ere she was early called upon to decide between the right
and the wrong; when she was required to select her path for life. She
had chosen the good way, as Ann Grippen had chosen the evil way.

I do not mean to say her character was formed, or that having chosen to
be good, she could not afterwards be evil. But the great experiences of
life which generally come in more mature years, had been forced upon
her while still a child; and nobly and truly had she taken up and borne
the burden imposed upon her. As a child she had done the duties of the
full-grown woman, and she had done them well. She had been faithful to
herself.

Providence kindly ordains that the child shall serve a long
apprenticeship before it is called upon to think and act for itself.
Katy had anticipated the period of maturity, and with the untried soul
of a child, had been compelled to grapple with its duties and its
temptations. As her opportunities to be good and do good were
increased, so was her liability to do wrong. She had her faults, great,
grave faults, but she was truly endeavoring to overcome them.

Tommy had returned from his voyage to Liverpool, and joyous was the
meeting between Katy and her sailor friend. It took him all the
evenings for a week to tell the story of his voyage, to which Mrs.
Redburn and her daughter listened with much satisfaction. He remained
at home two months, and then departed on a voyage to the East Indies.

Master Simon Sneed, after Katy's attempt to serve him, did not tell her
many more large stories about himself, for she understood him now, and
knew that he was not half so great a man as he pretended to be. In the
spring he obtained a situation in a small retail store where there was
not a very wide field for the exercise of his splendid abilities. He
had been idle all winter, and when he lamented his misfortunes to Katy,
she always asked why he did not sell candy. Once she suggested that he
should learn a trade, to which Master Simon always replied, that he was
born to be a gentleman, and would never voluntarily demean himself by
pursuing a degrading occupation. He was above being a mechanic, and he
would never soil his hands with dirty work. Katy began to think he was
really a fool. She could scarcely think him "poor and proud"; he was
only poor and foolish.

At the close of Katy's first year in trade, a great misfortune befell
her in the loss of Mrs. Colvin, her able assistant in the manufacturing
departme