Maida's Little Shop

Table of

ing seemed to go wrong from the first tinkle of the be

with a co

in early Monday, h

ld her I was coming right over and tell you about it and she said, 'All right, you can.' Laura said that you said that last summer you had a birthday party that you invited five hundred children to. She said that you said that you had a May

that-and more," Mai

ck of lies, but I don't bel

true," M

animals that your father had. I thought he kept a bird-place. But Dicky says you told him that your father ha

he look. "Yes, I

true?" Rosie

ll true," Ma

nt. "Harold Lathrop sa

said n

nt on more timidly, "that you

ida said

you did drea

"No, I didn'

hat you'd been sick for a long time. And I thought, maybe you were out of your head and imagined those thin

she said in her quietest voi

e girls spoke. But they stared, a lit

say?" Maida as

him, no matter what it was. Dicky says he believes

as the first friend I made in Primros

y-it seems strange that a little girl who's just like the rest of us should have story-book things happening to her all the time. If it's true-then fairy-tales are true." Sh

ich she m

d trouble beg

ew open. For an instant three or four voices filled the place with their

shed to the door. N

Maida asked in bewilderment. "Only naug

s repeated. Again she rushed to the door. Again she saw

the boys were Maida could not find out. W

ounselled. "When they foind you pay no at

er mind that she must put an end to it soon. She knew she could stop it at once by appealing to Billy Potter. And,

e the afternoon of her call and Maida did not speak. She felt that she could not have anyt

ied her head at its highest and she moved across the room with her most important air. As she

f dulse, please,"

estioningly; "I guess I ha

an appearance of being greatly shocked. "

wer-she put her l

-the-stick, no tamarinds, no pop-corn balls, no dulse. Why don't you sell the things we w

rmed eyes. For a moment she did not stir. Then she ran into the li

e children don't like my shop and they're going down to Ma

g little girl on to her lap. "Don't worry about anny t'ing that wan

e grown people, I want to please the children. And papa said I must mak

, interrupted. In an instant, Rosie, brilliant in her scarlet cape and sc

e," she said. "I just knew she'd come in

r slowly betw

ie's comment and she scowled until

eclared fervently. "But what shall I do abo

ie said. "Because I can tell you just how t

ithout you? I'll put everything down i

sk. There the black head

se?" Maida d

e queerest child. The commonest things you don't know anything about. And yet

answered insta

once. "Well, dulse is a purple stuff-when you see a lot of it together, it look

ar-drops were still hanging from the tips of her lashes. "There was a whole drawerful he

s. I've helped her many a time. Now I'll write you a list of stuff to order from the grocer. I'll come round after school and we'll make a batch of all those things. To-nig

happily, "I shall be s

after batch of candy, moving as capably about the stove as an experienced cook. In the meantime, Maida was popping corn at the fireplace. They mounted fifty apples on skewers and d

a sigh to Granny. "Rosie told me that she could make six kinds of candy. And Dicky can cook as well as hi

By night there was not an apple,

ture," Maida said. "Why, Granny, lots and lots of ch

like serious troubl

omise to end well at all. It had to do with Arthur Duncan. It had been going on

s usual gruff voice and with his usual surly manner, h

d put them on the counter. While Arthur looked them over, sh

" Arthur said, while her back w

here were only four. She made up her mind that she had

end. Three of them were left lying out on the counter. Arthur asked her to show him some penholders. Maida took three from the sh

where, she could not find it. The incident of the rubber occurred to her. She fe

came in for the third time. It hap

child's head in color on the cover. Arthur asked for letter-paper. Maida turned

Arthur Duncan stow one of the

e did not know what to do. S

hings on the shelf. She dreaded to turn for

for it," she though

r that Maida, with downcast eyes, put before him, decided that

as surprised to find Maida leaning on th

th my lamb?" the old

he did not meet Granny's eye and dur

Well, how goes the Bon Marché of

hat a little boy-I can't say what his name i

d asked it. "Tell the policeman on the beat and ge

ll have to do." But Mai

nny int

. "Suppose you was one av these poor little chilthren that lives round here that's always had harrd wurruds for their

nor Maida spok

's right," Bill

is," Maida sa

ork. He was using a striped pencil with a blue stone in its end, a blank-book with the picture of a little girl on the cover, a rubber of a kind very familiar to her. Maida knew certainly that Dicky h

ot see that she was trembling. She began to wish that she had followed Billy's advice. Sitting in the shop all alone-Granny,

ed for pencil-sharpeners and pencil-sharpeners were kept in the lower drawer. There was nothing for her to do but to get down on the floor. She remembered with a sense of relie

m was just closing

and cry her eyes out. Then suddenly all this weakness went. A feeling, such as she had never known, came into its place. She was st

a flash and looked h

t so much that you are willing to steal, tell m

bout?" Arthur demanded. He

gh," she said quietly. "In the last week you've stolen a rubber and a pencil and a

e you going to prove it

herself had never been driven or scolded. Her father had always reasoned with her. Doctors and nurses had always reasoned with her. Even Granny had always reasoned with her. So, n

I told you the truth when I said I would rather give you anything in the shop than have you steal it. For I think you must need those things very badly to be wi

ighten me,-" he said. Then, without ending his sentence, he swaggered out of the sho

her some merry little tale of the Irish fairies. But, instead, the bell rang and another customer came in. While she was waiting on her, Maida

n. Maida had been leaning against the counter, her tired head

straight o

d five for your pencil, five for the blank book an

yes and rolled down her cheeks. Arthur shifted his weig

ld make you feel as b

to prove it she smiled while the te

oment the door flew open. The little rowdy boys who had been trou

hat?" Art

ily, "but they do that three or four times e

" Arthur sai

bricks outside. The door flew open. Arthur Duncan leaped like a cat through the opening. There came back to Maida the sound of running, then

I'll lick you till you can't stand up. And rem

ust before dinner the bell rang. When M

ight like him," he said awkwardly, hol

ook at this darling kit-kat. What a ball of fluff he is! I'll call him Fluff. And he isn't an Ang

t was Arthur and Rosie. Rosie's lips were very tight as if she had made u

moment, Maida?" she asked in

e door to the living-roo

I felt pretty bad when I heard about it. But I wanted Arthur to come right over here and explain the whole thing to you

m over at Dicky

o right to-oh, like automobiles-I mean, things that they haven't earned. And the men in Mr. Duncan's club say that it's perfectly right to take things away from people who have too much and give them to people who have too little. But I say that may be all right for grown people but when c

rrassed. "No," he said sheepish

y. He would be so surprised-and then he wouldn't keep the things that Arthur gave him

aida said in a shocked voice, "not eve

," Rosie said with a

e following not

hich meets three times a week at the house of Miss R

means, WE MU

thing but happy