"Wait!" says Munson, takin' off his glasses and wipin' 'em. "You're a
new one on me, son! So you admit you haven't got the greatest auto
that was ever made, eh?" he chuckles. "By Peter! That sounds strange
after all the talk I been listening to to-day. If your car is as
honest as you seem to be, it's all right!" He sits lookin' off in the
air, tappin' the desk with the pencil again.
Alex nudges me and we start for the door. Halfway he stops and looks
at a photo that's framed over the desk. It's a picture of a barn, some
chickens and a couple of cows.
"Right fine landscape, that!" chirps Alex to Munson. "Makes a feller
like me homesick to look at it. Them are sure fine Jerseys, too--and
say, see them pullets, would you!"
"That's my little farm down on Long Island," says Munson, throwin' out
his chest. "I suppose that makes you laugh, eh? Big, grown New Yorker
having a farm, eh?"
"Mister," says Alex, sadly, "it don't make _me_ laugh! I was raised on
a farm in Vermont and--"
"That so?" cuts in Munson, lookin' interested. "Country boy, eh?"
"Yep," goes on Alex. "Now, speakin' of them pullets there--if you'd
try 'em on a straight diet of bran and potatoes--pound of each--they'll
fatten up quicker."
"Yes?" pipes Munson, brightenin' up some more. "Well, well!
And--hmph! Thanks, Mister Hanley, I'll make a note of that.
Now--eh--sit down a minute! I don't want to take your time, but--eh,
what did you find best back home for saving the young chicks? What
foods--"
"I'll just leave you a few little rules," says Alex, his eyes
glitterin', as he rams his elbow a mile in my ribs. "I got to call on
another department store this afternoon, where I'm almost certain to
take an order and--"
"Young man!" Munson shuts him off, "I'm frank enough to say that you've
made a very favorable impression on me. You're honest about your car,
and you didn't try to overawe me by hurling a lot of unintelligible
technical terms into my ear. You don't claim it's the bargain of the
age. Now we have recently inaugurated right here in this store a
policy of absolute honesty with regard to our merchandise. No
misrepresentations are permitted. We sell our goods for what they
are--we don't allow a clerk to tell a customer that he's getting a
five-dollar shirt for two dollars. I can't get the car I want to put
in here--they want too much money and their salesman spent most of his
time here speaking in terms that none but a master mechanic on their
own auto would understand. I'm a pretty good judge of character and
you look good to me. Give me a price on fifty of your cars for
immediate delivery and--well, let's hear your figures!"
Alex drops his hat on the floor, but when he picked it up, he was as
cool as a dollar's worth of ice.
"Just a minute," he says, sittin' down and reachin' for a desk
telephone. He gets the Gaflooey Company on the wire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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