Small wares or trifles.--Worcester. A word much used by the ingenious New Englanders.
"Can I suit you to-day, ma'am?" said a pedlar from New England, when offering his wares for sale in Michigan. "I've all sorts of notions. Here's fashionable calicoes; French work collars and capes; elegant milk pans, and Harrison skimmers and ne plus ultry dippers! patent pills--cure anything you like; ague bitters; Shaker yarbs; essences, wintergreen, lobely; tapes, pins, needles, hooks and eyes; broaches and bracelets; smelling bottles; castor ile; corn-plaster; mustard; garding seeds; silver spoons; pocket combs; tea-pots; green tea; saleratus; tracts; song-books; thimbles; baby's whistles; slates; playin' cards; puddin' sticks; baskets; wooden bowls; powder and shot. I shan't offer you lucifers, for ladies with such eyes never buys matches--but you can't ask me for anything I haven't got, I guess."--Mrs. Clavers's Forest Life, Vol. II. p. 113.