IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE
Permission to use the wellhouse once secured, preparations for the vast
enterprise progressed rapidly. The very next day, while Pepsy was at her
chores, Pee-wee built a counter in the shack and sitting at this he
printed signs to be displayed along the woody approaches to this
mouth-watering dispensary.
Neither the gloomy predictions of his uncle nor the laughing skepticism
of his aunt dimmed his enterprising ardor. The signs which he printed
with his uncle’s crate stencil, procured from the barn, bespoke the
variety of tempting offerings which existed so far only in his fertile
mind.
He was somewhat handicapped in the preparation of these signs by the
largeness of the perforated letters of the stencil and the limited size
of the cards. He had preferred cards to paper because they would not
blow and tear and Aunt Jamsiah had given him a pile of these, uniform in
size, on one side of which had been printed election notices of the
previous year. It was impossible, therefore, for Pee-wee to include all
of each tempting announcement on one card, so he used two cards for each
reminder to the public. Thus on one card he printed FRANKFURTERS and on
its mate intended for posting just below, the palate-tickling
conclusion, SIZZLING HOT.
FRANKFURTERS
SIZZLING HOT ⇾
This is how the sign would appear upon some fence or tree. It would be a
knockout blow to any hungry wayfarer.
Another two-card sign, intended for warmer weather, read:
ICE CREAM
⇽ COLD AND COOLING
Other signs originating in Pee-wee’s fertile mind and covering the range
of food and drink and auto accessories were these:
PEANUT TAFFY
SWEET AND DELICIOUS ⇾
OUR TIRE TAPE
⇽ STICKS LIKE GLUE
NON SKID
CHAINS ⇾
FRESH
⇽ BANANAS
DRINK
SWEET CIDER ⇾
MAGIC
⇽ CARBON REMOVER
There were many others, enough to decorate the road for miles in both
directions. If Pepsy as chef could live up to Pee-wee’s promises the
neighborhood would soon become famous. That was her one forlorn hope,
that the fame of their offerings would get abroad and lure the traffic
from its wonted path. But Pee-wee’s enthusiasm and energy carried all
before them like a storming column and she was soon as hopeful and
confident as he.
When her chores were finished that afternoon she hurried to their
refreshment parlor, where Pee-wee sat behind the new counter like a
stern schoolmaster, cards strewn about him, his round face black with
stencil ink, still turning out advertising bait for the public.
“I don’t care what they say,” she panted; “we’re going to make a lot of
money and buy the tents. I tripped on the third step in the house just
now and that means surely we’ll have good luck and I can help just as
much as if I was a really truly scout, can’t I? Aunt Jamsiah says if I
make a lot of doughnuts you’ll just eat them all and there won’t be any
to sell. We mustn’t eat the things ourselves, must we?”
“That shows how much she knows,” Pee-wee said; “we might have to do that
to make the people hungry. If they see me eating a doughnut and looking
very happy, won’t that make them want to buy some? We have upkeep
expenses, don’t we?”
“Yes, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell her that,” Pepsy said, “but I never
thought of it. You always think of things. I’m going to wash the ink off
your face, so hold still.”
She dipped her gingham apron under the trap-door in the flooring where
the clear, cool water was, and taking his chin in her coarse little
freckly hands, washed the face of her hero and partner. And meanwhile
Wiggle tugged on her apron as if he thought she were inflicting some
injury upon the boy.
So blinded was Pee-wee by this vigorous bath and so preoccupied the
others that for the moment none of them noticed the young fellow of
about twenty who, with hat tilted rakishly on the side of his head and
cigarette drooping from the corner of his mouth, stood in the road
watching them.