“These old uncles never die,” observed Copeland dryly, handing back the telegram.
“Sam’s will. He’s mostly paralyzed now and it won’t be long till we get an order for a new stock. Sam was in town last week and talked over the fittings for his new store. You’ll find seven dollars in my expense account that covers victuals and drink I threw into Samuel; but I paid for the tickets to the Creole Queens Burlesque out of my own pocket so’s to bring down my average.”
“All right; let ’er go,” laughed Copeland.
No one else in the establishment ever joked with Copeland. His father had been a melancholy dyspeptic; and the tradition of Farley’s bad temper and profanity still caused the old employees to walk softly. Copeland found Jerry’s freshness and cheek diverting. Jerry, by imperceptible degrees, was infusing snap into the organization. And Copeland knew that the house needed snap.
“About telegrams: I guess we do more telegraphing than any house on the street!” Jerry informed him. “You can send a jolly by lightning anywhere in Indiana for a quarter; and nothing tickles one of these country fellows like getting a telegram.”
“You’ve got to consider the dignity of the house just a little bit; try to remember that.”
“Our game,” replied Jerry confidently, “is to hold the business we’ve got and get more. The old system’s played out. This isn’t the only house that feels it,” he added consolingly. “Everybody’s got to rustle these days. We’re conservative, of course, and deliver the goods straight every time, but we must keep shooting pep into the organization.”
Jerry had gone to the private office with one of his sugar letters, as he called his propitiatory masterpieces, on the day after Copeland’s meeting with Nan at the Kinneys’.
“By the way, Jerry,” said Copeland, as Amidon turned to go, “what’s this joke you’ve put over in the Bigger Business Club? I didn’t tell anybody I wanted to be president. I was never in the club-rooms but once and that was to look at that billiard table I gave the boys.”
Jerry ran his finger round the inside of his collar and blinked innocently.