n looking at her and
her baskets, but now suddenly looked away to the shopkeeper.

"Please, sir, I want--"

"There! stop," said Mr. Lamb; "don't you see I'm busy. I can't attend to
you just now; you must wait.--Are these baskets better, ma'am?" he said
coming back to Daisy and a smooth voice.

Daisy felt troubled, but she tried to attend to her business. She asked
the price of the baskets.

"Those first I shewed you, ma'am, are three pence apiece--these are
sixpence. This is quite a tasty basket," said Mr. Lamb, balancing one on
his forefinger. "Being open, you see, it shews the fruit through. I
think these might answer your purpose."

"What are those?" said Daisy pointing to another kind.

"Those, ma'am, are not strawberry baskets."

"But please let me see one.--What is the price?"

"These fancy baskets, ma'am, you know, are another figure. These are not
intended for fruit. These are eighteen pence apiece, ma'am."

Daisy turned the baskets and the price over. They were very neat! they
would hold as many berries as the sixpenny ones, and look pretty too, as
for a festival they should. The sixpenny ones were barely neat--they had
no gala look about them at all. While Daisy's eye went from one to the
other, it glanced upon the figure of the poor, patient, little waiting
girl who stood watching her. "If you please, Mr. Lamb," she said, "will
you hear what this little girl has to say?--while I look at these."

"What do you want, child?"

The answer came very low, but though Daisy did not want to listen she
could not help hearing.

"Mother wants a pound of ham, sir."

"Have you brought the money for the flour?"

"No, sir--mother'll send it."

"We don't cut our hams any more," said the storekeeper. "Can't sell any
less than a whole one--and that's always cash. There! go child--I can't
cut one for you."

Daisy looked after the little ragged frock as it went out of the door.
The extreme mystery of some people being rich and some people poor,
struck her anew, and perhaps something in her look as it came back to
the storekeeper made him say,

"They're very poor folks, Miss Randolph--the mother's sickly, and I
should only lose my money. They came and got some flour of me yesterday
without paying for it--and it's necessary to put a stop to that kind of
thing at once. Don't you think that basket'll suit, ma'am?"

Baskets? and what meant those words which had been over and over in
Daisy's mind for the few days