came near enough, her courage all
oozed out, and she let him pass without speaking to him.

"What a fool I am!" exclaimed she to herself when he had passed. "I
shall never do anything in this way. There comes another gentleman who
looks as though he had a sweet tooth; at any rate, he seems as
good-natured as a pound of sugar. I will certainly try him."

Her heart pounded against her ribs as though it had been worked by a
forty-horse engine--poor girl. It was a great undertaking to her; quite
as great as taking a six-story granite warehouse, piling it full of
merchandise from cellar to attic, and announcing himself as ready for
business, to a child of a larger growth. Everything seemed to hang on
the issues of that tremendous moment.

"Buy some candy?" said she, in tremulous tones, her great, swelling
heart almost choking her utterance.

"No, child. I don't want any," replied the gentleman, kindly, as he
glanced at the tray on which the candy had been so invitingly spread.

"It is very nice," stammered Katy; "and perhaps your children at home
would like some, if you do not."

Bravo, Katy! That was very well done, though the gentleman was an old
bachelor, and could not appreciate the full force of your argument.

"Are you sure it is very nice?" asked the gentleman, with a benevolent
smile, when he had laughed heartily at Katy's jumping conclusion.

"I know it is," replied the little candy merchant, very positively.

"Then you may give me six sticks;" and he threw a fourpence on her tray.

Six sticks! Katy was astonished at the magnitude of her first
commercial transaction. Visions of wealth, a fine house, and silk
dresses for her mother and herself, danced through her excited brain,
and she thought that her grandfather, the great Liverpool merchant,
would not have been ashamed of her if he had been present to witness
that magnificent operation.

"Have you any paper to wrap it up in?" asked the gentleman.

Here was an emergency for which Katy had not provided. Her grandest
expectations had not extended beyond the sale of one stick at a time,
and she was not prepared for such a rush of trade. However, she tore
off a piece from one of the white sheets at the bottom of the tray,
wrapped up the six sticks as nicely as she could, and handed them to
the gentleman, who then left her to find another customer.

Katy, elated by her first success, ran home as fast as she could to
procure some more white paper, of which