Frank looked over the list carefully.
“I know all these people, and if you wish it, I’ll go around with you.”
“Won’t it be too much trouble?”
“No. And besides, it will give me a little insight into the business.”
“All right, then. Come ahead, Hardy. I’ll give you a practical lesson in both the art of delivering books and in taking new orders. You see, some of these people have merely asked about the books, not ordered them.”
Having rested himself, Oscar Klemner said he was ready to start, and Frank offered to carry the leather hand-bag for him.
“Never mind; I’ll carry it myself. I’m so used to it, I’d feel lost without it.”
They were soon at the first house, where the book agent delivered a cook-book and collected three dollars for it. The transaction was quickly over, and they passed on to the next place.
“That was certainly a quick way to make sixty cents,” thought our hero.
“We don’t always have it so easy,” said the agent, as if reading what was in Frank’s mind. “Sometimes folks won’t take the books they have ordered.”