"Never tell a customer we are out of stock of anything. If something is asked for that is not in stock, offer the customer something else that will, in your judgment, satisfy her. If a customer, for example, should ask for an 8-in. aluminum saucepan and we are out of that size, bring her both a 7-in. and a 9-in. size and say: 'These are the nearest we have to the 8-in. size. Which of these would suit you best?' If the customer should hesitate, impress upon her the benefit of buying a saucepan rather larger than she anticipates needing. If the customer says that nothing but the 8-in. size will suit her, suggest that you can give her an enameled pan in that size, and if that won't do, ask her to leave her name and address and we will have one expressed to her promptly from the manufacturer. Apply methods similar to these in every case when we are asked for something of which we are out of stock. Make it a rule never to allow a customer to leave the store without making every attempt to sell her something that will be satisfactory to her." I was really pleased with myself when I heard an animated discussion on this new rule. Jones exclaimed: "Jiminny Christmas, the Boss has got more sense than I thought he had!" I told Betty that, when I got home, and she immediately fingered all my vest buttons. "What's that for?" I asked. "I think," she said gravely, but with a twinkle in her eye, "you had better take off your vest and let me fasten those buttons with wires, or else you'll be bursting them, through swelling with pride!" CHAPTER XVI A PROPER USE FOR EYES I met Barlow one morning taking his "constitutional." While I was working for him we fellows always used to laugh at his plan of going for a walk every day for fifteen or twenty minutes. We used to think it was a freak notion of his for keeping in health. Barlow shook hands with me and asked me how business was going. I told him that sales were picking up very slowly. Then he asked me: "And how is friend Stigler affecting you now?" I told him about the scheme I had been working on Stigler. "But," I concluded, "I don't bother much with thinking about him now." "That's excellent!" he exclaimed. "He isn't doing any too well, I know, and he has some time on his hands to talk. You forget him as much as possible and just go ahead and 'saw wood.'" "That's what I'm trying to do. But I'm still keeping up that plan of marking down the goods in the window for an hour in the morning until he cuts his goods." Barlow chuckled at that: "It is amusing," he said, "that Stigler hasn't yet realized that you are not cutting your own prices but merely making him cut his!" "But, really," I said, "so much is always happening that I've forgotten almost everything but business."