Mark Tidd in Business

by Clarence Budington Kelland

THE FIVE-AND-TEN-CENT STORE

WITHOUT ANY MASON JARS

BUY THEM HERE

THREE FOR A DIME

WE HAVE PLENTY

He put that up and then we waited.

I stood in the door where I could watch the Five-and-Ten-Cent Store. Quite a lot of folks went in—and came out again looking sort of mad. Most of them came back up the street, and when they saw our new sign they turned in. Provoked! Say, they believed, I guess, that Skip had played a joke on them.

“Have you got any Mason jars?” old Mrs. Stovall says, sharp-like.

“L-lots of ’em, ma’am,” says Mark. “Three for a dime.”

“Gimme two dozen,” says she. And then she shook her black bonnet till the jet beads rattled. “I went into that other place,” says she, “and that smart Alec of a clerk says they was all sold out. Fine way to treat folks! Advertise a thing and then not have it to sell.”