NEW TROUBLES
Betty had become seriously ill. The doctor said she ought to go South
until spring, and then take a sea voyage. I told him I didn't know where
the money was coming from to do it; but the Mater reminded me that Aunt
Hannah lived in Birmingham. The doctor said that would be better than up
here for the time being, so the Mater wrote at once to Aunt Hannah to
see if Betty could go and stay with her for a while. I would shut up the
house and live with the Mater until Betty came back.
I had not yet been able to pay all the monthly bills. I had bought those
toys in New York on a ten-day cash basis, so I was hard up. When I went
to the bank to try to borrow $500.00 Blickens had turned me down. He had
said: "You're right in the busiest time of the year now. A few days
should give you all the money you need. If you can't carry yourself
without the aid of the bank now, you never can."
Then, to cap the whole thing, I had received a letter from Barrington
saying he'd like me to pay that $1,250.00 note, secured by a mortgage on
my farm. I went to his office, and he said he wanted the thing closed up
right away. It was a demand note, because, when we fixed it up,
Barrington had said he wanted it to run an indeterminate time. I had
expected he would carry it indefinitely, but there it was--he said he
had a sudden call for the money and wanted me to pay it off.
I had caught a very bad cold, and if I had not been boss I'd have taken
a good vacation. One day I went to the store, but had to come home
early, I felt so sick. Jones, too, was out the same day--worse luck. His
mother had called up in the morning, saying he had caught a bit of a
cold, and she thought it would be much better for him to stay home till
he was well. I almost wished I were a clerk for a little while, then
perhaps I could stay at home and get a rest. I really felt very ill. My
head was splitting.
I wonder if clerks realize how often the Boss has to work when he feels
sick? Most bosses, I guess, have that feeling of responsibility for the
business and the employees that I always have had, and that keeps them
working when they'd be at home if they didn't have that responsibility.
I remember one of the fellows who worked with me at Barlow's used to
complain that Barlow got all the profit, while we got all the work--and
I agreed with him at the time, poor fool that I was. We never thought
that Barlow had all his money invested in the business that was
providing us with a certain living. We never stopped to think that we
were sure to get our money every week, whatever happened, but that
Barlow had to take a chance on anything that was left. We never thought
about the worry and responsibility.
I don't want to forget the workers' side of a business deal, but I never
realized so much as I did then how unjust most employees are to their
boss. I know many bosses are unjust to their employees and perhaps the
boss is principally to blame for it, but just take my case: There was
Jones threatened with a cold, so he stayed home when he could have been
working just as well as not. He knew he was going to get his money on
Saturday, anyway. But I was so sick I could hardly think logically; and
I had to go down to the store and work.
Stigler had put on a big sale of Christmas novelties. He had bought a
lot of indoor parlor games. I hadn't bought any of those; and he had a
line of calendars and Christmas cards. I had never thought of putting
them in. The drug store had a big stock of them, though.
Stigler was advertising extensively and was pretty busy at both the
five-and-ten-cent store and at the hardware store opposite. He seemed to
be doing more business than usual. Since we had had the scrap in the
Ãlite Restaurant he had been quite polite, but somehow I feared him more
than ever before. He seemed to have a cold hatred of me, and he was
always going out of his way to spoil any adventure in special sales that
I made.
Toys had been going very slowly with me. I had wanted to get Fellows of
the Flaxon Advertising Agency to write up some ads on toys for me, but
he was in the hospital, being operated on for appendicitis. I didn't
know what to do.
As soon as she received the Mater's letter Aunt Hannah had telegraphed,
saying she'd be delighted to have Betty visit her, and asking if I
couldn't come as well. Of course I could not go, but the doctor said
that Betty was well enough to travel, so it was decided that the Mater
should go down with her to stay for a week or so while I looked after
the house. I planned to have all my meals at the Ãlite Restaurant.
The day after they left I was so ill that I had to spend the whole day
in the house. Larsen came around at lunch time and said he'd written up
an ad on toys and had put it in the papers.
"We can't afford any money for ads," I said peevishly.
"Done now, Boss, anyhow. Don't you worry--we had quite a good day
yesterday. Going to have another one to-day. You stay right in bed until
you are well. We'll look after things there."
Larsen was a good sort. I saw his ad in the paper. It read like this:
SOMETHING THAT MOVES
Every youngster likes a toy that moves. Get him one for
Christmas! We have a large variety of moving and other
Christmas toys. They are toys that will fascinate the
youngster. They are strongly built toys, too, that will
last.
Railroads, 50¢ to $4.00
Constructor outfits, 25¢ to $6.00
Bamboo, the wonderful tumbling clown, 50¢
Automobiles, moving animals, juvenile tool
outfits--hundreds of other things the children will
like.
Bring the youngsters in and let them enjoy the fun of
our toy bazaar.
Larsen told me that he had cleared away two long tables, placed them
together, covered them with cheap oil cloth, and filled them up with
toys, arranged in such a way that they could all be worked and handled
easily.
"I have Jimmie keeping 'em going all the time. He is working harder,
playing with them things, than he ever did in his life," he said, with a
chuckle.
I couldn't help smiling at Larsen's cheeriness. He certainly had been
different since we had had that dinner at home and had made Mrs. Larsen
realize that I was looking after his interests as well as my own.
I thought Larsen had done quite well on that ad, although there were
some things in it that I'd have changed.
He said that a lot of toys had been sold because he had them working. I
had intended to do something of that kind myself, only I had felt too
sick to attend to it. I remembered the big success we had had with
electrical appliances when we demonstrated them in actual use.
There were only six days to Christmas! Still, if we had a good week we
ought to clear those toys out.
Larsen told me Stigler's five-and-ten-cent store was packed. He thought
it was a good thing for us.
"Lots of folks go there," he said, "for 5- and 10-cent things. We're
next door. They come to us for better stuff."
Perhaps there was something in that, after all.