Shall I tell the servant to bring you out a glass of cool water?
You are hot and tired." "If you please, ma'am," said the woman, with a grateful look.
The water was sent out by the servant who was to receive the strawberries, and the tired woman drank it eagerly.

Its refreshing coolness flowed through every vein, and when she took up her tray to return home, both heart and step were lighter.
The lady whose benevolent feelings had prompted her to the performance of this little act of kindness, could not help remembering the woman's grateful look.

She had not done much--not more than it was every one's duty to do; but the recollection of even that was pleasant, far more pleasant than could possibly have been Mrs.Mier's self-gratulations at having saved ten cents on her purchase of five boxes of strawberries, notwithstanding the assurance of the poor woman who vended them, that, at the reduced rate, her profit on the whole would only be two cents and a half.
After dinner Mrs.Mier went out and spent thirty dollars in purchasing jewelry for her eldest daughter, a young lady not yet eighteen years of age.

That evening, at the tea-table, the strawberries were highly commended as being the largest and most delicious in flavor of any they had yet had; in reply to which, Mrs.
Mier stated, with an air of peculiar satisfaction, that she had got them for eight cents a box, when they were worth at least ten cents.
"The woman asked me ten cents," she said, "but I offered her eight, and she took them." While the family of Mrs.Mier were enjoying their pleasant repast, the strawberry-woman sat at a small table, around which were gathered three young children, the oldest but six years of age.

She had started out in the morning with thirty boxes of strawberries, for which she was to pay seven and a half cents a box.