid for as much as a penny’s worth of peppermints. As there was always no money, Ginger and Pickles were obliged to eat their own goods. The year went by and on January 1st there still wasn’t any money and Pickles was unable to get his dog license and was very afraid of getting in trouble. "I do not believe that anyone intends to pay at all," said Pickles. "Let’s send all the bills again to everybody on credit,'" replied Ginger. Ginger and Pickles went into the back room to total up everyone’s accounts. After a time they heard a noise in the shop, as if something had been pushed in at the door. They came out of the back room to see an envelope lying on the counter, and a policeman writing in a note-book! Pickles nearly had a fit, he barked and he barked and made little rushes trying to scare away the officer. Pickles barked till he was hoarse. But still the little policeman doll took no notice. He had bead eyes, and his helmet was sewed on with stitches. Pickles feared the worst and worried he was going to get taken away for being unlicensed. They opened the envelope to find tax information and more money they owed as business owners for running their shop. They had no clue where they were going to get that money from and the stress was getting to them. "This is the last straw," said Pickles, "let us close the shop." They put up the shutters, locked all the doors and left. The two of them had been so shaken up by the whole ordeal, they tried to start new lives and new careers where they wouldn’t fall in to so much pressure again. Ginger turned toward living a life in the warren where the rabbits play and looks as happy as ever living carefree. Pickles became a gamekeeper and watches over the property of his employers and all the small wild animals that live on it like pheasants, ducks, fish and so forth. The closing of the shop caused great inconvenience in the town. Tabitha Twitchit immediately raised her prices on everything and continued to refuse to give credit making a lot of the items customers needed absolutely unaffordable to them. Of course there were the tradesmen's carts—the butcher, the fisherman and Timothy Baker for them to get their meats and wondrous baked goods. But a person cannot live on sponge-cake and butter-buns alone—not even when the sponge-cake is as good as Timothy's! Other townsfolk began to step in to try and sell things that Ginger and Pickles used to have as well. After a time Mr. John Dormouse and his daughter began to sell peppermints and candles. But they did not keep "self-fitting sixes"; and it takes five mice to carry one seven inch candle. Nor were the candles as good of a quality and behaved very strangely in warm weather. And don’t even think about returning an item! Miss Dormouse refused to accept returns and give customers their money back when they brought back their items with complaints. When people tried to speak with Mr. Dormouse, he simply stayed in bed and ignored them which is not the way to carry on a business. So everybody was pleased when Sally Henny Penny sent out a printed poster to say that she was going to re-open the shop—Henny's Grand Opening Sale! Penny's penny prices! Come buy, come try, come buy!" The poster really was most enticing. There was a rush upon the opening day. The shop was crammed with customers, and there were crowds of mice upon the biscuit canisters. Sally Henny Penny gets rather flustered when she tries to count out change, and she insists on being paid cash; but she is quite harmless. And she has laid in a remarkable assortment of bargains. There is something to please everybody and something everyone can afford.