t be explained by her honesty
and her sympathy. She was so square with them. When Minnie Mahler, out
Centerville way, got married, she knew there would be no redundancy of
water sets, hanging lamps, or pickle dishes.

"I thought like I'd get her a chamber set," Minnie's aunt would confide
to Mrs. Brandeis.

"Is this for Minnie Mahler, of Centerville?"

"Yes; she gets married Sunday."

"I sold a chamber set for that wedding yesterday. And a set of dishes.
But I don't think she's got a parlor lamp. At least I haven't sold one.
Why don't you get her that? If she doesn't like it she can change it.
Now there's that blue one with the pink roses."

And Minnie's aunt would end by buying the lamp.

Fanny learned that the mill girls liked the bright-colored and expensive
wares, and why; she learned that the woman with the "fascinator" (tragic
misnomer!) over her head wanted the finest sled for her boy. She learned
to keep her temper. She learned to suggest without seeming to suggest.
She learned to do surprisingly well all those things that her mother did
so surprisingly well--surprisingly because both the women secretly hated
the business of buying and selling. Once, on the Fourth of July, when
there was a stand outside the store laden with all sorts of fireworks,
Fanny came down to find Aloysius and the boy Eddie absent on other work,
and Mrs. Brandeis momentarily in charge. The sight sickened her, then
infuriated her.

"Come in," she said, between her teeth. "That isn't your work."

"Somebody had to be there. Pearl's at dinner. And Aloysius and Eddie
were--"

"Then leave it alone. We're not starving--yet. I won't have you selling
fireworks like that--on the street. I won't have it! I won't have it!"

The store was paying, now. Not magnificently, but well enough. Most of
the money went to Theodore, in Dresden. He was progressing, though not
so meteorically as Bauer and Schabelitz had predicted. But that sort
of thing took time, Mrs. Brandeis argued. Fanny often found her mother
looking at her these days with a questioning sadness in her eyes. Once
she suggested that Fanny join the class in drawing at the Winnebago
university--a small fresh-water college. Fanny did try it for a few
months, but the work was not what she wanted; they did fruit pictures
and vases, with a book, on a table; or a clump of very pink and very
white flowers. Fanny quit in disgust and boredom. Besides, they were
busy at the store, and needed h