"Merry Christmas!" cry the storekeepers leading visitors into the store -- and into a 19th century America and a Victorian Christmas. At this end of the year 2001, in this not-so-brave new world when America must reflect on its future, this corner of Vermont offers a possible solace to the nation: the Shelburne Museum, the largest collection of Americana in the United States, www.shelburnemuseum.org, a museum spread over 37 buildings that themselves sprawl over 45 acres, and in turn show what made America great.

Life was not easy for storekeepers a century ago. They had to buy at the right price in the city, then get their goods safely to their distant stores. They had to price their stock correctly, maintain an adequate inventory and hope the items they bought wouldn't go out of fashion or be replaced by something more useful. They had to know when to give credit and when to take legal action for non-payment. Prosperous traders had to be patient, pleasant and trusting. They required, said one historian, "abiding faith and steady nerves."


Christmas was when the store-keeper's faith was restored. Essentially, he had underwritten the annual crops of his farmer-customers; when the slate was clean at Christmas, they could buy again. In the Tuckaway store, behind the wooden counter polished by the trade of 150 years, a guide clad in Victorian velvet, shows her wares. "I've got red flannel underwear, just the thing for a Vermont winter," she says, pointing to a selection hanging like laundry on a clothesline above her head. "And how about a beaver hat for your husband, or a nice warm woolen shawl for your wife?" she continues.