"That certainly is a very interesting suggestion," said Martin, "and possibly could be worked. But there's one difficulty. All the ads. of the vacuum cleaner show women and children operating the machine. If we suggested that a man ought to work it, they might wonder what is wrong with the machine--or with us. Besides, Mr. Black, don't you think it would take us too much from our regular work, so that, either there or here, we would have to have extra help?" After I thought the matter was dropped, Martin said, "Do you think that one dollar is sufficient to charge for a day's use of that machine? Don't you think we can get two dollars just as easily? Also remember that, if the machine has been out one day, from our point of view it becomes unsalable as a new machine." "Do you think they will stand for that much?" asked Jones. "Oh, yes," I chimed in, "I'm sure they will. It is going to save the women two or three days' work; and, as you know, many people hire a man or woman to come for a day to beat the rugs, and they can't get anybody under two dollars a day, and it usually takes them a day to do the job." So we decided to charge two dollars a day for the rent of the vacuum cleaners. Charlie Martin suggested that we ought to get up an ad. for the sweeper service. I thought that Fellows ought to do it, but Charlie was so insistent that I told him to go ahead with it. Jimmy gave us an idea which I thought was pretty good. "Say, Boss," he said, "couldn't we sell baseball goods?" "Barlow has always handled those," I said, "and--and--" I trailed off to nothing, because I realized that, because Barlow handled these, it was no reason why I should not, and, if I stopped handling everything he did, I would have very few goods in the store. I had had to give up the idea of farm implements, because of the big hold he had on that business, and the amount of money it required to carry the necessary stock. "I'm captain of the Little Tigers," broke in Jimmie, "and if yer put in baseball goods, why I can get all our gang to buy from here--and, say, I know a couple o' kids that would like to go and see the captains of the other kids' teams around here--especially if you were to give a little rake off." We all laughed--except Larsen. "That's one of the best suggestions Jimmie ever give us," he said, "Let his pals sell for a commission. They get business we never get." Here Martin broke in, "I know a house in Boston that would supply us with all the catalogs we wanted, and we could sell from catalog if necessary, and they would give us a substantial discount for any orders we sent them." "Write to them, Charlie," I said, "and see what they'll do."