Mister President, pushing back his whiskers for oratorical clearance, delivered himself thus:
“Young Man,” he said, “have you any reason, either apparent or hidden about the premises, for thinking that you know any more about Salesmanship than a squirrel knows about Santa Claus?”
“No sir,” blurted the Dose of Salts, meaning to say “yes” and bluff it out.
“Good!” broke in Uncle President. “You’ve got the very qualification I’m looking for.
“And what name do you wag to?” queried Monsieur Le President, well pleased with his exceptional perceptive faculty.
“Elliott Buc——” But Pres. cut him short. “Never mind the details,” he said.
“And now Elliott,” he continued, throwing back an emphatic lapel and hooking his presidential thumb into his vest pocket, “I am going to make you my Sales Manager. You look and act as unlike a Sales Manager as anything I’ve ever seen this side of Lapland and that’s why I think you’ll do. I’m working on a new system. So get up off the floor there, and say ‘thank you’—and GO TO IT!”
Elliott’s full and complete name may be itemized as follows: Elliott Buckingham Tudor-Smith. But around the office they promptly re-capped it under the appropriate and musical monicker of “Ellie.”
They also noted that from the instant Ellie landed the coveted job, his knees and his neck began to stiffen like a steel bar, and there was something in his manner that seemed to say: “The President should be congratulated upon his good judgment.”