We all had a good laugh, and then continued the discussion of the law of association. We decided that, whenever a man came in for a hammer, we would always suggest nails, and vice versa. To every one who bought a razor we would suggest shaving appliances. If a customer came in for some paint, we would suggest brushes, and ask if he was going to paint the barn, and, if so, whether he wanted some new door hangers, and such like. I told Martin that he had better make a list on cards of the articles which can be associated with each other, and then we could tack up the cards where we could see them and quickly suggest the associated articles to the customer. "I tell yer what," said Jimmie, "let's have a lot of cards printed, and then, if a carpenter comes in, shove out a card at him and say, 'Look through this and see what else you want'?" That didn't strike me as being such a bad suggestion after all. The second plan for increasing sales was to suggest novelties, or new articles in stock, to customers. "Look what we did with that Cincinnati pencil sharpener," said Larsen. "Do you remember how we mentioned that to every one who came in, and we sold a bunch of 'em." "And they're still selling, for I sold three last week," said Martin. "Gosh," said Jimmie, "everybody must be giving 'em to everybody else for presents." "I don't think," said Martin, "we have anything like exhausted the sales possibilities of those pencil sharpeners, and I am going to suggest that we make that our novelty suggestion for the next week. What do you say, Mr. Black?" I shook my head dubiously. "We seem to have pushed those so much," I said, "I should think there would hardly be a novelty here now." "There has not been one on display for a couple of months," he answered, "and we have about half a dozen in stock. Let's put those around the store in different parts and then put a little card over each one saying, 'Sharpen your pencil.' I will wager that every man who comes into the store will sharpen his pencil, and if he does--" "And if he does," the irrepressible Jimmie broke in "good-by pencil sharpener, you're going to a new home!" A thought had occurred to me which developed into the third method of increasing sales. I had remembered that, when Betty and I were in New York, she had lost her handkerchief, and we went into a store to get one. When Betty said she wanted one handkerchief, the girl brought out one and said, "Ten cents. Anything else?" I had thought at the time that she could have sold Betty half a dozen just as well as one, and, furthermore, if she had brought out one at twenty-five cents Betty would have bought it just as readily.