As complete as the stock was, Tom was continually having demands for things he hadn’t got. As when a fussy, grey-whiskered little gentleman came in and demanded “an aluminum putter.” Poor Tom didn’t know what an aluminum putter was, but he didn’t say so. Instead he regretted the fact that he couldn’t supply one just then and ended, after the fussy gentleman had fussed to his heart’s content, by taking the customer’s order for one. Later he dipped into a catalogue and found it listed. But Tom’s way made a friend of the golfer and he was a constant and heavy purchaser of balls and clubs after that.
Later on orders came in frequently by mail from the towns around, proving that the department had acquired more than a purely local fame. In Amesville the grammar school boys followed the lead of their older brothers in most things and they were quick to emulate them in patronising Cummings and Wright’s. Cummings and Wright’s, in fact, received from the high school a sort of official recognition. It was the first of the hardware stores to advertise in the school monthly, although another dropped into line later, and the students, following the Brown-and-Blue’s slogan, “Patronise our advertisers,” quickly adopted it as a place to make purchasers of not only athletic goods, but other supplies as well. Boys became so accustomed to going there that by the middle of spring the store was a general meeting-place, a sort of high-school headquarters. It was Sidney who first suggested to Tom that the latter offer to post school notices in the window. After that, and more especially when the athletic activities were at their height, one could always find one or more bulletins pasted against the glass there, such as, “A. H. S. B. A. Practice to-day at three-thirty sharp. No cuts.” Or, “A. H. S. T. T. Candidates for the Track Team report at four o’clock Wednesday.” Following up this idea, Tom began posting the scores of the baseball games throughout the country, both professional and collegiate.
Mr. Cummings had had a carpenter divide the window at the right of the doorway in two with a neat oak panel and Tom had some twenty-five square feet of space therein in which to display his goods. At first Joe Gillig dressed the window for him, for Tom doubted his own ability, but presently the latter did it himself and managed to make a far more attractive display than Joe by not crowding his goods and by confining each week the display to some one branch of sport or some one article in variety.
When, as happened late in the spring, a sporting goods house in the East sent a demonstrator to exhibit a home exercising outfit in the window, the store and Tom’s department in particular received a whole lot of free advertising from the papers, while the crowds that assembled daily to watch the good-looking young athlete in the window go through his motions with the exerciser made many other merchants along Main Street green with envy. But this was in May, and several things happened before that that should be set down here.
Tom had hardly hoped for a raise of more than one dollar in his weekly wages and so when Mr. Cummings duly announced to him that beginning with the first day of April his salary would be just doubled Tom’s surprise was even greater than his delight.
“It don’t seem as if I was worth that much yet, sir,” he said doubtfully. “It isn’t as if I was here all day, you see.”
“Tom,” replied Mr. Cummings, “at the risk of giving you what you youngsters call a swelled head, I’m going to tell you that in the four or five hours you are here you do about as much work as a good many clerks in this town do all day. Besides, we’re paying you, partly, for that sporting-goods idea of yours. It was a mighty good idea and it made money for us, and I guess it’s going to make more. Besides that, son, you want to remember that summer is coming after awhile and that summer is a pretty busy season with us. Then you’ll be here all day and you can make up any time you think you may be owing us.”
“Well, it’s awfully good of you,” said Tom gratefully. “And I guess you’d better keep out a dollar now instead of fifty cents toward that pump. I won’t need the whole five dollars,” he added in rather awed tones. Five dollars a week seemed a veritable fortune to him just then, for of late his resources had been getting smaller and smaller and he had begun to wonder if he would ever get through the spring.
Meanwhile, he had made many acquaintances and some friends. At high school he was a person of prominence. The older boys admired his pluck and industry and liked him for his quiet, contained manner, his cheerfulness, and his unfailing good-nature. The younger chaps frankly envied him because he was at home amongst such a raft of captivating things; bats and balls and mitts and rackets and running shoes and all the objects coveted by a small boy—and many a large one. Besides Tom himself, and, naturally, the partners in the firm, I think the person who took the most interest in the sporting goods department of Cummings and Wright’s was Sidney Morris. Sidney had watched and advised and even helped unpack the goods and arrange them on the shelves and in the cases, and all the time had been filled with a fine enthusiasm and optimism. Sidney jeered at the idea of failure and bewailed the fate that kept him from taking his place beside Tom behind the counter.
“I’ll just bet anything I could sell goods,” he declared enviously. “Do you suppose Mr. Cummings would give me a place this summer, Tom?”