KATY SELLS OUT AND VISITS THE MAYOR.
Katy reached Washington Street once more. She had lost all her
timidity, and would not have feared to accost the governor, if she had
met him, and request him to purchase a cent's worth of molasses candy.
"Buy some candy?" said she to the first person who passed near her.
"No!" was the prompt and emphatic answer of the gentleman addressed.
"It is very nice," suggested Katy.
"Get out of my may," growled the gentleman, and the little candy
merchant deemed it prudent to heed the command.
She was nettled by this rude reception, and would have been disposed to
resent it, if there had been any way for her to do so. She had not yet
learned to bear up against the misfortunes of trade, and her eye
followed the sour gentleman far down the street. Why should he treat
her in such a rude and unkind manner? What would he say if she should
tell him that her grandfather was a great Liverpool merchant, lived in
a big house, and had lots of servants to wait upon him? She was as good
as he was, any day.
"Give me a stick of candy," said a nice little girl with a silk dress
on, whom a lady was holding by the hand, at the same time placing a
cent on her tray.
Katy started at the words, and reproved herself for her want of
meekness. She might, perhaps, have sold half a dozen sticks of candy
while she had been watching the sour gentleman, and persuading herself
that she had been very badly used. She tore off a piece of paper, in
which she wrapped up the candy for the purchaser, and handed it to her.
"Thank you," said she, as she picked up the copper, and transferred it
to her pocket.
"Your candy looks very nice," added the lady evidently pleased with
Katy's polite manners.
"It is very nice, ma'am."
"Have you sold much to-day?"
"No, ma'am; I have but just come out."
"It looks so good, I will take half a dozen sticks for the children at
home."
"Thank you, ma'am; you are very kind," replied Katy; and her nimble
fingers had soon made a nice little parcel for the lady, who gave her a
fourpence.
Here was another avalanche of good fortune, and the little candy
merchant could hardly believe her senses. At this rate she would soon
become a wholesale dealer in the article.
"Buy some candy?" said she, addressing the next person she met.
"No."
"Buy some candy?" she continued, turning to the next.
"No."
And so she went from one to another, and no one seemed to have the
least relish for molasses candy. She walked till she came to State
Street, and sold only three sticks. She begun to be a little
disheartened, for the success she had met with at the beginning had
raised her anticipations so high that she was not disposed to be
content with moderate sales. While she was standing at the corner of
State Street, waiting impatiently for customers, she saw a man with a
basket of apples enter a store. She crossed the street to observe what
he did in the store, in order, if possible, to get an idea of his mode
of doing business. She saw him offer his apples to the clerks and
others in the shop, and she was surprised and gratified to see that
nearly every person purchased one or more of them. In her heart she
thanked the apple man for the hint he had unconsciously afforded her,
and resolved to profit by his example.
Now that commerce was her business, she was disposed to make it her
study; and as she reasoned over the matter, she came to understand why
she found so few buyers in the streets. Ladies and gentlemen did not
like to be seen eating candy in the street, neither would many of them
want to put it into their pockets, where it would melt and stick to
their clothes. They would eat it in their shops and houses; and with
this new idea she was encouraged to make a new effort. Walking along
till she came to a store where there appeared to be several clerks she
entered.
"Buy some candy?" she said, addressing a salesman near the window, as
she raised up her ware so that he could see them.
The clerk made no reply, but coming round from behind the counter, he
rudely took her arm, opened the door, and pushed her into the street.
Katy's cheek burned with indignation at this unprovoked assault, and
she wished for the power of ten men, that she might punish the
ill-natured fellow as he deserved. But it was all for the best, for, in
pushing her out of the shop, the clerk threw her against a portly
gentleman on the street, whose soft, yielding form alone saved her from
being tumbled into the gutter. He showed no disposition to resent the
assault upon his obesity, and kindly caught her in his arms.
"What is the matter my dear?" said the gentleman, in soothing tones.
"That man pushed me out of the store," replied Katy, bursting into
tears, for she was completely overcome by the indignity that had been
cast upon her.
"Perhaps you didn't behave well."
"I am sure I did. I only asked him to buy some candy: and he shoved me
right out the door, just as though I had been a dog."
"Well, well, don't cry, my dear; you seem to be a very well-behaved
little girl, and I wonder at finding you in such low business."
"My mother is sick, and I am trying to earn something to support her,"
sobbed Katy, who, with her independent notions of trade in general, and
of the candy trade in particular, would not have revealed this
humiliating truth, except under the severe pressure of a wounded spirit.
"Poor child!" exclaimed the portly gentleman, thrusting his hand deep
down into his pocket, and pulling up a handful of silver. "Here is half
a dollar for you, for I know you tell the truth."
"O, no, sir; I can't take money as a gift."
"Eh?"
The gentleman looked astonished, and attempted to persuade her; but she
steadily protested against receiving his money as a gift.
"You are a proud little girl, my dear."
"I am poor and proud; but I will sell you some candy."
"Well, give me half a dollar's worth."
"I haven't got so much. I have only fourteen cents' worth left."
"Give me that, then."
Katy wrapped up the remainder of her stock in a piece of paper, and
handed it to the gentleman, who in payment threw the half-dollar on the
tray.
"I can't change it."
"Never mind the change;" and the fat gentleman hurried away.
Katy was so utterly astounded to find she had disposed of her entire
stock, that she did not have the presence of mind to follow him, and
the half dollar had to be placed in her treasury. She did not regard it
with so much pride and pleasure as she did the two four-pence, and the
four coppers, for there was something unmercantile about the manner in
which it had come into her possession. She could not feel satisfied
with herself, as she walked towards home, till she had argued the
matter, and effected a compromise between her pride and her poverty.
She had sold candy for the money, and the gentleman had paid her over
three cents a stick--rather above the market value of the article; but
there was no other way to make the transaction correspond with her
ideas of propriety.
Her work was done for the forenoon, though she had plenty of candy at
home. It was now eleven o'clock, and she had not time to sell out
another stock before dinner. As she walked up the street, on her way
home, she encountered Master Simon Sneed, who, with the dignity and
stateliness of a merchant prince, was lugging a huge bundle of goods to
the residence of some customer.
"I am glad to see you, Simon," said Katy. "Have you seen your friend
the mayor?"
"I am sorry to inform you, Katy, that a press of business has prevented
my calling on his honor."
"I am sorry for that. I am afraid I shall never see the watch again."
"Depend upon it, you shall. I pledge you my honor that I will use every
exertion to recover the lost treasure. Just now our firm require the
undivided attention of all in the store."
"I told Mrs. Gordon all about it, and she promised to speak to the
mayor."
"It was unnecessary to trouble her with the matter; my influence with
the mayor will be quite sufficient."
"I dare say it will; but when shall you see him?"
"Very soon, be patient, Katy."
"Mrs. Gordon promised to take me to the mayor to-day, and tell him all
about it."
"Take you to the mayor!" exclaimed Master simon.
"That's what she said."
"You will be afraid of him, and not able to tell your story."
"No, I guess I shan't. I will tell him that I have mentioned the matter
to you."
"Perhaps you had better not; his honor, though we have been quite
intimate, may not remember my name. But I must leave you now, for the
firm gets very uneasy in my absence."
Simon shouldered his bundle again, and moved off, and Katy walked
towards home, wondering why a person of so much importance to the
Messrs. Sands & Co. should be permitted to degrade himself by carrying
bundles. When she got home, she found her mother in a very cheerful
frame of mind, the result of her reading and meditation.
"Well. Katy, you come back with an empty tray have you sold all your
candy?" asked Mrs. Redburn, as she entered the room.
"Yes, mother, every stick. I have brought back sixty-six cents,"
replied Katy, emptying her pocket on the bed.
"Sixty-six cents! But you had only thirty sticks of candy."
"You must not blame me for what I have done, mother; I could not help
it;" and she proceeded to narrate all the particulars of her forenoon's
occupation.
Mrs. Redburn was annoyed at the incident with the fat gentleman; more
so than by the rudeness to which Katy had been subjected. The little
merchant was so elated at her success, that her mother could not find
it in her heart to cast a damper upon her spirits by a single reproach.
Perhaps her morning's reflections had subdued her pride so that she did
not feel disposed to do so.
After dinner Katy hastened at once to Temple Street again. To her great
disappointment she found that Mrs. Gordon and her daughter had been
suddenly called to Baltimore by the death of one of her husband's near
relatives. But the kind lady had not forgotten her, and that was a
great consolation. Michael gave her a note, directed to the mayor,
which he instructed her to deliver that day.
With the assistance of Michael, she found the house of the mayor, and
though her heart beat violently she resolutely rang the bell at the
door.
"Is the mayor in?" asked she of the sleek servant man that answered the
summons.
"Well, suppose he is; what of it?" replied the servant, who could not
possibly have been aware that Katy's grandfather was a rich Liverpool
merchant, or he would have spoken more civilly to her.
"I want to see him."
"He don't see little brats like you," answered the servant, shutting
the door in her face.
Katy was indignant. She wished a dozen things all at once; and among
other things she wished Master Simon Sneed had been there, that he
might report the circumstance to his friend the mayor. What was to be
done? It was mean to treat her in that shabby manner, and she would not
stand it? She would not, that she wouldn't! Grasping the bell handle
with a courageous hand, she gave a pull that must have astonished the
occupants of the servants' hall, and led them to believe that some
distinguished character had certainly come. The sleek man servant
reappeared at the door, ready to make his lowest bow to the great
personage, when he beheld the flashing eye of Katy.
"How dare you ring that bell again?" snarled he.
"I want to see the mayor, I have a note for him from Mrs. Gordon, and I
won't go away till I see him."
"From Mrs. Gordon! Why didn't you say so? You may come in."
Katy entered at this invitation, and the man bade her wait in the hall
till he informed the mayor of her errand. She was not a little pleased
with the victory she had gained, and felt quite equal, after it, to the
feat of facing the chief magistrate of the city. While she stood there,
a little boy having in his hand a stick of molasses candy, with which
he had contrived plentifully to bedaub his face, came out of the
adjoining room, and surveyed her carefully from head to foot. Katy
looked at the candy with attention, for it looked just like one of the
sticks she had sold that forenoon. The little fellow who was not more
than five or six years of age, seemed to have a hearty relish for the
article, and as he turned it over, Katy assured herself that it was a
portion of her stock.
"My pa brought home lots of candy," said the little fellow, after he
had satisfied himself with the survey of Katy's person.
"Do you like it?" asked she, willing to cultivate his acquaintance.
"Don't I, though!"
"Where did your father get it?"
"He bought it of a little girl; she was poor and proud," replied the
little gentleman, transferring half an inch of the candy to his mouth.
"Dear me!" exclaimed Katy.
But her conversation was interrupted by the return of the servant, who
directed Katy to follow him up-stairs.