Quarters were thrust upon her thick and fast. Because of the brisk demand for her services, Sally gave only the briefest of "readings," and only a few muttered angrily that it was a swindle. To a middle-aged farmer she gave a bumper wheat crop, a new eight-cylinder car, a prospective son-in-law for the girl whom Sally had unerringly picked out as his unmarried daughter, and the promise of many splendid grandchildren. To a freckled, open-faced, engaging youngster of ten, thrust upon the platform by his adoring mother, she grandly promised nothing less than the presidency of the United States, as well as riches and a beautiful wife.
Some of her prophecies, such as twin babies for the newly married couple, brought shouts of laughter from the crowd, and some of her vague guesses as to the past went very wide of the mark, as the applicants did not hesitate to tell her--the old maid, for instance, who looked so motherly that Sally lavishly endowed her with a husband and three children; but nearly everyone who paid a quarter for what "Princess Lalla" could see in the magic crystal went away wondering and thrilled and satisfied.
During the first lull between performances, Sally slipped out of the "Palace of Wonders" and daringly mingled with the crowds outside. It was all beautiful and wonderful to Sally, who had been to a circus only once in her life and never to a carnival before.
Before the tent which housed the big glass tank into which "bathing beauties" dived and in which they ate bananas and drank soda-pop under water, she encountered Winfield Bybee, enormous, majestic, benign, for it was a good crowd and a fine day, and money was pouring into his pockets.
"Well, well," he grinned down at her, "I hear from Gus that you're knocking 'em cold. Better run along in now, and you might see how many of the rubes you can make follow you into the Palace of Wonders. We don't want to give 'em too much of a free show. And remember, girlie, for every quarter Princess Lalla earns as a fortune-teller, little Sally Ford gets a nickel for herself. Don't take many nickels to make a dollar."
"Oh, Mr. Bybee, I'm so happy I'm about to burst," Sally confided to him in a rush of gratitude. "But--do you think it's very wrong of me to pretend to be a crystal gazer when really I can't see a thing in it to save my life?"