Selling chances was a good way to get a prize. The chances were sold by children who were too young to get a job. A man would come around and give the child a big cardboard with many names on them like Gertrude, Ella, Rose, Cynthia, Josephine, and many, many more. They were all girls’ names and it seemed that mostly the girls would do the selling.

Droozy and Fanny would go from house to house to ask if the person who answered the door would want to buy a chance. If they did they would punch out a name on the board. A small round circle would come out and in between the circle would be the amount of money the buyer would have to pay for the name. It didn’t cost too much - anywhere from a penny to a quarter. One of the circles would be the winner. You couldn’t see that from the outside since the winning punch would be in the middle of the circle between the two thin layers of cardboard. The winner would get a big five pound box of chocolates. The sales person would also get a big box of chocolates.

It took a long time to sell a whole card’s worth of little circles and to collect all that money. Droozy would have to spend a month or two visiting two or three hundred houses before she was able to collect her prize. She hated doing it, begging people to buy chances from her. Often they would get mad and slam the door in little Droozy’s face, or they would scream at her and tell her to go away, or they would just not open the door. Worst of all sometimes a dog would come out, bark and try to nip at Droozy’s leg.

It didn’t take long before Fanny and Droozy had an idea. They decided to sell one card of punches between them. They carefully punched out the circles until they found the one that said “winner” in the middle. Then they replaced the punches, except the winning one which they kept. They sold all the rest. That way each of the girls got a five pound box of candy. Of course, the customer that bought the punches won nothing! The candy was so delicious -  creams, nuts, raisins, nougat, marzipan and toffee were in the middle of the pieces.  Droozy’s favorites were the nut-filled ones. She would eat so many that she got sick. All the time she was eating them she was afraid she would be found out for having cheated the people who bought the circles from her. When one of her customers asked her later who had won the box of candy, Droozy had to tell her. The customer suspected what had happened. From then on Droozy was afraid to face this person and hid every time she saw her. It taught the child never to do that again, but oh, that candy tasted so good!

 
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Introduction
Pork Dumplings
Please Don't Eat the Goldfish
Pretty Shoes
Blueberry Cake
Sukkot
The Garden
Maxel
The Red Rabbit
Passover
The Lost Bathing Tickets
What Shall I Do?  The Double Message
Pieces of Gold
Aromas of the Sabbath
The Birth of a Brother
Green Apples
Herr Kübler
The Broken Leg
Boarding School
The American Calendar
Suse Puppe
Shirley Temple Eyes
Kristallnacht Nov. 9, 10, 11
Aunt (Tante) Mathilde
Ice Skates
The Cologne Cathedral
The Escape
A Belgian Holiday
Gas Balloons and the S. S. Washington
Papa
The Statue
A Bad Dream
A Pencil Thief
The West Virginia Hills
Thanksgiving
Ice Cream, Grieben and Baked Spaghetti
The Gypsy’s Song
Venetian Blinds
The Deaf One
Dimmed Lights
Marryyayo
Friendship
Norma Mae
The Spelling Bee
Run, Thief, Run!
Chances
The Candy Store
The Birthday Party
Deep, Shallow Waters
Red Riding Hood
Small Mama
Droozy In Love
Eskimo Pies
Apple Picking Time
Working Days
Easter Baskets
Valedictorian
Farewell
Blind Joe
Lessons Learned From Parents
About the Author