When health inspectors cite you for it, get famous.

Julie Murphy, a 7-year-old Oregonian, set up a lemonade stand on July 29 at an art fair in northeast Portland. County health inspectors shut her down, however, telling Julie and her mother, Maria Fife, that they needed a temporary restaurant license, which costs $120. The penalty for selling food without a permit, they warned, was $500. At 50 cents a cup, that’s a lot of lemonade.

Others at the fair urged the family to give away the lemonade, and they wrote "free" and "suggested donation" on Julie’s sign with a marker. But the inspectors were unmoved.

Julie left the fair in tears.

This, of course, is the kind of incident that the Internet was made for. "Oregon Fascists Shut Down 7-Year-Old’s Lemonade Stand," one blogger blared on a pickup of a local newspaper article. Another posted photos of police officers and federal agents in riot gear with the caption "WHERE’S THE REST OF THE BOOTLEGGED LEMONADE?"

On Thursday, Jeff Cogen, the Multnomah County chairman, called Ms. Fife and her daughter to apologize. "My kids sell lemonade, and I sold lemonade as a kid," Mr. Cogen said in an interview.

The Health Department employees were doing their jobs, he said, and "there’s a reason those laws exist," but "a 7-year-old selling lemonade isn’t the same as a grown-up selling burritos out of a cart." As for the health inspectors, Mr. Cogen said he had "engaged them in a conversation" about professional discretion.

Ms. Fife, who recently graduated from nursing school and is living with her daughter in an aunt’s house in the Portland suburbs, said she was gratified by the apology and stunned by the response to the incident. "It just kind of exploded," she said.

Julie declined a request for an interview. "She’s overwhelmed, and I’m just letting her chill out," her mother said.