standing near. "'Tain't
as if she was stayin' away 'cause she was sick! She's just on a spree
along with some girls and fellers!"

"What gets me is how Mr. Forbes is taking all these changes. He don't
seem to be saying a word," continued Miss Fairbanks, without noticing
the cash girl.

"Oh, he's just saying nothing and sawing wood," said Miss Jones,
knowingly. "He's too foxy to quit the firm as old Pomposity did!
Probably he thinks it won't last, and he's willing to wait till it's
over."

"Well, it will be a great deal safer here now without the tables," said
the buyer. "If we have a fire now there won't be so much crowding."

"They say he's doing this sort of thing all over the store," said Mr.
Gunning, who had just returned from helping with the tables.

"Then they tell me, too, that he's having a lunch-room and restaurant
for employees built on the sixth floor of the building. All the goods
that were stored there are being taken to the basement."

"And we cash girls are all to be fired!" spoke up "Number 83," sadly,
"except those who are healthy and over fourteen. The rest of us that
ain't got any parents have got to go to Gerry's, or, if we have got
parents, they've got to support us--that's what the boss says, but it
sounds mighty like a 'pipe dream.'"

"It sounds like a sensible arrangement," said Faith, seriously, "for
it's a shame that such children should have to work! Why, you ought to
be in school this very minute!"

"Well, I'd rather be here," said "83" very shortly. "There ain't no fun
in a school-room, and what's the good of studyin', anyhow?"

"But don't you wish to be able to cipher and to read books?" said Faith.

"What's the use?" was the answer; "they don't tell you nothin', at
least not nothin' about how to earn your livin'!"

Faith gave up in despair. She was baffled at every turn. The only ray of
sunshine that she could see was in Mr. Denton's rapidly developing
improvements.

As she mounted the stairs to the sixth floor to eat her luncheon in the
new quarters, she was surprised to find Sam Watkins waiting at the top
of the last flight, apparently on the lookout for her.

"This is Miss Marvin, ain't it?" he asked when he saw her, at the same
time drawing a package out from under his jacket. "I was told to give
you this," he whispered, shyly. "Here, take it, quick, while there ain't
no one lookin'! Them gals would turn green if they knowed you had a
whole box of candy!"

Faith too