Well, I had surely learned a lesson. I was a wiser man than I had been two weeks before. In that brief time more things had happened to me than had ever happened before, I guess. I had inherited $8,000.00 cash and a farm worth $8,500.00; I had bought out Jim Simpson, and then found only $8,100.00 worth of stock when I thought I was getting $9,460.00; I had given him a demand note for $3,500.00 which I thought was for twelve months; I had assumed over $400.00 worth of bills of which I didn't know anything at all; and, finally, I had found that the business amounted to only $22,000.00 a year instead of $28,000.00. I was reciting this tale of woe to Betty when she remarked: "Well, you can't do anything else wrong just yet, can you?" "I don't know," I declared. "It seems to me that I can't do anything right!" I promised Betty to follow the accountant's advice and set a deadline of expenses. He and I had worked that out. It seemed that my expenses were far too high for the business I was doing. Said he: "Ye are doing noo only aboot $22,000.00 a year. Ye hae a stock of approximately $8,000.00, and ye really should be doing $42,000.00 a year wi' it." "How do you figure that out?" I asked. "That's on the tur-rn-over." "Turn-over?" "Yes, ye ought to tur-rn over your investment in goods three and a half times a year--that is, ye ought to sell out your $8,000.00 stock that number of times; and as ye plan to add aboot 50 per cent. for the pr-rofit, ye should sell aboot $42,000.00 worth of goods within the peeriod of a year." "And I am selling only $22,000.00? Then you mean to say that I am selling only about half as much hardware as I ought to with my present stock?" "That statement of yours is just aboot correct," said he with a nod. "Wait a minute!" I cried excitedly. "You've made a mistake. I don't make 50 per cent. profit. I make only 33 1-3 per cent., all around!" "Ye mean," he declared quietly, "that ye make only 33 1-3 per cent. _on sales_. To get that percentage ye hae to add 50 per cent. onto your cost. Your percentage of profit on sales is verra deefferent frae your percentage o' profit on cost. Bide a wee," said he, and he did some rapid figuring on a slip of paper. "This will perhaps make it clearer to ye," and he handed it to me. I never realized, until he worked it out, just the difference between profit on cost and profit on sales. Here it is: 20% added to cost = 16⅔% profit on selling price 25% added to cost = 20% profit on selling price 30% added to cost = 23+% profit on selling price 33⅓% added to cost = 25% profit on selling price 40% added to cost = 28+% profit on selling price 50% added to cost = 33⅓% profit on selling price 60% added to cost = 37+% profit on selling price 75% added to cost = 42+% profit on selling price 80% added to cost = 44+% profit on selling price 90% added to cost = 47+% profit on selling price 100% added to cost = 50% profit on selling price