"Now Meg," said the good-natured young clerk, when he had finished
weighing out three pounds of prunes and two and a half pounds of
rice for a fussy customer who changed her mind three times before
she finally gave her order, "what can I do for you?"

"Mother wants a box of oatmeal, half a pound of mixed tea, and a
pound of lump sugar," announced Meg importantly.

"Right-o!" declared the clerk, taking a long hook pole from the
counter and starting for the other side of the store where the
package goods were kept on the upper shelves.

Just as he reached the shelves, Meg called to him.

"Oh, Mr. Carroll," she began, meaning to ask him to bring a box of
cornstarch, something Mother had written across the bottom of the
list and which Bobby had overlooked when he read the list to Meg.

The clerk turned, his pole upraised, and Dot, who had been hanging
over a flour bin nearly empty, slipped. Her feet flew up, her head
went down, and she tripped the grocery clerk. His long pole
crashed into the neat pile of boxes arranged on the shelves and a
shower of oatmeal, cornstarch, macaroni and other cereals fell in
an avalanche.

"I knew you'd do it," scolded Bobby, rushing forward, though of
course he couldn't have known that Dot meditated such a
catastrophe. In fact, that small girl was more surprised than any
one else.