nd she gets awful blue sometimes; though she
won't let on, 'cause it would fret mother. But the doll would be great
company for her. We've neither of us ever had one."

She continued to gaze longingly at the rosy beauty, while the salesgirl
meditatively dusted the show-case.

"Stop! I'll tell you how you can manage to get it," Julia said,
suddenly. "It's the rule of this store that on Christmas Eve, after
all the customers are gone, each employee may choose as a present from
the firm some article worth a quarter of his or her wages for the week.
Let's see: you're paid three dollars, aren't you?"

Katy nodded.

"That would count for seventy-five cents on the doll; then all you
would have to put to it would be twenty-two cents. Couldn't you do
that somehow?"

"Yes!" cried Katy, delighted. "Sometimes I run errands for a
dressmaker who lives in the block below us, and she gives me pennies,
or once in a while a nickel. And when my aunt's husband comes to see
us--he's a widder man and sorter rich; he drives a truck,--well, when
he comes 'casionally, he gives each of us children as much as ten
cents; and I guess he'll be round about Christmas time. Oh, yes, I'm
almost sure I can make up the twenty-two cents!"

"But, then, when the doll is yours, won't you hate to give it away?"
queried Julia; for Katy already began to assume an air of possession.

"Oh, not to Ellie! And, you know, she'll be sure to let me hold it
sometimes" was the ingenuous reply.

The quick tears sprang to the salesgirl's eyes, and she turned abruptly
away, to arrange some dolls upon the shelves behind her.

"After all, love is better than riches," she reflected, as the picture
of the crippled child in the humble home arose in her mind, and she
gave a sidelong glance at Katy's thin face and shabby dress.

"You will be sure to save this very doll for me, won't you?" pleaded
the child.

"I can't put it aside for you," she explained, "because the
floor-walker would not allow that; but I'll arrange so you will have
one of the lot, never fear."

"But I want this one," declared Katy.

"My goodness gracious, you foolish midget! They're all as much alike
as rows of peas in a pod," exclaimed her friend, a trifle impatiently.

"No," insisted the little girl. "All the others have red painted
buckles on their shoes, but this doll has blue buckles; and I'm sure
Ellie would prefer blue buckles, 'cause we've often talked about it
when we played