as molasses-peppermints through the door of the office. They are a small, hard candy, and being thrown with vicious emphasis, they rattled upon the bare floor like bullets. One even hit Anderson stingingly upon the cheek. He sprang to his feet and looked out. Nothing was to be seen except the young clerk, standing, gaping and half frightened, yet with a lurking grin. Anderson regarded him with amazement. An idea that he had gone mad flashed through his mind. "What did you do that for, Sam?" he demanded. "I didn't do it." "Who did?" "That kid that was in here last night. That Carroll boy. He run in here and flung that candy, and out again, before I could more 'n' see him. Didn't know what were comin'." Anderson returned to his office, and as he crossed the threshold heard a duet of laughter from Sam and the older clerk. His feet crushed some of the candy as he resumed his seat. He took up his newspaper, but before he had fairly commenced to read he heard the imperious sound of a girl's voice outside, a quick step, and a dragging one. "Come right along!" the girl's voice ordered. "You lemme be!" came a sulky boy's voice in response. "Not another word!" said the girl's. "Come right along!" Anderson looked up. Charlotte Carroll was entering, dragging her unwilling little brother after her. "Come," said she again. She did not seem to regard Anderson at all. She held her brother's arm with a firm grip of her little, nervous white hand. "Now," said she to him, "you pick up every one of those molasses-peppermint drops, every single one." The boy wriggled defiantly, but she held to him with wonderful strength. "Right away," she repeated, "every single one." "Let me go, then," growled the boy, angrily. "How can I pick them up when you are holding me this way?" The girl with a swift motion swung to the office door in the faces of the two clerks, the grinning roundness of the younger, and the half-abstracted bewilderment of the elder. Then she placed her back against it, and took her hand from her brother's arm. "Now, then, pick them up, every one," said she. Without another word the boy got down on his hands and knees and began gathering up the scattered sweets. Anderson had risen to his feet, and stood looking on with a dazed and helpless feeling. Now he spoke, and he realized that his voice sounded weak. "Really, Miss Carroll," he said, "I beg-- It is of no consequence--" Then he stopped. He did not know what it was all about; he had only a faint idea of not putting any one to the trouble to pick up the debris on his office floor. Charlotte regarded him as sternly as she had her brother. "Yes, it is of consequence. Papa told him to bring them back and apologize." Anderson stared at her, bewildered, while the little boy crawled like a nervous spider around his feet.