White and Black Lies by Madeline Leslie

NOTWITHSTANDING, Ellen's sorrow at the commission of so grave a fault, which she vainly tried to convince herself was a very trifling one, the temptation a few days after proved too much for her, and she added to her bill at the store by the purchase of twenty-five cents' worth of candy and lozenges. This way of gratifying her sickly appetite for sweets proved so easy, that she resorted to it again and again, until the clerk informed her she owed nearly five dollars.

"Five dollars! " was the poor child's frightened exclamation. "The story of five dollars,-it can't be true! You have not counted it right."