Then we considered an attempt to work up a line of private customers and deliver our produce to them direct. This again involved an initial expense for teams and men that we couldn’t afford and also the services of someone who could give more time to the management of the project than Holt could spare. In the end it seemed inevitable that we should use a commission man. But--here’s the point--we were now collectively in a position to come to fairer terms with a middle-man than we had been as individuals. If one man handled all our produce he could afford to pay us more. Our experience with Barnes had been fairly satisfactory but he was only a commission agent and it didn’t seem to Holt that he offered now as good terms as we ought to get. Undoubtedly we should have had to accept those if Holt hadn’t run across a young fellow by the name of Burlington. He was just the man we needed. He was a young fellow starting in the retail business for himself and needed our produce as much as we needed him. Holt made fast to him at once. After his first interview with Burlington, Holt came back to me enthusiastic. “He’s the temporary solution of the selling end,” he exclaimed. “He has the market stall, he knows the game, and he has a clientele. That much he has already invested for us. Now what I propose to do is to take him into partnership.” “Have you got as far as that with him?” “Not yet,” answered Holt, “but that’s what it’s coming to. If we give him stuff enough he can afford to handle it on a basis of ten per cent. over his expenses, which will be another five per cent. That’s some better than the thirty per cent. that we’ve been paying.” “It surely is,” I agreed, “but he hasn’t agreed to it yet.” “Not yet,” answered Holt without showing any sign of being worried. “I’m going to bring him out here some Sunday and show him our plant.” A week or so later Holt brought Burlington out. He was a clean-cut, wide-awake young fellow of thirty and I liked him at once. We had him up to dinner and after that took him to drive around the village. We showed him some five hundred acres of land under cultivation--under real cultivation. We showed him acres upon acres which had been harrowed and worked until they looked like front lawns ready for seed. We told him that the produce from every inch of that ground would pass through the Pioneer Company except what was used at home. It was just like one big farm. He was amazed. Then he exclaimed, “Say, you fellows have hit it right if you can keep it up.” “Just you watch us,” I said. He laughed. “I don’t need to watch anyone but Holt here,” he answered. “And, believe me, I certainly have got to watch him if I’m going to make a cent out of the deal.” “Don’t get that idea,” Holt broke in, taking him seriously. “We want you to make a fair profit and we’ll see that you do. We want you to feel like one of us--a sort of partner.”