Well, sir, you should have seen the customers that were hanging around with their mouths open. They were eying Skip like they thought he was the meanest man alive, and I could hear them saying things to each other under their breath. Skip was getting some fine advertising.
“What I want to know,” says Skip, “is, will you turn over the stock without a lot of officers and papers?”
“I don’t b-believe we can,” says Mark. “If you take this stock you got to take it the way the law says.... Now good-by, Mr. Skip. This store is ours till Friday, and if you so much as step a foot in it again till you c-come with the sheriff somethin’ will happen to you that’ll make you wish you’d fallen down a well.”
At that he turned his back and went behind the counter. Skip sneaked a look at the women and slunk out as fast as he could go.
When he was gone you should have heard those five women sail into him. My! the things they said about him! In another hour Wicksville would know just what had been said and just what those five women thought about it. Mark winked at me solemn. When the folks were gone he says:
“P-public opinion, Plunk. Ever hear of it?”
“Yes,” says I.
“I’m s-sickin’ it on Jehoshaphat. He’ll be a popular feller in Wicksville. Won’t he be popular, though!”
“What’s the idea?” says I. “Why didn’t you pay him his money and kick him out?”
“Because,” says he, “I want to make folks love him. I want to fix it so f-f-folks will go out of their way to buy from him. Do you think this fight’s over when the mortgage is paid? No, siree. We have got to get the business of this town and keep it away from Skip. When I’m through with Jehoshaphat Wicksville’s goin’ to think he’s about the meanest man that ever pinched a p-penny.”