"Phew! I was told that you had been burned out." He must have felt relieved. "You had better get busy and place insurance at once! And your credit is stopped until you have fully protected yourself!"
I told him I had already arranged that with Mr. Field, and he said to have Mr. Field advise him as soon as the policy was written.
Those two calls gave me an insight as to how real business was conducted. Neither of them certainly delayed much when they heard about it, and they must have had some means of finding out things promptly.
But I shuddered to think of my narrow escape. If the place had burned down I'd have been absolutely ruined.
I wondered if Stigler would—oh, but no, it wasn't possible the man would do such a thing. I saw him as he was coming home. "Had quite a fire, didn't yer?" was his remark. "Sorry for yer"—but his tone belied his words.
I wondered!
CHAPTER XXVII
PROFIT-SHARING PLANS
Our weekly meetings had certainly cultivated a better spirit among my small staff. Even in the case of Wilkes it had had quite an effect. He was only a boy, but we allowed him to sit in the meetings because I wanted to make him feel that he was part of the organization. Ever since we started them he had been much better in his delivery of parcels. He was more courteous and attentive; he felt he was one of the firm. He was not the slipshod, careless, happy-go-lucky boy he was once, but a careful boy, studying the interests of the business certainly more than we clerks had done when I was at Barlow's. I think that retailers could do a lot to build up self-reliance and self-respect among the boys they have.
At our next Monday meeting the fire was discussed. Jones suggested that we have a big fire sale. At this Wilkes broke in eagerly: