There was a big manufacturing plant in the town and when the boys finished school they naturally went to work there. Everybody did. The whole force was born and raised within sound of the whistle.
The Export Manager had never been clear across the County Line. That’s why he was the Export Manager.
Clarence was given an important clerkship in the office.
Bud likewise received Four Dollars a week.
Bud pinched enough postage stamps to make it Four Twenty Five.
Time went on.
And on.
Clarence built up a record for piety, punctuality, faithful fidoism and fussy attention to details that made every aspiring clerk in the place eat the carrot of envy every time they thought of him and his little kuppenheimer.
Bud was the only one who couldn’t see even a dim outline of Clarence’s sterling virtues.