It was during the 1880s in Northern England that Jessie Smith, just thirteen years old, came to work for Ezekiel Dobson, owner of a high-class grocer's shop in the market town of Lambton. Although his shop was a cave of treasures -- ruby-red hams, old-gold cheeses, emerald-green apples -- he was the most miserly man in Lambton. Even the townspeople called him "Throttlepenny" behind his back. Soon the old man's meanness of mind and spirit began to...