"What is the meaning of all these bits of bamboo and these little
canes, so fancifully arranged around the picture?" I asked.

"These little sticks," she replied, "tell the story of my father's
success, and of the beginning of his greatness. He began his noble
and honorable life as a little Pedler of Dust Sticks."

"Pedler of Dust Sticks?"

"Yes," she said; "if you would like to hear his history, I will
relate it."

I replied that nothing could please me better; that I considered the
life of a good, great man the most beautiful of all stories.

"I will tell it to you just as it was; and you may, if you please,
repeat it for the benefit of any one."

When I had returned home I wrote the story down, just as I
remembered it, as she had given me leave to do.

The Christian name of our hero was Henry, and so we will call him.
His parents lived in Hamburg, in Germany. They were very poor. His
father was a cabinet maker, with a very small business. Henry was
the second of eight children. As soon as he was eight years old, his
father, in order to raise a few more shillings to support his
family, sent him into the streets to sell little pieces of ratan,
which the people there use to beat the dust out of their clothes.

Henry got about a cent and a half apiece for the sticks. If he sold