"Any way you like. I will wash my face and hands both, if that's all."
"But that isn't all. Your dress is very dirty and very ragged."
"I can't afford to dress like a lady," said Ann, who had some of her brother's disposition, and under any other circumstances would have resented Katy's plain home thrusts.
"You needn't dress like a lady; but the neater and cleaner you are, the more candy you will sell."
"I will fix up as much as I can."
"Very well; if you will come to my house to-morrow morning, I will let you have some candy."
"How much will you give me for selling it?" asked Ann.
"I can't tell now; I will think about it, and let you know when you come."
Katy went her way, turning over and over in her mind the scheme which Ann's application had suggested to her. She might employ a dozen girls, or even more than that, and pay them so much a dozen for selling the candy. She might then stop going out to sell herself, and thus gratify her mother. She could even go to school, and still attend to her business.
When she returned home at noon, she proposed the plan to her mother. Mrs. Redburn was much pleased with it, though she suggested many difficulties in the way of its success. The girls might not be honest; but if they were not, they could be discharged. Many of them were vicious; they would steal or be saucy, so that people would not permit them to enter their stores and offices, and the business would thus be brought into disrepute. Katy determined to employ the best girls she could find, and to tell them all that they must behave like ladies.