"How should I know what Harkavy could do with Kleiman & Elenbogen, Abe?" Morris cried. "You are the prophet of this here concern, Abe. Always you are predicting to me to-morrow what is going to happen yesterday." "Well, what's _vorbei_ is _vorbei_, Mawruss," Abe retorted; "and if I would got to stand here all day and _schmooes_ with you, Mawruss, go ahead and hire the feller. Only one thing I am saying to you, Mawruss: Don't tell me afterward that I was in favour of the feller from the start; because I ain't." With this ultimatum, Abe glanced toward the cutting room, where sat a tall, stooping figure, holding in his two hands a peaked cap. "Only to look at the feller gives me a _krank_, Mawruss," Abe continued; "so, if you are going to hire him, Mawruss, do me the favour and give him a couple dollars out of the safe so he should get a shave and a haircut and a new hat." Morris nodded and started for the cutting room, when Abe called him back. "For my part, Mawruss, I don't care what people says, y'understand," he declared; "but if we got a couple of them Thirty-fourth Street buyers around here and they sees our workpeople is got such shoes which their toes is sticking out already, Mawruss, what do they think of us? Am I right or wrong?" "Sure, I know," Morris said; "but----" "But nothing, Mawruss," Abe concluded. "For three dollars we should make suckers out of ourselves! Don't stand there like a fool, Mawruss. Give the feller five dollars; he should buy himself a pair of shoes and _fertig_." The transformation begun in Cesar Kovalenko by a haircut and a shave was made complete when Morris, accompanied by Kovalenko's cousin, went with him to a retail clothing establishment. There Cesar discarded forever his cap, top boots and frogged overcoat and emerged--but for his vocabulary--a naturalized citizen of the cloak-and-suit trade. "Now all he's got to do," Morris said, "is to work hard and he would quick be making good wages." "Sure, sure!" the cousin replied. "At first, maybe he would be a little _dumm_ on account he is got a whole lot of experiences lately." "Experiences?" Morris asked. "What for experiences?"