Poor and Proud or the Fortunes of Katy Redburn Part 25

"Well, well, don't cry any more; I'll give you half a dollar, and that will make it all right;" and he put his hand in his pocket for the money.

"Don't give it to her," said Katy, stepping out of the lane by the side of the bank. "She has deceived you, sir."

"Deceived me, has she?" added the stranger as he glanced at Katy.

"Yes, sir. She has got more than a dollar in her pocket now."

"Don't you believe her," sobbed Ann, still prudently keeping up the appearance of grief.

"How do you know she has deceived me?" asked the stranger, not a little piqued, as he thought how readily he had credited the girl's story.

"Because I saw her play a trick just like this twice before this afternoon. She has two half dollars in her pocket now, though one of them is counterfeit."

"What do you mean by that, Katy Redburn?" demanded Ann, angrily, and now forgetting her woe and her tears.

"You speak very positively," said the gentleman to Katy; "and if what you say is true, something should be done about it."

"She is telling lies!" exclaimed Ann, much excited.

"We can soon determine, for here comes a policeman, and I will refer the matter to him."

At these words, Ann edged off the steps of the bank, and suddenly started off as fast as she could run, having, it seemed, a very wholesome aversion to policemen. But she made a bad mistake, for, not seeing in what direction the officer was approaching, she ran into the very jaws of the lion.

"Stop her!" shouted the gentleman.

The policeman laid a rude hand upon her shoulder, and marched her back to the bank. In a few words the gentleman stated what had happened, and requested the officer to search her, and thus decide whether Katy told the truth or not. He readily consented, and on turning out Ann's pocket, produced the two half dollars, one of which the gentleman decided was a counterfeit coin.

"How could you know this was a counterfeit?" he asked of Katy.

"I heard a gentleman at the door of the American House, who knew the game, tell another that it was a counterfeit;" and she proceeded to give all the particulars of the two tricks she had seen Ann play off.

"I shall have to take you to the lock-up, my little joker," said the policeman.

"O, dear me!" cried Ann, and this time she was in earnest.

"Please don't do that!" said Katy, who had not foreseen this consequence of the game.

"I must; it is downright swindling."

"Please don't; she has a father and mother and I dare say they will feel very bad about it. I promise you she shall never do it again,"

pleaded Katy.

"I must do my duty. This candy trick has been played a good many times, and has become a nuisance. I must lock her up."

"Save me, Katy, save me!" begged Ann terrified at the thought of being put in a prison or some dreadful place.

"Why do you wish to save her?" interposed the gentleman.

"Because her mother will feel so bad; and she will lay it all to me."

Katy told him all about herself and about Ann, and he was so much interested in her that he joined in pleading for Ann's release. The officer was firm for a long time, but when the gentleman declared that he should not appear against her, he decided to let her go, to Katy's great delight, as well as to Ann's.

Humbled by the peril from which she had just escaped, Ann promised never to be guilty of playing another trick upon travelers; but Katy was firm in her purpose not to supply her with any more candy. She did not dare to resent Katy's interference, for the terrors of the lock-up were still in her mind, and she did not know but that Katy might have her arrested and punished for what she had done, if she attempted to retaliate upon her.

Katy was shocked at the wickedness of her companion; and, as they walked home together she tried to make her see the enormity of her offense, and give her some better views of her duty to her fellow-beings. Ann heard her in silence and with humility, and the little moralist hoped the event would result in good to her.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE SUN SETS, AND THE NIGHT COMES ON.

Having recorded the steps by which Katy had carried forward her now flouris.h.i.+ng trade, from the dawn of the idea up to the height of its prosperity, we may pa.s.s over a year with only a brief note of its princ.i.p.al incidents.

My young readers may have supposed that Katy and her mother had gathered a great deal of money in the candy trade. It was not so, for as the business increased, and Katy's labors as a saleswoman were withdrawn, the expenses increased, and the profits were proportionally less. And then, neither Mrs. Redburn nor her daughter had a faculty for saving up much money; so that, though they made considerable, their prosperity permitted new demands to be made upon the purse. They hired two more rooms; they replaced the clothing and furniture which had been sacrificed under the pressure of actual want, and they lived better than they had lived before; and Mrs. Redburn had availed herself of the services of a distinguished physician, whose attendance had cost a large sum. It is true they lived very well, much better than people in their circ.u.mstances ought to have lived. Therefore, notwithstanding their prosperity, they had saved but a small sum from the proceeds of the year's business. They were not rich; they were simply in comfortable circ.u.mstances, which, considering their situation when Katy commenced business, was quite enough to render them very thankful to the Giver of all good for the rich blessings He had bestowed upon them.

These were not all temporal blessings; if they had been, their success would only have been partial and temporary, their prosperity only an outward seeming, which, in the truest and highest sense, can hardly be called prosperity; no more than if a man should gain a thousand dollars worth of land, and lose a thousand dollars worth of stocks or merchandise. Both Katy and her mother, while they were gathering the treasures of this world, were also "laying up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt." Want had taught them its hard lessons, and they had come out of the fiery furnace of affliction the wiser and the better for the severe ordeal. The mother's foolish pride had been rebuked, the daughter's true pride had been encouraged.

They had learned that faith and patience are real supports in the hour of trial. The perilous life in the streets which Katy had led for a time, exposed her to a thousand temptations; and she and her mother thanked G.o.d that they had made her stronger and truer, as temptation resisted always makes the soul. That year of experience had given Katy a character; it expanded her views of life, and placed her in a situation where 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 n.o.bly 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 apprentices.h.i.+p before it is called upon to think and act for itself.

Katy had antic.i.p.ated 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 a.s.sistant in the manufacturing department of the business. A worthy man, who owned a little farm in the country, tempted her with an offer of marriage, and her conscience (I suppose) would not let her refuse it. Katy, though she was a woman, so far as the duties and responsibilities of life were concerned, was still a child in her feelings and affections, and cried bitterly when they parted. The good woman was scarcely less affected, and made Katy and her mother promise an early visit to her farm.

Katy's sorrow at parting with her beloved friend was not the only, nor perhaps, the most important, result of Mrs. Colvin's departure, for they were deprived of the a.s.sistance of the chief candy-puller. Katy tried to secure another woman for this labor, but could not find a person who would serve her in this capacity. After a vain search, Mrs.

Redburn thought she was able to do the work herself, for her health seemed to be pretty well established. Perhaps, she reasoned, it was quite as well that Mrs. Colvin had gone, for if she could pull the candy herself, it would save from two to three dollars a week.

Katy would not consent that she should do it alone, but agreed to divide the labor between them. The quant.i.ty manufactured every day was so great that the toil of making it fell heavily upon them; but as Mrs.

Redburn did not complain, Katy was too proud to do so though her wrists and shoulders pained her severely every night after the work was done.

This toil weighed heavily on Katy's rather feeble const.i.tution; but all her mother could say would not induce her to abandon the work. For a month they got along tolerably well, and, perhaps, no evil consequences would have followed this hard labor, if everything else had gone well with Katy. The girls who sold the candy had for some time caused her considerable trouble and anxiety. Very often they lost their money, or pretended to do so, and three or four of them had resorted to Ann Grippen's plan of playing "trick upon travelers." She had to discharge a great many, and to accept the services of those whom she did not know, and who, by various means, contrived to cheat her out of the money received from the sales of the candy. These things annoyed her very much, and she cast about her for a remedy.

One day, three girls, each of whom had been supplied with half a dollar's worth of candy, did not appear to account for the proceeds.

Here was a loss of a dollar in one day. Such things as these are the common trials of business; but Katy who was so scrupulously honest and just herself, was severely tried by them. It was not the loss of the money only, but the dishonesty of the girls that annoyed her.

"What shall be done, mother?" said she, anxiously, when the loss was understood to be actual. "I can't find these girls. I don't even know their names."

"Probably, if you did find them, you could not obtain any satisfaction."

"I went to see one girl's mother the other day, you know, and she drove me out of her house, and called me vile names."

"I was thinking of a plan," continued Mrs. Redburn, "though I don't know as it would work well."