RUSSELL EXPLAINS
Doubtless Doctor McPherson’s copy of _The Doubleay_ was delivered to
him absolutely on time, but the Doctor was always a busy man, and
this was still very close to the beginning of the term, and so it was
not until he was at ease in his very large and very old-fashioned
green leather arm-chair that evening that he found time to scan the
pages of the school weekly. This was a thing that he invariably did
with much interest, for the paper echoed very clearly the pulse of
the School. The Board of Editors and Managers were representative
fellows and published their opinions--which were the opinions of their
schoolmates--very frankly. In fact, as the Doctor recalled as he turned
to the first page, there had been times when their frankness had been
almost alarming; certainly embarrassing to him and the faculty! The
Doctor was very thorough in all that he did, which probably accounts
for the fact that, having perused and digested the news and editorial
portions of the paper, he considered the advertisements, and with
scarcely less interest. And, having reached one of them, he read
it twice, frowning a little, and then, drawing a memorandum-pad
toward him along the top of the big desk, he made three funny little
characters on it, which, since the Doctor numbered a knowledge of
short-hand among his other accomplishments, meant much more to him than
it would have to you or me.
The direct result of those three lines and pot-hooks was the appearance
the next forenoon of Russell Emerson in the school office and his
prompt passage to the Principal’s private sanctum beyond. This room,
which Russell had never before entered--and had never pined to!--was
a large, high-ceilinged chamber with cream-white walls and woodwork
and three massive windows toward the Green. It was saved from coldness
and austerity by the huge mahogany bookcase along the farther wall,
by a soft-piled green rug occupying most of the floor space, by a
big mahogany desk in the center of the rug and by the presence along
two walls of some half-dozen armchairs of the same warm-toned wood.
Nevertheless, the first effect of that chamber on Russell was awesome,
if not alarming. Although conscious of no lapse from the straight and
narrow path, he nevertheless felt most uneasy as he closed the heavy
door behind him, responded to the Principal’s smiling “Good morning,
Emerson” and seated himself in the chair that stood beside the nearer
end of the desk. Secretly curious, he sent a hurried look along the
top of the shining mahogany, thinking that perhaps there would be
somewhere in sight a clew to this unexpected summons. But the desk,
save for some half-dozen books between handsome bronze book-ends in a
distant corner, a large leather-bound writing pad under the Doctor’s
elbow and a combined ink-well and pen-tray beyond it, was absolutely
empty. Nor did the Doctor’s brown and rather sinewy hand hold anything
that appeared like incriminating evidence. It held, in fact--I am
referring to the hand that held anything--only a sharply-pointed yellow
pencil which the Doctor, as he inquired politely as to Russell’s health
and, subsequently, the health of Russell’s parents, slipped slowly back
and forth between his fingers, alternating sharpened lead and rubber
tip against one gray-trousered knee. Then he laid the pencil down on
the blotting-pad, very exactly, so that it lay absolutely parallel to
the rim of the pad, and came to the subject.
“I read in _The Doubleay_, Emerson, that you have opened a shop in the
town--in West street, I believe--for the sale of athletic supplies.”
He paused, and Russell said, “Yes, sir.”
“Rather an unusual proceeding, Emerson,” pursued the Doctor. “Unusual,
that is to say, at this school. It may have been done elsewhere. Would
you mind telling me why you have embarked in this--ah--enterprise?”
[Illustration: “Rather an unusual proceeding, Emerson,” pursued the
doctor]
“Why,” replied Russell a trifle blankly, “to make money.”
“I see. But do you really need money? That is, more money than, I
presume, your parents allow you?”
“Yes, sir,” answered the boy emphatically. “My tuition is paid until
the end of this term, sir, but if I’m to remain here for the rest of
the year I’ll have to pony up--I mean I’ll have to pay for it myself.”
Russell paused, frowned a little and looked speculatively at the
Principal. The latter smiled faintly and nodded.
“Yes, I would,” he said.
Russell looked a bit startled and a bit questioning.
“Tell me all about it,” explained the Doctor. “You were wondering
whether you should, weren’t you?”
“Well, I--” Russell began apologetically. Then he smiled and began
anew. “You see, sir, my father isn’t very well off. I guess I oughtn’t
to have come here in the first place, but I wanted to pretty badly, and
father said I might as well have the best as any, and so I came. It
went all right the first two years, but last spring things got sort of
bad in our town. Folks got out of work and went away, and those that
stayed didn’t have much money and didn’t spend much of what they had.
And a good many didn’t pay their bills. So father’s business sort of
ran down and we didn’t have much money.”
“What is your father’s business, Emerson?”
“He keeps a store, sir, a sort of general store. He told me away back
last March that if things didn’t pick up soon there wouldn’t be much
chance of my getting back here, and I tried to think of some way of
making money so I could come back. I’d helped in the store a good deal
and so, naturally, I thought of selling something, and I was pretty
sure that athletic goods would go pretty well here, because there isn’t
any one in town that makes a specialty of them, you see. Crocker, the
hardware man, carries some, but he tries to shove off second-rate
stuff at first-class prices, and the fellows have been stung a good
deal. Then there’s another man away down town, Loring, who carries a
few things, but he’s a good distance off, and his stuff is kind of
second-rate, too. When the football team or the baseball team or the
hockey team want supplies they send to New York for them, and that
takes time and they don’t get any different goods than what we carry.”
“I see,” commented the Doctor interestedly. “And so you and Patterson,
your room-mate, decided to start this shop. That was last spring, you
say?”
“We didn’t exactly decide then, sir. That is, I decided to do it if
I could, but I couldn’t get Stick--that’s Patterson, sir: his name’s
George, but every one calls him Stick--I couldn’t get him to promise
until about the middle of the summer. I’d have gone into it alone, only
I didn’t have enough money, and Stick had some he’d saved and I wanted
it. You see, it takes quite a lot to get a thing like this started,
sir.”
The Doctor nodded gravely. “Undoubtedly,” he agreed. “And between you,
you managed to get enough together to put it through, Emerson?”
Russell shook his head ruefully. “No, sir, not enough, but--well, it
has to do,” he answered a bit defiantly. “Stick didn’t want to--I mean
he found he couldn’t put in quite as much as he thought he could, sir,
and I didn’t make quite as much during the summer as I’d expected to,
and so it left us sort of short when the time came.”
“You worked during the summer, then?”
“Yes, sir, I waited on table at the Pine Harbor House. They didn’t
have a very good season. Too much rain and cold weather. A lot of the
fellows made less than I did, though, so I guess I oughtn’t to kick,”
added Russell thoughtfully.
There was silence for a moment, and then the Doctor, having taken up
his pencil again, said: “I don’t want to pry into matters that don’t
concern me, Emerson, but it must have taken at least several hundred
dollars to start this shop of yours. Now, just suppose that there isn’t
the demand for your wares that you anticipate. What then? It’s going to
whisk that money away, isn’t it? You’ve laid out most of it, I presume,
on goods, you’ve had to sign a lease of the premises you occupy and
you’ve paid some rent already. Have you thought what may happen? What
happens every day in retail business?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Russell. “It’s a risk, I know, but it isn’t as big
as you think, I guess. We didn’t have much money to start on and so we
don’t stand to lose very much, even if all went, which it can’t. We’ve
taken only half a store and we’ve leased it by the month. A florist has
the rest of it, a man named Pulsifer. You see, we couldn’t afford to
take a whole store, not where we wanted it, and so we made an offer to
this florist fellow and he fell for it right away. He had more space
than he needed, except around Christmas and Easter time, and he was
quite keen about renting it. Then we haven’t put in a very big stock,
sir. You see, there are so many things that we have to handle that
we just couldn’t begin to keep them all. So we have samples of most
everything and a fair line of the fall things. If we don’t happen to
have what’s wanted to-day we telephone to New York for it and we get it
to-morrow.”
“I see,” said the Doctor. “And of course you aren’t depending solely on
the Academy trade?”
“No, sir, we’re after the High School fellows and the public generally.
But we do expect to get a good deal of patronage from the Academy. In
fact, sir, what I want to do ultimately is persuade the athletic teams
to trade with us instead of New York!”
“Well, I endorse your courage, Emerson, and I trust you won’t be
disappointed. That is--” The Doctor stopped and frowned at the pencil.
“To be frank, Emerson,” he went on, “I had some idea of persuading you
to give up this scheme when I sent for you. I say persuading because
there is nothing in the rules of this institution that empowers me to
forbid it. The mere fact that it has never before been done doesn’t
prohibit it; although it is probably the reason that there is no
regulation that does! I dare say you can understand why the faculty
would view such a proceeding askance, Emerson.”
Russell looked frankly puzzled and finally shook his head. “No, sir,
I’m afraid I can’t,” he said.
The Doctor’s brows went up a trifle and he smiled faintly. “Really?
Doesn’t it occur to you that keeping a shop might interfere somewhat
with the real purpose of your presence here?”
“You mean it might keep me from studying, sir?”
“Exactly, from study and progress, which, after all, Emerson, are what
you are here for.”
“Why, but don’t you see, sir,” exclaimed Russell, “that if I don’t run
that store I can’t stay here? Why, I--I’m doing it just because I want
to study and learn! I’m doing it so I _can_, Doctor McPherson!”
The Doctor’s golden-brown eyes lighted kindly and the creases that
ran from each side of his straight nose to the corners of his rather
wide mouth deepened under his smile. “Yes, I do see it, my boy,” he
replied heartily. “And because I see it I’ve quite changed my course
of action since you arrived. I certainly would not like to see your
example followed by--well, by many of your companions, Emerson. And
for that reason I trust shop-keeping won’t become the fashion here at
Alton! But in your case--well, we’ll see how it works out. I sincerely
hope that we shall be satisfied with the results, Emerson. And I
certainly hope you will, too. In fact, I wish you the best of luck, my
boy. And, while I know very little of merchandising, I’ll be very glad
to give you any assistance in my power. And”--whereupon the Doctor’s
eyes twinkled--“I’ll certainly patronize ‘The Sign of the Football’ in
preference to the gentleman who keeps second-rate goods at first-rate
prices! Good morning, Emerson.”
“Good morning, sir,” stammered Russell. “And--and thank you.”
“Not at all. And let me know how you’re getting on sometime!”