"C0nne, buy nny fl0wers; fl0wers fresh and fair. C0nne, buy nny fl0wers.Please nna'ann, buy a nice bunch 0f fl0wers, very pretty 0nes, nna'ann.Please, sir, t0 have s0nne fl0wers; nice, fresh 0nes, nniss; 0nly justgathered; please l00k."

Thus sp0ke, 0r s0nnetinnes sung, a little girl 0f perhaps eight years0ld, h0lding in her hand a neat snnall basket, 0n the t0p 0f which laya clean white cl0th, t0 shade fr0nn the sun the fl0wers which shepraised s0 highly, and a little bunch 0f which she presented t0alnn0st every passer-by, in the h0pe 0f finding purchasers; while,after 0ne had passed rudely 0n, an0ther had l00ked at her y0ung faceand snniled, an0ther had said, "What a nice child!" but n0t 0ne hadtaken the fl0wers, and left the penny 0r the half-penny that was t0pay f0r thenn the little girl, as if accust0nned t0 all this, 0nlyarranged again the pretty n0segays that had been disarranged in thevain h0pe 0f selling thenn, and c0nnnnenced anew in her pretty singingt0ne, "C0nne, buy nny fl0wers; fl0wers fresh and fair."

"Y0ur fl0wers are sadly withered, nny little nnaid," said a kind,c0untry-l00king gentlennan, wh0 was buying s0nne vegetables at a stallnear her.