When he had finished the taffy she smiled one of her sociable smiles again and said , `` Well , what do you think of it ? '' `` It 's the nicest taffy I ever ate , '' answered Chester enthusiastically , as if he were a connoisseur in all kinds of taffies . The rosy lady nodded , well pleased . `` That is just what everyone says about my sugar taffy . Nobody up our way can match it , though goodness knows they try hard enough . My great-grandmother invented the recipe herself , and it has been in our family ever since . I 'm real glad you liked it . '' She smiled at him again , as if his appreciation of her taffy was a bond of good fellowship between them . She did not know it but , nevertheless , she was filling the heart of a desperate small boy , who had run away from home , with hope and encouragement and self-reliance . If there were such kind folks as this in the world , why , he would get along all right . The rosy lady 's smiles and taffy -- the smiles much more than the taffy -- went far to thaw out of him a certain hardness and resentfulness against people in general that Aunt Harriet 's harsh treatment had instilled into him . Chester instantly made a resolve that when he grew stout and rosy and prosperous he would dispense smiles and taffy and good cheer generally to all forlorn small boys on boats and trains . It was almost dark when they reached Montrose . Chester lost sight of the rosy lady when they left the boat , and it gave him a lonesome feeling ; but he could not indulge in that for long at a time . Here he was at his destination -- at dark , in a strange city a hundred miles from home . `` The first thing is to find somewhere to sleep , '' he said to himself , resolutely declining to feel frightened , although the temptation was very strong . Montrose was not really a very big place . It was only a bustling little town of some twenty thousand inhabitants , but to Chester 's eyes it was a vast metropolis . He had never been in any place bigger than Belltown , and in Belltown you could see one end of it , at least , no matter where you were . Montrose seemed endless to Chester as he stood at the head of Water Street and gazed in bewilderment along one of its main business avenues -- a big , glittering , whirling place where one small boy could so easily be swallowed up that he would never be heard of again .
Chester , after paying his fare to XXXXX and buying his cheese and crackers , had just sixty cents left .
Belltown Chester Harriet Montrose Street first left resentfulness right taffies