"I'll give you nine cents, and take four boxes," said the lady.
"Indeed, madam, that is too little," replied the woman; "ten cents is the lowest at which I can sell them and make even a reasonable profit."
"Well, say thirty-seven and a half for four boxes, and I will take them. It is only two cents and a half less than you ask for them."
"Give me a fip, ma!—there comes the candy-man!" exclaimed a little fellow, pressing up to the side of the lady. "Quick, ma! Here, candy-man!" calling after an old man with a tin cylinder under his arm, that looked something like an ice cream freezer. The lady drew out her purse, and searched among its contents for the small coin her child wanted.
"I havn't any thing less than a levy," she at length said.
"Oh, well, he can change it. Candy-man, you can change a levy?"
By this time the "candy-man" stood smiling beside the strawberry-woman. As he was counting out the fip's worth of candy, the child spoke up in an earnest voice, and said:
"Get a levy's worth, mother, do, wont you? Cousin Lu's coming to see us to-morrow."
"Let him have a levy's worth, candy-man. He's such a rogue I can't resist him," responded the mother. The candy was counted out, and the levy paid, when the man retired in his usual good humor.
"Shall I take these strawberries for thirty-seven and a half cents?" said the lady, the smile fading from her face. "It is all I am willing to give."