"All right, I'll do it, and if you never come again I'll have a dollar the best of you anyhow."
We had excellent success during the first ten days, after which we experienced four days of probably as poor success as ever attended a "Yankee peddler."
We stopped at every house, and never sold a dollar's worth during the four days. Doors were slammed in my face, and dogs were set upon us. Yet I insisted that success must necessarily follow, sooner or later.
My partner, however, was not so hopeful. He became impatient and disagreeable in the extreme. At every house we would come to he would sullenly remark that there was no use stopping, they didn't want to buy anything; and finally went so far as to insist that we make no more stops.
As I considered myself the senior member of the firm, I ordered a stop made at every house.
This led to unpleasantness, and brought out a few personal characteristics of his which induced me to think he had been raised a "pet" and was accustomed to having his own way in everything.
But as I was not one of the "petting" kind, and rather inclined to have my way about things in general, we gradually grew into a controversy.
He declared the horse and carriage was his, and he had a right to stop when and where he pleased.
I gave him that privilege, but also gave him notice that I owned the goods and carried the money, and as "the walking was not all taken up" he could drive as fast and as far as he pleased, but I was going to stop at every house, even though I might lose a piece of my unmentionables by every dog on the road.