He laughed until he was purple in the face, and he could
hardly find breath to speak.
"I really thought you did!" Montague protested. "It's exactly the
situation."
"Oh, dear me!" said the Major, fishing for his pocket handkerchief
to wipe the tears from his eyes. "Dear me! It makes me think of our
district attorney's lemon story. Did you ever hear it?"
"No," said Montague, "I never did."
"It was one of the bright spots in a dreary reform campaign that we
had a few years ago. It seems that our young crusader was giving his
audience a few illustrations of how dishonest officials could make
money in this city.
"'Let us imagine a case,' he said. 'You are an inspector of fruit,
and there is a scarcity of lemons in New York. There are two ships
full of lemons on the way, and one ship gets in twenty-four hours
ahead. Now the law requires that the fruit be carefully inspected.
If you are too careful about it, it will take more than twenty-four
hours, and the owner of the cargo will lose a small fortune. So he
comes to you and offers you a thousand or two, and you don't stop to
open every crate of his lemons.
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