“That candy is real good, especially the checkerberry sticks, but perhaps you rather have somethin’ more fillin’.”
“I’ll take five cents’ worth of cakes,” Seth said hurriedly, for it seemed as if he had been inside the shop a very long while.
The amateur clerk set about counting the stale dainties in a businesslike way; but at that instant Snip came into view from behind his master, and she ceased the task at once to cry in delight:
“What a dear little dog! Did he come with you?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Seth replied hesitatingly; and he added as the woman stooped to caress Snip: “We’re in a big hurry, an’ if you’ll give me the cakes I’ll thank you.”
“Dear me, why didn’t you say so at first?” and she resumed her task of counting the cakes, stopping now and then to speak to Snip, who was sitting up on his hind legs begging for a bit of the stale pastry. “How far are you going?”
“I don’t know; you see we can’t walk very fast.”
“Got friends out this way, I take it?”
“Well,—yes—no—that is, I don’t know. Won’t you please hurry?”
The woman seemed to think it necessary she should feed Snip with a portion of one cake that had already been counted out for Seth, and to still further tempt the dog’s appetite by giving him an inch or more broken from one of the checkerberry sticks, before attending to her duties as clerk, after which she concluded her portion of the transaction by holding out a not over-cleanly hand for the money.