"Yes, but she afterwards offered twenty-five cents more."
"Then she must have wanted the book. She makes it her boast that no peddler ever took her in, and I guess she's about right."
"I hope there are not many such people in town. If there are, I shall get discouraged."
"We've got our share of mean people, I expect, but she's the worst."
"Well, I suppose I must be going. Thank you for your purchase."
"That's all right. If I like the book as well as I expect, I'll thank you."
Walter left the shoemaker's shop with considerably higher spirits than he entered. His confidence in human nature, which had been rudely shaken by Mrs. Belknap, was in a degree restored, and his prospects looked brighter than a few minutes before.
"I wonder who'll make the next purchase?" he thought.
He stopped at a plain two-story house a little further up the road. The door was opened by an old lady.
"What do you want?" she asked.