He was a fairly patient Man, and all he complained of was that when
he sat down he dislocated his Spine, while the Brass Knobs wore
black-and-blue Spots on him; and the dining-room Table should have
had a couple of Holes for him to put his Legs through; and he couldn't
find a Place in which to stretch out; and he needed a Derrick to move
one of the Chairs; and at Night when the Moonlight came into his Room
and he saw all the bummy Bean-Pots lined up on the Foot-Board and the
Instruments of Torture staring at him from every corner of the Room,
he would crawl down under the Covers and dream of his Childhood Home,
with the old-fashioned Sofas and the deep Rocking-Chairs and the big
Bureaus that were meant to hold Things and not to look at. However,
he has been unable to arrest the reaching-out after the Beautiful, for
only last Week she purchased a broken-down Clock--price $115.
* * * * *
MORAL: There is no Place like Home, and some Husbands are glad of it.
* * * * *
_THE PATIENT TOILER WHO GOT IT IN THE USUAL PLACE_
Once there was an Office Employee with a Copy-Book Education.
He believed it was his Duty to learn to Labor and to Wait.
He read Pamphlets and Magazine Articles on Success and how to make it
a Cinch. He knew that if he made no Changes and never beefed for more
Salary, but just buckled down and put in Extra Time and pulled for the
House, he would Arrive in time.
The Faithful Worker wanted to be Department Manager. The Hours were
short and the Salary large and the Work easy.
He plugged on for many Moons, keeping his Eye on that Roll-Top Desk,
for the Manager was getting into the Has-Been Division and he knew
there would be a Vacancy.
At last the House gave the old Manager the Privilege of retiring and
living on whatever he had saved.
"Ah, this is where Humble Merit gets its Reward," said the Patient
Toiler. "I can see myself counting Money."
That very Day the Main Gazooks led into the Office one of the
handsomest Tennis Players that ever worked on Long Island and
introduced him all around as the new Department Manager.
"I shall expect you to tell Archibald all about the Business," said
the Main Gazooks to the Patient Toiler. "You see he has just graduated
from Yale and he doesn't know a dum Thing about Managing anything
except a Cat-Boat, but his Father is one of our principal
Stock-Holders and he is engaged to a Young Woman whose Uncle is at the
head of the Trust."
"I had been hoping to get this Job for myself," said the Faithful
Worker, faintly.
[Illustration: _His Ambition._]
"You are so valuable as a Subordinate and have shown such an Aptitude
for Detail Work that it would be a Shame to waste you on a $5,000
Job," said the Main Gazooks. "Besides you are not Equipped. You have
not been to Yale. Your Father is not a Stock-Holder. You are not
engaged to a Trust. Get back to your High Stool and whatever Archibald
wants to know, you tell him."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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