"Do you take me for a man of property?" asked Ben, disgusted.
The small man replied with a shrill, creaking laugh, sounding like the grating of a rusty hinge.
"Isn't that fair?" he asked. "You didn't expect to come in as partner first thing, did you?"
"No, but I can't work for nothing."
"Then—lemme see—I'll give you fifty cents a week for the first year, and you can take it out in goods."
"No, thank you," answered Ben. "I couldn't afford it."
As he went out of the store, he heard another grating laugh, and the remark: "That's the way to bluff 'em off. I offered him a place, and he wouldn't take it."
Ben was at first indignant, but then his sense of humor got the better of his anger, and he said to himself: "Well, I've been offered a position, anyway, and that's something. Perhaps I shall have better luck at the next place."
The next place happened to be a druggist's. The druggist, a tall man, with scanty black locks, was compounding some pills behind the counter.
Ben was not bashful, and he advanced at once, and announced his business.