"Now," said Larsen, as he picked up the money, "you come back in three weeks. You can then have the ax."
"What do yer mean?" asked old Peter, with astonishment.
"You sent Chicago, that's how long you wait to get it."
"Well, I want it now."
"Yep, but not from a mail-order house," said Larsen.
"What will I have to pay to get it at once?"
"Six cents more—that's seventy-five cents. Otherwise yer can't have it fer three weeks. But yer can look at it now, if yer want ter, so yer'll see what yer will get!"
"Aw, cut out the funny stuff!" said Peter, putting his hand in his pocket, from which he produced another six cents. "It's worth it to get it right away."
Larsen wrapped up the ax and passed it over to him, and, to my surprise, old Bender said: "I guess you're about right on this thing, after all. You know I never sized it up like that 'til you pointed it out to me. Here," and he tossed the catalog on the counter, "I guess I won't need this no more."
Larsen had handled several customers in the past in a similar way to this, and, in nearly every case, had won a friend for us and the mail-order houses had lost a customer.