Hossy shook himself, whinnied "All right!" and addressed himself to his supper. Calvin pulled out one drawer after another, studying their contents with frowning anxiety. "She's goin' to have the best there is!" he said. "There's a look in that lady's eyes that puts me in mind of Miss Hands; and take that with her bein' afflicted and all--I guess we'll give her a good set-off, hossy. I guess--that--is--what we'll do!" While he spoke, he was piling box upon box, jar upon jar, holding the pile firm with his chin. Entering the house again, he deposited them carefully on the table, and proceeded to spread them out. "There!" he said. "I guess you'll find what you want here. All the candies, stick, drop and fancy; tutti-frutti and pepsin chewing-gum, chocolate creams and marshmallow goods. You didn't say what amount you was calc'latin' to lay out--?" Miss Fidely looked round her carefully. "I didn't care to say before the little gal!" she said. "My neighbors is real careful of me, and they grudge my spendin' so much money. I tell 'em it's my circus and fair and sociable and spring bunnet all in one. There! I calc'late to spend five dollars, and I've got it to spend. I'm a stranger to you, sir, and mebbe you'd like to see it before we go any further." "I guess not!" said Calvin Parks. "I guess I know a straight stick when I see one--" his eyes fell on the twisted outlines covered by the brown calico skirt, and he finished his sentence in silence. "Your one comfort," he said, "is that it ain't likely the Lord made another fool like you when he see the way you'd act." "That's a handsome sum of money," he added aloud. "You'll get a handsome set-out for it." "I've got no one belongin' to me," said the lame woman simply; "and I'm far from church privileges. I never touch my burial money, but I do feel that I have a right to this. Well! you have got elegant goods, I must say. Now we'll get down to business, if agreeable to you." It was most agreeable to Calvin Parks, and he made it so to Miss Fidely. She must taste every variety of sugar-plum, so that she could know what she was giving. "That's trade!" he said, when she remonstrated. "That's straight trade; no samples, no buyers! You try this lemon taffy! I do regard it as extry. These goods is all pure sugar, every mite; I know the man as made 'em, and helped some in the makin'. Some of the pineapple sticks? That's a lovely candy to my mind. I helped make these only yesterday morning. You try a morsel; here's a broken stick!" "Why, I never had no such candy as this before!" cried Miss Fidely, crunching the white and scarlet stick. "Why, 'tis as different from the goods I've bought before as new-laid eggs is from store. I guess you'll have a steady customer from now on, as many Christmases as I have to live."