Poor and Proud or the Fortunes of Katy Redburn Part 10

Here was another avalanche of good fortune, and the little candy merchant could hardly believe her senses. At this rate she would soon become a wholesale dealer in the article.

"Buy some candy?" said she, addressing the next person she met.

"No."

"Buy some candy?" she continued, turning to the next.

"No."

And so she went from one to another, and no one seemed to have the least relish for mola.s.ses candy. She walked till she came to State Street, and sold only three sticks. She begun to be a little disheartened, for the success she had met with at the beginning had raised her antic.i.p.ations so high that she was not disposed to be content with moderate sales. While she was standing at the corner of State Street, waiting impatiently for customers, she saw a man with a basket of apples enter a store. She crossed the street to observe what he did in the store, in order, if possible, to get an idea of his mode of doing business. She saw him offer his apples to the clerks and others in the shop, and she was surprised and gratified to see that nearly every person purchased one or more of them. In her heart she thanked the apple man for the hint he had unconsciously afforded her, and resolved to profit by his example.

Now that commerce was her business, she was disposed to make it her study; and as she reasoned over the matter, she came to understand why she found so few buyers in the streets. Ladies and gentlemen did not like to be seen eating candy in the street, neither would many of them want to put it into their pockets, where it would melt and stick to their clothes. They would eat it in their shops and houses; and with this new idea she was encouraged to make a new effort. Walking along till she came to a store where there appeared to be several clerks she entered.

"Buy some candy?" she said, addressing a salesman near the window, as she raised up her ware so that he could see them.

The clerk made no reply, but coming round from behind the counter, he rudely took her arm, opened the door, and pushed her into the street.

Katy's cheek burned with indignation at this unprovoked a.s.sault, and she wished for the power of ten men, that she might punish the ill-natured fellow as he deserved. But it was all for the best, for, in pus.h.i.+ng her out of the shop, the clerk threw her against a portly gentleman on the street, whose soft, yielding form alone saved her from being tumbled into the gutter. He showed no disposition to resent the a.s.sault upon his obesity, and kindly caught her in his arms.

"What is the matter my dear?" said the gentleman, in soothing tones.

"That man pushed me out of the store," replied Katy, bursting into tears, for she was completely overcome by the indignity that had been cast upon her.

"Perhaps you didn't behave well."

"I am sure I did. I only asked him to buy some candy: and he shoved me right out the door, just as though I had been a dog."

"Well, well, don't cry, my dear; you seem to be a very well-behaved little girl, and I wonder at finding you in such low business."

"My mother is sick, and I am trying to earn something to support her,"

sobbed Katy, who, with her independent notions of trade in general, and of the candy trade in particular, would not have revealed this humiliating truth, except under the severe pressure of a wounded spirit.

"Poor child!" exclaimed the portly gentleman, thrusting his hand deep down into his pocket, and pulling up a handful of silver. "Here is half a dollar for you, for I know you tell the truth."

"O, no, sir; I can't take money as a gift."

"Eh?"

The gentleman looked astonished, and attempted to persuade her; but she steadily protested against receiving his money as a gift.

"You are a proud little girl, my dear."

"I am poor and proud; but I will sell you some candy."

"Well, give me half a dollar's worth."

"I haven't got so much. I have only fourteen cents' worth left."

"Give me that, then."

Katy wrapped up the remainder of her stock in a piece of paper, and handed it to the gentleman, who in payment threw the half-dollar on the tray.

"I can't change it."

"Never mind the change;" and the fat gentleman hurried away.

Katy was so utterly astounded to find she had disposed of her entire stock, that she did not have the presence of mind to follow him, and the half dollar had to be placed in her treasury. She did not regard it with so much pride and pleasure as she did the two four-pence, and the four coppers, for there was something unmercantile about the manner in which it had come into her possession. She could not feel satisfied with herself, as she walked towards home, till she had argued the matter, and effected a compromise between her pride and her poverty.

She had sold candy for the money, and the gentleman had paid her over three cents a stick--rather above the market value of the article; but there was no other way to make the transaction correspond with her ideas of propriety.

Her work was done for the forenoon, though she had plenty of candy at home. It was now eleven o'clock, and she had not time to sell out another stock before dinner. As she walked up the street, on her way home, she encountered Master Simon Sneed, who, with the dignity and stateliness of a merchant prince, was lugging a huge bundle of goods to the residence of some customer.

"I am glad to see you, Simon," said Katy. "Have you seen your friend the mayor?"

"I am sorry to inform you, Katy, that a press of business has prevented my calling on his honor."

"I am sorry for that. I am afraid I shall never see the watch again."

"Depend upon it, you shall. I pledge you my honor that I will use every exertion to recover the lost treasure. Just now our firm require the undivided attention of all in the store."

"I told Mrs. Gordon all about it, and she promised to speak to the mayor."

"It was unnecessary to trouble her with the matter; my influence with the mayor will be quite sufficient."

"I dare say it will; but when shall you see him?"

"Very soon, be patient, Katy."

"Mrs. Gordon promised to take me to the mayor to-day, and tell him all about it."

"Take you to the mayor!" exclaimed Master simon.

"That's what she said."

"You will be afraid of him, and not able to tell your story."

"No, I guess I shan't. I will tell him that I have mentioned the matter to you."

"Perhaps you had better not; his honor, though we have been quite intimate, may not remember my name. But I must leave you now, for the firm gets very uneasy in my absence."

Simon shouldered his bundle again, and moved off, and Katy walked towards home, wondering why a person of so much importance to the Messrs. Sands & Co. should be permitted to degrade himself by carrying bundles. When she got home, she found her mother in a very cheerful frame of mind, the result of her reading and meditation.

"Well. Katy, you come back with an empty tray have you sold all your candy?" asked Mrs. Redburn, as she entered the room.

"Yes, mother, every stick. I have brought back sixty-six cents,"

replied Katy, emptying her pocket on the bed.

"Sixty-six cents! But you had only thirty sticks of candy."

"You must not blame me for what I have done, mother; I could not help it;" and she proceeded to narrate all the particulars of her forenoon's occupation.