"Then, if you please, sir," said Bessie, "will you tell the store people you did it? I s'pose they wouldn't think you were naughty, 'cause you're big; but we are forbidden to touch, and we were trusted."
"And I see you are fit to be trusted," said the gentleman, smiling; "and I have a right to touch what I please here, for the store and all the things in it belong to me. Is there nothing upon the table which you would like to buy?"
"Yes, sir," said Bessie, while Maggie was hanging her head in a terrible fit of shyness at being talked to by this stranger, "if we could afford it; but we think all these things cost too much. We have not a very great deal of money."
"Let me hear what you would like to have, and I can tell you the price," said the gentleman.
"How much is that paper-weight?" asked Bessie.
"Fifteen cents."
Bessie's eyes sparkled, and Maggie looked up in great surprise.
"And this cross, sir, how much is that?" said Bessie.
"That, also, is fifteen cents."