“Not by a jug full,” he answered; “you’ve only got one life at your finger ends, and if you want them to stick fast to much of anything you’ve got to keep moving. And then, you’re liable at any moment to strike a town that has been worked on some particular racket, and you’ve got to have another up your sleeve. I have half a dozen of them. If a place isn’t ripe for one, another is sure to win.” “Good! You are just the man I have been wanting to see. Don’t you need an apprentice? I have never done much open-air talking to a crowd, but I have always had an idea that I would be great at something of that kind.” My blunt proposition took him somewhat aback; but he saw that I was in earnest, and looked me over. “My friend, you appear as though you might be cut out for a business man. I don’t, as a rule, need any help, but if you have a little money, and think I can do you any good, I don’t mind giving you a start. I can’t do anything with you in this town, though. You have given them all an idea of what your line of business is, and for the present couldn’t change the opinion. You couldn’t give away a box of pens and throw in a dime. You’ll have to wait till we get to the next place. Then you’ll find out pretty quick what you are good for.” I was well enough satisfied with this, as the night before our haystack had been uncomfortable, and I had a feeling that I not only wanted a good night’s rest, but that I had earned it, and the following day I rested, accordingly. “Do you know anything about music?” my companion asked, as we prepared to leave the place. I answered that I did; that I had some knowledge of notes, was particularly apt at catching up a tune by ear, and even had a smattering knowledge of the piano and violin. “Good. All that won’t hurt you just now. I have been working the cheap music racket by daylight, and it has not turned out so badly. I expect to do a bigger business in the next place, though, and I’ll work it in a different way. My pens are all sold out, and I’ll have no side lines to sell till I meet my next lot.” At that I asked him some questions about the music business, and he briefly explained. In these degenerate days music, like everything else, has become cheap. In the times I am speaking of sheet music commanded a pretty stiff price at retail; and if we could only sell enough of it there was a chance for an enormous profit, even when sold away below regular rates, and there were chances to buy at wholesale “cheap” sheet music which cost but a song. All this my companion, whose name was Carter, explained as we went along. There was really so little of a “fake” about what he proposed to do that I hardly believed he would have the success he seemed to anticipate. Nevertheless, it all worked to a charm. The town selected was just large enough to have a number of amateur pianists and vocalists, and not sufficiently extensive for a store which kept sheet music in any great quantity.