"Why, yes," he said. "I know many hardware stores that turn their stock over more times than that. Reduce your stock, eliminate the slow-selling lines, buy carefully for the next few months, and you will have no difficulty in taking your discounts. Besides the saving you will make, you will be building up a reputation as a trustworthy man—and that's a decidedly helpful thing for a retail merchant."
As he turned to leave I held out my hand and said, with the best grace I could:
"I reckon I made a bit of a fool of myself, Mr. Peck. I want to thank you for your help to me."
His handclasp as he said good-by was a good, hearty one, and I felt I had a real friend in that credit manager.
CHAPTER XIII
A NEW KIND OF LOTTERY
I had thought out a novel way to fight the mail-order competition. It had come to me from an article I had read in a magazine about how a druggist in a small town in the Middle West had practically eliminated mail-order competition—at least temporarily—in his town. I decided immediately to try it. Betty says I am always too impetuous. When I reviewed what happened, I was uncertain whether I had done myself good or harm; but one thing was certain—I surely did get a lot of publicity!
After I had read that article in the magazine, I said to myself: "Now, that's reasonable. If people haven't got a mail-order catalog, they won't buy from the mail-order house. Why didn't I think of that before? If I get this mail-order catalog, I take away from them the thing that makes it easy for them to buy."
In the lower corner of the ad I had a picture and description of the talking machine, set off by a border.
Then I had two men march about the town with boards across their shoulders, on which were painted,