Honesty by the Bunch

By George S. Tanner

Making a living in Joseph City, Arizona, in the early 1900s was difficult. The poverty line was just a crop failure away, and extra money was scarce. Even after we children were all gone from home, my mother still cultivated a large garden and sold most of the produce to peddlers, who would truck it to Holbrook or Winslow to market.

Among the vegetables the peddler who came to our house regularly requested were carrots—four or five dozen bunches, which my mother dug, washed, and bunched herself. When he arrived, usually quite early in the morning, all the requested vegetables were bunched and neatly arranged in boxes near the pump so that Mother could keep them sprinkled and fresh.

Moist, freshly washed carrots are tempting, and the peddler often snipped a carrot from one of the bunches and ate it as he loaded the vegetables onto the truck. He noticed my mother eyeing him disapprovingly, but he paid little attention. This happened a number of times.

Finally, one morning when he had done it again, Mother said, “Do you intend to sell that bunch of carrots?” When the peddler said he did, she shook her head slightly, but said no more.

The next time he came to pick up her vegetables, she had saved a few of the culls and tied them neatly in a bunch. She handed them to the peddler and said, “Now, see here, young man. These are for you.” Then she looked him straight in the eye and said, “And don’t you dare break off any of the carrots from the bunches I have prepared for the market.”

That day the peddler got a lesson in pioneer-style honesty.

• George S. Tanner was formerly director of the Hawaiian Bureau of Information. He is a former bishop and LDS Institute director and is now a member of the Holladay Tenth Ward in the Salt Lake Holladay Stake.