ed maple syrup. Rock candy crystal chandeliers
hung from the ceilings in the rich man's house and little peppermint
candlesticks made light for the workman's hut. Even the lamp posts on
the corners were peppermint sticks and so were the barber poles.

"Goodness me," said Mary Louise to herself, "I wonder what would happen
if it rained." But you see it never rained in Candy Country, which was
mighty lucky.

"What do you wish?" asked a Chocolate Man, as she knocked on the Candy
Town Gate.

The next moment the gate swung open and out marched a regiment of Lemon
Soldiers dressed in Lemon Khaki Uniforms.

"Oh, I'm just lost," replied Mary Louise with a sigh.

"I'm a little traveler who goes
For miles and miles upon her toes.
But sometimes when I'm tired out
I think I hear a kind of voice shout,
'Come, ride with me upon my Goose,'
And other times it is a Moose,
And then again a steed with wings;
Or maybe some kind stranger brings
A ship that sails the ocean wide,
And so instead of walk, I ride."

"Well, well, your a little poetry maker," said the Chocolate Man. "Now
you are the very person to write pretty little verses on our round
peppermint candies." And then he held out his chocolate hand and drew
tired Mary Louise inside the gate, after which he locked it with a
silver key.

"Come with me to our Candy Factory," and he ran down the street, which
was paved with little red brick candies, until he came to a big Rock
Candy Building.

"Look here," gasped Mary Louise, all out of breath with running, for
that Chocolate Man was the best athlete in all Peppermint City, "I said
I was lost. I'm not a poetry maker. I wouldn't make poetry for
anything. I want to see things, not dream about them!"

"Dear me," said the Chocolate Man, and he let go the lollypop door
handle, "I'm sorry. I thought you'd like to stay here."

"Don't feel badly about it," said Mary Louise as he shook hands and
said good-by. "I must find my way home. I've no time to lose."

"Heigh ho, this is a big river," she exclaimed a little later as she
stood on the bank of a swiftly flowing stream.

"There isn't any bridge, how can you get across,
There isn't any boat and you haven't any horse
That could swim across this river with you upon its back,
So I guess you'll have to turn about and go back upon your track,"

sang a cross voice.

"She won't have to do anything of the sort," answered a kind voice and
a li