"No reliance whatever can be placed on this book, and I am disposed to destroy it."
"I thought it was a very good thing. Faxon uses it a great deal, and says he can tell what stock he has on hand, when a customer comes, without going out of the counting-room."
"It is not reliable. The only way to know what stock we have is by looking it over."
Very likely he would have destroyed it if Mr. Collingsby had not called him into the private counting-room at this moment. He evidently had a hearty grudge against the book, which I thought was entirely groundless.
"Mr. Whippleton don't think much of your lumber book," said I, when the head salesman came in a moment later.
"Why, what's the matter with it?" asked the man.
"He says it is not reliable."
"I think it is; and since I adopted it, two or three other concerns have kept one like it, after asking me about it. What's the reason it isn't reliable?"
"You may neglect to enter invoices or sales."
"Your ledger wouldn't be good for anything if you neglected to carry all your items to its pages."