KATY MAKES A LARGE SALE.
Katy rose the next morning bright and early, and her heart was full of
hope. She felt that she had a great work to perform, and she was going
forth to do it, resolved that no obstacle should turn her back. Her
mother had told her that she would be laughed at, and made fun of; that
thoughtless people would look down upon her with contempt, and that
wicked ones would insult her. She was, therefore, prepared for all
these trials, but she had braced herself up to meet them with courage
and fortitude.
Her mother was sick, and they were actually in a suffering condition.
What right had she to be proud in her poverty? She felt able to support
her mother, and she could find no excuse, if she wished to do so, for
not supporting her. It was her duty, therefore, to sell candy if she
could get money by it; and thus consideration strengthened her heart.
Katy had been to the public school and to the Sunday school until her
mother was taken sick; and though she was only eleven years old, she
had a very good idea of her moral and religious duties. "Honor thy
father and thy mother," the commandment says; and she could think of no
better way to obey the divine precept than to support her mother when
there was no one else upon whom she could rely. Little by little their
earthly possessions had passed away. Mrs. Redburn had never learned how
to save money; and when the day of adversity came, her funds were soon
exhausted. She had no friends to whom she dared reveal her poverty, and
when want came to the door, she was too proud to beg. Hoping for better
days, she had sold most of her best dresses, and those of Katy. The
small sums raised by these sacrifices were soon used up; and when the
daughter could no longer make a decent appearance, she was required to
show herself much more than ever before. Katy did not repine at this,
though her mother did, for their pride, as my young friends have
discovered, was of very different kinds.
Katy did wish she had a little better dress, and a little better bonnet
for her first attempt in the mercantile calling; but there was no help
for it. She had mended her clothes as well as she could, and as they
were clean, she was pretty well satisfied with her personal appearance.
Besides, people would not be half so apt to buy her candy if she were
well dressed, as if she were rather plainly clothed. In short, it was
all for the best.
After breakfast she prepared herself for the duties of the day. Her
heart beat violently with anxiety and expectation, and while she was
placing the candy on the tray, which she had previously covered with
white paper to render her wares the more inviting, her mother gave her
a long lecture on the trials and difficulties in her path, and the
proper way to encounter them.
"Now, my dear child," said Mrs. Redburn, in conclusion "if any evil
person insults you, do not resent it, but run away as fast as you can."
"Shan't I say anything, mother?"
"Not a word."
"But if some naughty boy or girl, no bigger than I am myself, should be
saucy to me, I think I can give them as good as they send."
"Don't do it, Katy."
"They have no business to insult me."
"That is very true; but when you use bad or violent language to them,
you go down to their level."
"But if they begin it?"
"No matter, Katy; if they are unkind and wicked, it is no reason that
you should be unkind and wicked. If you leave them without resenting
their insults, the chances are that they will be ashamed of themselves
before you get out of sight. You need not be low and vile because
others are."
"I guess you are right, mother."
"You know what the Bible says: 'If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he
thirst, give him drink, for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire
on his head.'"
"I won't say a word, mother, whatever they say to me. I'll be as meek
as Moses."
"I hope you will not be gone long," added Mrs. Redburn.
"I have thirty sticks of candy here. I don't think it will take me long
to sell the whole of them. I shall be back by dinner time whether I
sell them or not for you know I must go to Mrs. Gordon again to-day.
Now, good-by, mother, and don't you worry about me, for I will do
everything just as though you were looking at me."
Katy closed the door behind her, and did not see the great tears that
slid down her mother's pale cheek as she departed. It was well she did
not, for it would have made her heart very sad to know all the sorrow
and anxiety that distressed her mother as she saw her going out into
the crowded streets of a great city, to expose herself to a thousand
temptations. She wept long and bitterly in the solitude of her chamber,
and perhaps her wounded pride caused many of her tears to flow. But
better thoughts came at last, and she took up the Bible which lay on
the bed, and read a few passages. Then she prayed to God that he would
be with Katy in the midst of the crowd, and guide her safely through
the perils and temptations that would assail her. She tried to banish
her foolish pride, when she considered her circumstances, she could
almost believe it was a wicked pride; but when she endeavored to be
reconciled to her lot, the thought of her father's fine house, and the
servants that used to wait upon her, came up, and the struggle in her
heart was very severe. In spite of all she had said to Katy about the
disgrace of selling candy in the streets, she could not but be thankful
that the poor girl had none of her foolish pride. She read in the New
Testament about the lowly life which Jesus and the apostles led, and
then asked herself what right she had to be proud. And thus she
struggled through the long hours she remained alone--trying to be
humble, trying to be good and true. Those who labor and struggle as
hard as she did are always the better for it, even though they do not
achieve a perfect triumph over the passions that torment them.
Katy blushed when she met the keeper of the grocery at the corner of
the court, for in spite of all her fine talk about false pride, she had
not entirely banished it from her heart. Some queer ideas came into her
head as she thought what she was doing. What would her grandfather, the
rich Liverpool merchant, say, should he meet her then? Of course he
would not know her; he would be ashamed of her. But she did not permit
such reflections as these to influence her; and as soon as she was
conscious of the nature of her thoughts she banished them.
"I'm going to support my mother, and I have no right to be proud. If I
meet my grandfather, I should like to sell him twenty sticks of candy."
"Hallo, Katy! What are you going to do?" said a voice behind, which she
recognized as that of her friend Tommy Howard.
"I'm going to sell this candy," replied Katy.
"You're a spunky one; mother told me all about it. I should like two
sticks," said Tommy, as he offered her the money.
"Take two, Tommy, and as many more as you like."
"Two is all I want;" and he placed the two cents on the tray.
"No, Tommy, I won't take your money," replied Katy, with a blush, for
she felt ashamed to take his money.
"That's no way to trade," laughed Tommy. "You won't make much, it you
do so. Keep the money and I will keep the candy."
"I can't keep it, Tommy."
"You must; if you don't take the money, I won't take the candy."
"I owe you two cents, Tommy. I will pay you now."
"No, you don't!"
"Please to take them; I shall feel very bad, if you don't."
Tommy Howard looked her in the eye a moment; he saw a tear there. Her
pride was wounded, and he took the two cents from the tray, for he did
not wish to give her pain.
"Now, we are square, Tommy," said Katy, as her face brightened up again.
"Yes, we are, but I don't like it pretty well. One of these days, when
you get out of this scrape, I will let you give me as much candy as you
have a mind to."
This was very obliging of Tommy; and when Katy understood his motive,
she was sorry she had not permitted him to pay for the candy, for she
saw that he did not feel just right about the transaction. It was not
exactly mercantile, but then the heart comes before commerce. As she
walked along, she could not help thinking that her natural generosity
might seriously interfere with the profits of her enterprise. She had a
great many friends; and it became a knotty question for her to decide
whether, if she met any of her school companions, she should give each
of them a stick of candy. She would like to do so very much indeed; but
it was certain she could not afford to pursue such a liberal policy. It
was a hard question, and, hoping she should not meet any of her
schoolmates, she determined to refer it to her mother for settlement.
When she got into Washington Street, she felt that the time for action
had come. Now was the time to sell candy; and yet she did not feel like
asking folks to buy her wares. The night before, as she lay thinking
about her business, it had all seemed very easy to her; but now it was
quite a different thing. No one seemed to take any notice of her, or to
feel the least interest in the great mission she had undertaken. But
Katy was aware that it requires some effort in these days to sell
goods, and she must work; she must ask people to buy her candy.
There was a nice-looking gentleman, with a good-natured face, coming
down the street, and she resolved to make a beginning with him. He
couldn't say much more than no to her, and she placed herself in a
position to accost him. But when he 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 she had a dozen sheets that had
been given her by a friend. It was in the back room, so that she did
not disturb her mother, choosing to astonish her with the whole story
of her success at noon.