Then I had lost my temper.

"You're a four-flushing cur, and just as sure as my name is Black, I'll give you a run for your money! If you think you can scare me, you're mistaken! And if you want a fight, by George, I'll give it to you!"

Stigler leaned against the corner of his window and said:

"My, somebody's been feedin' yer meat, ain't they?" and then he turned and walked into his store.

The first thing I did when I got to the store was to tell La.r.s.en I wanted to put a dollar in the "swear box," and then I told him the incident. He shook his head thoughtfully, and said:

"Too bad, Boss, too bad."

I wished that I had kept control over my tongue! I felt that Stigler had had the best of the sc.r.a.p that morning. I felt that he had put it all over me. I had felt like a scolded boy, and I had probably looked like one as I marched away from his store with my ears and face burning, a-tremble in my limbs.

La.r.s.en had quickly written a sign which said, "30 per cent. reduction to-day on all goods offered in our automatic sale!" Then he asked me if I could manage to spare him for a couple of hours.

"What for?" I asked.

"I tell you, Boss," he said. "We got a lot of good carpenter tools in the sale. I want to go to every carpenter in town and tell 'em what we got. Stigler tries to get sales in carpenters' tools. He got a mad at you because you put in more stock. I'll tell 'em they can buy carpenters' tools for 30 per cent. less regular price. That'll hit Stigler where he lives!"

I caught a bit of La.r.s.en's enthusiasm. Isn't it remarkable how a man over fifty like La.r.s.en could have the energy and enthusiasm he showed? I really thought he was getting younger every day, while I was getting older!

When he came back to the store, about 11:30 he was smiling.

"How did you make out?" I asked.

"Fine! I got over $60.00 of orders. I promise to put the tools one side.

The folks'll call later in day. Some that didn't order said they goin'

to come in."

"That's great!" I exclaimed, and my spirits immediately rose.

"Any business this morning?" La.r.s.en asked.

"Yes," I replied, "four lines sold out."

"Kitchen goods?"

"Yes, all of them. You know that cheap line of enameled frying pans?"

"Yep."

"Well, a woman came in and bought twelve of them!"

"Twelve?"

"Yep. And then another one came in and bought six! They've been selling in bunches," and I chuckled. "What are you looking so glum at?" I asked him suddenly.

"We got a hole in our plan," he returned. "We oughta say no person buy more than one of anything. I bet them frying pans in Stigler's now. They was good at the price. He couldn't buy 'em wholesale to-day for it. I bet he sell 'em off to-day, and we got none. He got one of our big cards and plays it himself."

"I've got the list of goods sold out ready to put in the window," I said, and pa.s.sed him over a card on which I had listed the goods which were all gone.

"I think," he said, "we better put some more frying pans in the sale and not say we sold out."

"That's a good idea," I returned; and we put a half dozen more of our regular stock on the 50-cent counter. Then we agreed to be cautious about selling any more articles in "bunches."

To my surprise, our sales for that third day on the "automatic" goods were $421.00, so the first three days of our sale netted $504.00. That sounded encouraging.

If I could get another $860.00 for the balance of the sale, I would not have done so badly. I decided that I had planned right in having the third day sale come on Sat.u.r.day, for that was always a big day with us.

The reduction had been a substantial one, and yet everything that was sold had been sold for more than the invoice price.

Our tool sale had been unusually large; La.r.s.en's trip to the carpenters had helped that out a lot.

After the store was closed we made a list of the articles which were sold out and posted them in the window so that they would be seen the next day. Over sixty different lines were sold out, and the list was quite a formidable one.

Then we drew another big sign, which we placed in the window, saying:

At eight o'clock Monday this store will be opened, and the few remaining goods in our automatic sale may be bought at 4 in ten discount, or 40 per cent. reduction from regular price. As the sale has been a phenomenal success, we antic.i.p.ate clearing out the balance of the goods on Monday. Early comers will secure the best bargains.

Stigler springing that 25 per cent. reduction sale on kitchen goods had unfortunately spoilt a lot of business which I felt sure we would have had otherwise. We had overcome some of the loss, however, by the extra push we had made on carpenters' tools.

When I told Betty about it after getting home, she said:

"Well, Stigler didn't waste any time getting after you, did he?"

"No," I said with a grin.

"And do you know that he says now that your sale has proved a fizzle and that practically all your goods have been put back in stock again? . . .

_Quiet_," she said, putting her hand on my shoulder, for I was about to explode with temper. "I suppose no man can be successful without having a lot of people throw mud at him."

That evening I was so tired that I fell asleep in my chair. Betty woke me up by putting her arm around my neck, and saying:

"You had better go along to bed now, boy dear. Here, drink this--it will make you rest better"--and I drank a gla.s.s of hot milk she had prepared for me, and went to bed.

On Monday we had a wonderful clearance. Most of the goods were sold, and our total for the four days' sale was $1,090.00!

The boys were all dead tired. I had sent Wilkes about 7 o'clock to get some hot coffee and sandwiches for us, for we had a continuous crowd of customers in the store and not one of the store crowd would think of leaving. We took drinks of coffee and bites of sandwiches in between serving customers, and the coffee was all cold before we got through with it!

You will remember my telling that I had discharged Myricks and that he had gone to work for Stigler. Well, Stigler had fired him after a couple of weeks, saying that he had found out all he knew and had no further use for him. Myricks had been looking for a job ever since, and, as I knew I would have to have some extra help for the sale, I put him on again. In fact, I had told him that, if he behaved himself I might be able to use him for the winter, for it had been tremendously hard work for our little force to take care of the business, and I had felt that if we had another clerk it would relieve me to do some more planning, and might also allow Jones or La.r.s.en to do some soliciting for business; for I hadn't forgotten what that pencil sharpener man had told me, and had decided that, after the sale I would go.

Well, Myricks had started on Thursday morning, and had seemed to be working well. I had noticed, however, on the following Monday, that he didn't ring up one of his sales. He had sold over $6.00 worth of goods and I had seen him put the money in his pocket and go after another customer.

I called him to one side, later in the day, and said:

"Myricks, why didn't you ring up that sale?"

He went red, and then white, and said:

"Er--er--you see--I'll tell you--that other customer was impatient and I wanted to get to him quickly and I thought it would save time and I could ring it up later."