Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

“ If I found too much difficulty in collecting, I should set up practice elsewhere,” he concluded, dryly.
“Willie always hated to ask for cash, just as I did,” said Joel.
“Of course. Well, you make up your mind to one fact before you are a day older, Mr. Rice. Life is strictly a cash business for all of us, and we can't live, or practise medicine, or keep dry-goods stores without a cash basis. And you can make up your mind to another thing; cash always exists and somebody gets it.” ”

“ Joel sighed.
“What is the matter, uncle?”
“Not many of the customers pay cash, but I guess they must be good. We have had a big trade this last week.”
“Of course they are good. Look at the way they live,” said Willie.
But the new stock of goods was soon exhausted and very little cash had been turned in for them. Joel began to return to the store after supper and pore over his books. After a while Willie accompanied him. They sent out beautiful bills, and spent much time on the road to the post-office. Their hope waxed and waned like the moon, month after month. ”

“ He will never make a storekeeper. He would be cheated out of his eye-teeth in a month.”
Joel's father, a saturnine man, with much confidence in his wife's judgment, had nodded assent.
It was thus settled, even while Joel, in his dauntless ambition, was starting another store on the soap-box, and inviting bankruptcy to call again, which invitation was promptly accepted. Joel kept all the neighborhood children in green apples and broken china for seasons, without a pin's worth of profit to himself, but his faith in the enterprise remained beautiful and serene. ”

“ With so many men there they could not be exactly afraid, especially when a man was so very thin and weak and worn as Joel was.
He went right on. “I never thought I was any better than other people. Now I know I am. It is a terrible knowledge to come to a man who loves God and tries to walk in His path. It is terrible to know yourself better than others because you cannot help but disobey Scripture. You know that you fail in humility, and yet what can any man do against facts?” ”

“ You have done me the worst wrong that human beings can do one another. You have made me know myself better than other men, so I shall be set among those who are not elect at the Judgment Day. How can I say, after living here these years and finding you out, that I am unworthy and you are worthy, and not lie to God himself? ”

“ Racebridge women were friendly, and welcomed strangers in their midst. Susan bathed her eyes in cold water and sat down beside a window with her needlework.
Presently two women in fine silk dresses appeared under bobbing, ruffled parasols. They were coming to call. Susan admitted them, and the three sat in the parlor and talked. Everybody who called said exactly the same things. They all asked Susan where she had lived before she came to Racebridge, if she was homesick, how old her little girl was, and if Vivien had had the mumps, because the mumps were going around. ”

“ He may not have dared to fully investigate the books in which the store accounts had been kept for many years. The poor man was so pleased and proud that he may have trembled before his own happiness. Sometimes people are afraid to touch their good fortune lest they find a soft spot of rottenness, especially people like Joel, to whom good fortune has been so long in coming.
It was Willie Day, a nephew of his wife's, who forced Joel's reluctant knowledge upon his mind. ”

“ She failed at first to grasp the entire meaning of Miss Eliza's remarks, but she was very uneasy.
“She means,” said Susan, finally, “that people in Racebridge are bad about paying their bills.”
That evening she declared to Joel that she thought it would be wiser to have cash customers than charge customers. Joel stared at her. “Why, Susan,” he said, “who ever heard of a business without charge customers? Three more opened accounts today.”
“I should much prefer cash,” Susan said, firmly.
“Cash? Why, a good charge is better than cash. There was a drummer in the store to-day talking about it. ”

“ Willie indicated the store-room by a nod of his head. A long streamer of cobweb, acquired during his search, floated from his right arm.
“Not so's to say I have,” replied Joel.
“I don't know much about the stuff women folks are wearing,” said Willie, who had previously clerked in a grocery, “but it seems to me a lot of the goods packed away out there are older than the old goods you told me you couldn't sell here. Why don't you get Aunt Susan to look at them? She's a woman, and she ought to know the styles.”
“I don't believe in having women folks mixed up with men's business,” replied Joel. ”

“ Even when he had disposed of countless stocks of cups of sweetened water, of bits of broken china gathered from back yards, of green apples and the cores thereof, and his customers had not only defrauded him of pins, but had mocked him from vantage-points of safety, he remained sublime in his determination that when he was a man he would “keep store.” ”

“ That was what happened when the last fine new stock disappeared, for people thought so little of the obsolete goods, that they did not even buy on credit. Day after day passed with hardly a customer. Joel's wife had obtained all the music scholars possible, then she resorted to other means of gaining extra pennies. She answered one of the advertisements advising women to make fortunes, with elegant ease, in their own homes, and sunk a little money in the venture. It was quite a task which she had undertaken. Susan toiled at it, sent it off, and that was the end. ”

“ Willie looked expectantly at his uncle. “They're most of them charged, but I guess the customers are good. I guess they'll pay sometime. They live as if they had money.”
“Of course they'll pay. Let's go down to the store this evening and make out some more bills. Then you can take my money and go to New York and buy new goods. When the money begins to come in for the others you can go again.”
Of course it ended in Joel's taking Willie's money. The boy was eager to lend it, and very proud to be left in charge of the store while his uncle was in New York buying. ”

“ She was a pretty, well-dressed woman, the wife of a well-to-do man. She wore an outer garment made of a soft shade of gray, decorated with fur. Joel pointed straight at that garment, and the woman turned pale and shrank. Then he shouted, and after that there was no trouble about hearing him above the roar of the river and the pipe of the canary-bird.
“Mrs. Lester Weeks,” he screamed, “I am here to-day to obey the precepts of the Holy Bible. That coat you have on was made of cloth at three dollars a yard, that you bought of me. You have never paid for it. You have taken my coat ”