Alfred Raymond

“ Harry Harding was positively thrilling with excitement, as he hurried to the assembly room to form in line for the triumphal march to Martin Hall. The hour had come when he was to witness his chum’s triumph. A number of rows of seats had been reserved for the store messengers, and as Harry marched into the hall with his work-a-day comrades to the inspiring strains of Sousa’s “Salute to the Colors,” played by the store orchestra, he was wrought up to a high pitch of pleasurable emotion. ”

“ Do you know, Mothery,” this was Harry’s pet name for his mother, “I feel a little bit sorry for Ted, to think his mother doesn’t make a fuss over him like you do over me. She belongs to some kind of a club, and she’s always going off to it, so Ted hardly sees her in the evenings. You see, he isn’t so poor as we are. He doesn’t have to work if he doesn’t want to. He can go to school. His father’s dead, too, but his mother has money enough to take care of her and Teddy so long as they both live. He just started to work because he didn’t like school. Nobody cares much what he does.” ”

“ One of them was Miss Welch. Her face was white with rage. Her blue eyes shot fire. In her hand was clutched four five-dollar notes.
“There’s your old money,” she cried, throwing it on the desk. “Oh, Kiddy, what a shame!” She ran to Harry and encircled him with protecting arms. Then she turned fiercely upon the detective. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Torturing this poor boy, before you stop to find out things. Look at him, the poor lamb. His heart’s broken. Why don’t you take somebody your own size? He did give the money to Mr. Barton, just as he said he did. ”

“ To Teddy Burke and Harry Harding the winter fairly raced along the frozen road to spring. Work brought the lads a contentment they had never before experienced. Teddy’s efforts had been rewarded with another dollar a week, and an initiation into the mysteries of stock in the realm of kettles and pans. Determined to give the boy every chance, Mr. Everett made much of him, giving him simple but invaluable information in the business of careful buying and the care of stock. Teddy was laying the foundation for a useful future amid the pleasantest possible surroundings. ”

“ Keene and tell him a pack of lies,” sneered the aisle manager, “rather than do me a little personal favor now and then.”
“I’m not a telltale, and I’ll gladly do any errand you wish me to do on my lunch hour, or after the store closes. You are welcome to my time, but I can’t give away what doesn’t belong to me.”
“You’ll do as I say,” ordered the aisle manager grimly, as though he had not heard Harry’s firm refusal. Then he turned on his heel and walked rapidly away, leaving Harry to stare after him, a bitter smile on his youthful face. He was learning the ways of men all too rapidly. ”

“ Teddy had only time for a quick, backward nod as he followed Mr. Duffield down the aisle between rows of shining kitchen ware. Harry turned and accompanied his companion up a nearby stairway and down the main arcade. Just off the broad aisle his guide stopped and peered about him. “There he is.” He hustled Harry past a long row of glass cases filled with shining silver. A tall man was standing with his back to the boys. He was writing on a salesman’s book with a blue pencil. Then he said loudly, “You ought to be more careful.” The harsh tones chilled Harry through and through. ”

“ I wish I had. I wish when to-morrow morning came I’d forget every single thing about school until eleven o’clock. What’s the use of going to an old school when you’ve got a job? I know enough already.”
“I don’t,” said Harry earnestly. “I think it’s a splendid chance. Why, Ted, we’re lucky to have it.”
“Then I’d rather be unlucky,” asserted Teddy stubbornly. “I’d rather hang around with the old kettles and pans all my life than be chased off to a silly school.”
There was a moment’s silence after Teddy’s grumbling speech. Then Harry said, “I hope we are put in the same division.” ”

“ At the end of the cross-aisle he paused to reconnoiter. No one was in sight. Teddy took a fresh grip on his shield and charged back again. Suddenly, to his amazed horror, his shield came in violent contact with something moving. The snarling, “Hi, there, whoda you think you’re hitting,” proved the “something moving” to be a very angry human being.
The clothes-pole clattered to the floor. The victim of his spirited charge was none other than his old enemy, Howard Randall, the fat boy. Teddy hastily flung aside his shield and doubled his fists. ”

“ They meant that the tired salespeople who had stuck to their posts so faithfully through the bustle and hurry of Christmas had not been so tired as to forget that a merry, gift-laden Christmas is the most important thing in the world to a boy. In each lad’s pocket reposed a two dollar and a half gold piece, the gift of their respective buyers, and as Harry Harding and Teddy Burke trudged home through the sharp wintry air they both agreed that they were truly the luckiest boys under the sun. ”

“ Harry’s voice was purposely sharp. He had no time to argue the matter with Teddy. “I wouldn’t be a quitter until I’d tried things out. You may like this school as much as you hated the other. Come on. We can’t stand here talking all day.”
Teddy walked beside Harry to Mr. Marsh’s desk with the air of a martyr. As he passed the still-waiting row of boys he hunched his shoulders and stared at them with a cross-eyed glare, which was one of his accomplishments, and caused them to giggle audibly. ”

“ He always wondered how cannibals and head-hunters could hold those great, clumsy things in one hand and fight with the other. To-day he peered sharply about to see if anyone was observing him. That end of the department was apparently deserted. Far up the aisle the Gobbler was expatiating on the glories of a clothes-wringer to a stolid-faced [124] woman, who clamored for a bargain in wringers. The loud gobble, gobble of the saleswoman’s strident voice floated down the aisle to Teddy. It meant that the Gobbler was too much taken up with her customer to trouble herself about him. ”

“ On several occasions he had encountered the man with whom he had collided on that first, disastrous school morning. By this time he knew him to be Mr. Rexford, the buyer of the books. Miss Welch had given him that information. Mr. Rexford had invariably smiled at him in a kindly fashion that quite won the boy to him. Harry never saw him without wishing secretly that he had been placed in the book department. It would be the height of happiness to work for such a man as Mr. Rexford. ”

“ Harry regarded Teddy with affection and appreciation. It didn’t much matter, he thought, if Teddy couldn’t keep out of mischief. He was truthful and honest, and that was what counted in a fellow who was one’s best chum. “What did that Howard Randall say? I suppose he didn’t say, ‘thank you?’”
“Well, he didn’t exactly say that, but—he—I—he isn’t such a mean kid, after all. He said he was sorry he tried to stick me for a nickel, and I’m not going to call him the elephant any more. We kind of made up.” ”

“ Marsh’s glance traveled down the line until it rested upon Harry Harding. A deep flush rose to Harry’s face, but he met the quizzical glance with steady eyes.
“Well, Burke, I’m glad to know you are a manly boy, at least,” asserted Mr. Marsh, “but I must know who the other boy is. Someone else in this room is more at fault than you. Still, if he won’t own up to his part of this affair, and you won’t give me his name, then you will have to bear your punishment and his too.” Mr. Marsh spoke with a decision that made Teddy’s heart sink. ”

“ His rapt reflections were disturbed by a sharp nudge in the ribs.
“Look who’s here,” muttered Teddy.
“Where? Who?” asked Harry in a whisper.
“The elephant; old Fatty Felix. There he is, waddling along ahead of us,” murmured Ted in guarded tones. “Wouldn’t that make you sick, though. Hope he isn’t in my class.” Teddy’s voice rose higher as his disgust grew greater. ”

“ There was nothing left for Harry to do but pass them. Mr. Farley cast a sleepy glance at the boy, but did not speak. He invariably treated the lad as though he were a part of the department furnishings. The slender, dark man paid no attention to him whatever. ”

“ Miss Newton, however, was in no great hurry to go to lunch. Engrossed in her task the minutes slipped by, and when at last she stalked majestically off in the direction of the time-desk, Teddy was called upon to go on an errand for Mr. Everett.
The instant he was free, he hurried down the aisle toward the hapless table, vengeance in his eye. “Maybe she won’t be mad, though,” he chuckled, as he paused before the rows of tinware and eyed the dividing space which separated the figurative sheep from the goats. “She won’t know what she’s counted and what she hasn’t, when I get through with ’em. ”

“ It won’t be long until we’re salesmen.”
“And after that we’ll be buyers,” declared Teddy eagerly. “Perhaps we’ll own a store like Martin Brothers’ some day, Harry.”
“Perhaps we will. At least, we’ve started on the long road to business and success, and it rests with us to keep in the middle of it. There’s a lot of hard work ahead of us.”
“I’m not afraid of hard work,” boasted Teddy. “Just watch me wade into it when I come back from my vacation.”
“I won’t have time,” retorted Harry, laughing. “I’ll be too busy myself.”
“My boy, I was very proud of you to-night!” ”

“ He isn’t worth bothering with. Certainly he isn’t worth losing your position for. If you get into a fight with him, you’ll both be discharged. Even though he is so hateful, he may have to work to help support his family. You wouldn’t like to be the means of doing the boy’s mother out of her son’s help, would you?”
“Aw, rats! He couldn’t support a mosquito,” jeered Teddy. “I’ll bet he’s a great, big, spoiled kid, that got fired from school just as I did. He’s no good.”
“Then if he’s no good, keep away from him,” retorted Harry sharply. ”

“ Untidiness, disobedience of orders, failure in lessons, bad behavior in school, in fact, all the things which you know to be wrong, but do wilfully, will put black marks on this card. Your aisle manager, or your teacher, can give them to you, and ten demerits mean that you will be sent to Mr. Keene’s office. He is the special superintendent for the boys, and it rests with him whether you stay in the store or not. But first of all it rests with yourselves, boys. It is just as easy to be neat and obedient and manly as it is to be untidy, disobedient and unruly. ”

“ Teddy confided to Harry as they walked downstairs together after school was over that morning. “I’m goin’ to sing a solo at the exercises and be in a duet and a quartette. I’ve got to learn my songs. Let somebody else win the money. Course, I’d get it, you know, if I tried for it,” he declared waggishly. Then he added in a flash of inspiration, “You’re the boy who can win it, Harry. You write the best compositions in Company A Class. Miss Leonard’s always reading ’em out to us and saying how good they are.” ”

“ The very sight of a slim little figure, topped by a brilliant red head, bobbing about between the rows of house furnishings was sure to be productive of a smile on the part of the salespersons. Teddy was in a fair way to be spoiled, and had he not possessed a sturdy honesty of purpose that spurred him on to do his work well, he might frequently have taken advantage of the good-natured tolerance with which the members of the department looked upon him. ”

“ He could still see the tall man flapping toward him, looking for all the world like a funny scarecrow he had once seen in a play. He had to scowl to keep from laughing.
“Well, let me tell you, young man, you won’t be here half an hour longer, if I catch you at any more such tricks. Do you think a customer wants a stewpan that a boy has been using for a head piece? What do you suppose our customers will say about Martin Brothers’ store, if we allow our boys to disgrace us in that fashion!”
Teddy hung his head, but, wise child that he was, said nothing. ”

“ You’re here to do as I say. Every other boy who has worked for me has done my errands and said nothing. You aren’t any better than the rest. Any time I have anything for you to do outside the store, you’ll do it, or I’ll get a boy down here that will.”
Mr. Barton had grown angrier with every word he spoke.
Harry measured the enraged aisle manager with a clear, searching glance in which lurked a shade of contempt. “I give you fair warning, Mr. Barton, I won’t do an errand on the store’s time unless it is strictly on business for Martin Brothers. ”

“ It’s the sermons that make me sleepy. I love to sing.” Teddy’s eyes glowed. “I think it’s fine that we have one morning a week for singing. My mother can play the piano, and sing, too. Sometimes she lets me sing with her. I know a lot of songs.”
“I can’t sing very much,” confessed Harry, “but I love to hear singing.”
“I like that Miss Verne, who plays the piano for us at school. She’s so small and pretty. She looks like a little girl dressed up in a grown woman’s clothes. Did you hear Miss Leonard tell three of the boys last Monday that Miss Verne wanted them to sing for her after school?” ”

“ Harry Harding was also making rapid strides along the line of his work. The only drawback to his satisfaction lay in the thought that he could not do more for the man who had done so much for him. Over and over again he said to Teddy, “I wish I could do something splendid for Mr. Rexford and for Martin Brothers, too, just to show them that I appreciate working for them.” ”

“ You’ll have to watch yourself harder than ever, Harry. He won’t have your kind of a boy around.”
“Miss Welch, there aren’t many of the aisle managers in the store like Mr. Barton, are there?”
“No, indeed,” was Miss Welch’s vigorous reply. “Most of them are as nice men as you’d care to meet anywhere. There’s only about three or four mistakes in the aisle-man bunch here, and Smarty’s one of ’em. He’s been here a long while and served in almost every department in the store. If there was to be a contest to find out who’s the meanest man in the store, everybody’d vote for his crabship. ”

“ Harry Harding laid the text-book he was studying on the table and regarded his mother with serious eyes.
[10]
“But I don’t want to take you out of school, Harry,” she protested. “You are getting along so well. Why, next year you’ll be in high school.”
“No, I won’t, Mother. Do you think that a great big boy like me is going to let his mother support him any longer? It’s time I went to work. Besides, I haven’t the money for clothes and books and all the other things high school fellows have to have. I’m past sixteen. Lots of boys have to go to work when they’re only fourteen. ”