peddler Quotes

“So the peddler picked up his caps and put them back on his head- first his own checked cap, then the gray caps, then the brown caps, then the blue caps, then the red caps on the very top.”

“By this time the peddler was really very, very angry. He stamped both his feet and shouted, ‘You monkey’s you! You must give me back my caps!’ ”

“And he sat down very slowly, under the tree and leaned back little by little against the tree-trunk so as not to disturb the caps on his head. ”

“At last he became so angry that he pulled off his own cap, threw it on the ground, and began to walk away.”

“He walked up and down the streets, holding himself very straight so as not to upset his caps.”

“Once there was a peddler who sold caps. But he was not like an ordinary peddler carrying his wares on his back. He carried them on top of his head.”

“When he woke up he was refreshed and rested. But before standing up he felt with his hand to make sure his caps were in the right place. All he felt was his own checked cap!”

“The peddler looked at the monkeys. The monkeys looked at the peddler. He didn’t know what to do.”

“each monkey pulled off his cap…and all the gray caps, and all the brown caps, and all the blue caps, and all the red caps came flying down out of the tree.”

The center of this novel is the monstrous Otis Gardiner -a peddler known as “the Coram man” for his sham reputation as a representative of Thomas Coram’s famous foundling hospital in London. Utterly pitiless, Otis adds to his living by disposing of unwanted children and illegitimate offspring handed to him by distraught young women as he passes through towns and villagers and calls at wealthy country states.