Although the boys entered the store at the men’s door, they did not report to the time-keepers at the men’s desk whose business it was to record the male employees’ time, from the moment of their arrival until they stepped out into the street when their day’s work was done. The entire force of boys was obliged to report each day in the assembly room on the second floor to a time-keeper there. It was in the assembly room that they received a critical looking over before going to their departments or to school. Here they lined up for a general inspection, which included neatness of dress, clean hands and faces, and freshly shined shoes. Dark blue or black clothing was preferred, but not exacted, although the boys were not allowed to wear light-colored suits or shoes, or brightly colored ties.
Any untidiness in personal appearance meant a black mark on the report card which each boy carried. Having been given their cards on the day they entered the store, Teddy and Harry had had ample time to look them over. They had found that the little squares on them were made by the divisions ruled off after the words untidiness, discourtesy, tardiness, carelessness, absence, lying, inattention, loud talking, bad language, low average in school, deportment in school. These words were printed in regular order down the card, while the space after them was used for the little ruled squares, each one just large enough to hold a blank mark. These demerits could be given by either the teacher or the aisle manager of the boy who transgressed. Once a month these cards passed into the hands of Mr. Marsh’s assistant for a general inspection and averaging. As Mr. Marsh had already explained, ten demerits in one month meant a most uncomfortable session in Mr. Keene’s office, when the superintendent decided whether the offender should be dropped from the store, while a lesser number was recorded against him and held for future reference. A boy who month after month had received from five to eight demerits was also quite likely to find himself without a position.
So far, Harry’s and Teddy’s cards remained as clean as when Mr. Marsh had handed them to the lads. Harry’s had remained so because he had doggedly determined to make no mistakes or call down upon his head the displeasure of the crabbed aisle man, Mr. Barton. Teddy’s card had stayed clean by sheer good luck. If Mr. Duffield had spied him calmly wearing his stewpan crown, it is safe to say that there would have been at least one black mark on his card. Fortunately, Mr. Seymour was far too busy a man to bother about report cards. To be sure, he had threatened to report Teddy to Mr. Keene. Then he had gone on his way and forgotten all about it. So Teddy had escaped a demerit on his first day in the store.
Inspection was hardly over when one of the two young men who had charge of the assembly room, and whose duty it was to conduct the inspection, called, “Company A, fall in for school.”
“That’s us,” whispered Harry to Teddy, who stood next to him in the line. “Mr. Marsh said we’d be in Company A.”
Teddy nodded disconsolately, as he took his place beside Harry in the rapidly forming line. He felt that the shades of his old prison were about to close around him again. The very thought of school made him unhappy. He wondered if his teacher would be as old and as cranky as Miss Alton. He supposed she would be, and his mischievous, freckled face looked decidedly solemn as he marched along beside his chum.
Out of the assembly room, up a flight of stairs, through several departments and straight past Mr. Marsh’s desk went the long line of boys. It was the same line Harry and Teddy had watched when first they had come to Mr. Keene’s office. Harry gave a little shiver of sheer pride as his eyes wandered to the bench where he and Teddy had sat and viewed the long procession, of which they were now a part. It was wonderful to think that they had so quickly found places in the work-a-day world. Now it remained to them to go ever onward and upward to prosperity and success.
His rapt reflections were disturbed by a sharp nudge in the ribs.
“Look who’s here,” muttered Teddy.
“Where? Who?” asked Harry in a whisper.