"It's one of our fads, too," goes on the old man, "not to spell
Corrugated g-a-i-t-e-d. We've simplified it by leaving out the I. Of
course, we don't expect you to learn all these things at once; but pick
'em up as fast as you can. That--that's all. Thank you very much,
Miss--er----What's the name?"
"Morgan," says she, "Mildred Morgan."
"Ah," says the boss, "very much obliged, Mil--er--Miss Morgan," and
before I could get to the door he has hopped up and opened it for her.
Then he turns around and sees me standin' there grinnin'. "Torchy," says
he, "are there any more like that around the shop?"
"None that I ever saw," says I.
"Thank Heaven!" says he. "Send in one of the other kind."
"Want a real ripe one?" says I.
He does. And say, we got plenty of them. I picks out one with washed-out
eyes, front teeth that sticks out, and no shape to speak of. She could
make the typewriter do a double shuffle, though, and there couldn't
anybody around the place sling out words faster'n she could take 'em
down on her pad, or any she couldn't spell right the first crack. The
old man fixes it that she's to go over Mildred's work with an ink eraser
before it comes to him.
If Mildred knew about it, she never let on. Nothin' much bothered her.
She'd come sailin' in any old time durin' the forenoon, lookin' as
han'some as a florist's window and actin' as if she never heard of such
a thing as a time clock. Piddie tackles her only once.
"Miss Morgan," says he, "business begins here at nine o'clock promptly."
"How absurd!" says Mildred, and Piddie don't get over the shock for an
hour.
About the second week all hands took a vote that Mildred wa'n't much of
a success as a typewriter artist and that she ought to be fired. The old
man put it up to Mr. Robert, and Mr. Robert shoves it back at him. Then
they both loaded it onto Piddie and cleared out. When they come back
they asks him if he's done it.
"Well," says he, colorin' up, "not exactly."
Come to make him own up, he'd gone at the job so easy and had been so
polite about it that Miss Morgan has time to head him off with a strike
for more pay, and before he can back out he's promised to see what can
be done.
"Couldn't you talk to her, Mr. Ellins?" says he.
"Great Scott, no!" says the boss. "Tell her she's raised, and let it go
at that."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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