To be ordered to get money out of a slow customer is bad enough, but to have to settle an account with a mean one is a thousand times worse. The slow customer is usually ready to dun himself, and full of apologies for his slowness, but the “Smart Aleck” who wants to be small has a hundred arguments ready at hand to prove that he is a very superior person who proposes to stand on his rights. Every traveling man has such customers as this “on his list,” and is occasionally called upon to tackle them. I had made up my mind that I would find Atkinson rather tall and slim, but he wasn't; he was a pleasant-looking man, and I handed out my card as if I had called around to sell him a big bill. His face lost some of the smile when he saw the firm's name, but I began to talk of trade and the weather, and kept it up until I had forced him into an appearance of being sociable. Eventually I led the talk around to his stock and was fully prepared for his decisive “We do not need any.” I mentioned guns, rifles, cartridges, caps--everything--but he was full. I was determined that he should introduce the subject of the account, and this he did when I made a move as if to go. “Did your house tell you about our account?” “They told me to stick to all the money I could get,” I said, pleasantly. “Have you a statement of our account with you?” “I think I have.” And I appeared to be searching for it, though, of course, I knew the exact page and line it was on. “Here it is: $43.30.” He went to his ledger, found it correct, I suppose, and then from his cash drawer counted out the amount and asked for a receipt. I gave him one, thanked him for the money, and then remarked that I was sorry there had been any misunderstanding about the terms. “I like to see a house live up to its agreement,” he said, in a surly tone. “Don't we?” “No, sir; these goods were to be paid for when sold.” “But the invoice is plainly marked sixty days; why didn't you report such an agreement when you received the invoice?” “I don't care for the invoice. Don't I get any amount of invoices where all of the discount does not show? When I pay them I deduct the extra, and that is the end of it.”