A week went by and we didn't hear a word. Then, on the followin' Monday but one, come a letter. Jim Henry was openin' the mail and I heard him rip loose a brisk remark.
"What's the matter?" says I.
"Matter!" he snarls. "Why, the miserable four-flushers have turned me down—that's all. Read that!"
I took the letter he handed me. It was type-wrote on a big sheet of paper, with a printed head, readin': "Ormstein & Meyer, Hardware and Tools. Manufacturers of Eureka Adjustable Aluminum Window Screens." And this is what it said:
Mr. J. H. Jacobs,
Ostable Grocery, Dry Goods, Boots and Shoes and Fancy Goods Store, Ostable, Mass.
Dear Sir: Regarding your application for Ostable County ag'y Eureka Adjustable Aluminum Window Screens, would say that we have decided to give ag'y to party named Geo. Lentz, who will give entire time to it instead making it a side issue as per your conversation with our Mr. Meyer. Regretting that we cannot do business together in this regard, but trusting for a continuance of your valued patronage, we remain
Yours truly,
Ormstein & Meyer.
Dic. M—L. G.
Ormstein & Meyer.
"Now what do you think of that?" snaps Jim, mad as he could stick. "What do you think of that!"
"Well," says I, slow, "I think that, speakin' as a man in the crosstrees, it looks as if you and me wouldn't furnish screens for the West Ostable Hotel."
He half shut his eyes and stared at me hard.
"Oh!" says he. "That's what you think, hey?"