“I see you’re doing business, boys.” Mr. Meechin had strolled out from the lobby and, with thumbs in the arm-holes of his waistcoat, was interestedly observing the car.
“Getting more every day, sir,” responded Willard. “Thinking of putting on another car.”
Tim Meechin grinned. “Really now! You’ll be rich before you know it. Was there any others on the train?”
“For you? I believe Pat Herron is bringing two or three up,” answered Tom. “They’ll be along in time for supper, sir.” And Tom, throwing in his clutch, chugged away, leaving Mr. Meechin grinning after them. “I got two from the hotel for the 1:57,” confided Tom proudly as they turned into Pine Street. “They were just getting into the hack when they saw The Ark. ‘Hey,’ said one of them, ‘what’s the matter with taking the auto?’ Then Pat Herron tried to hustle them into his old barouche, talking a blue streak all the time. But they wouldn’t have it. ‘Does that car run, kid?’ one of them called over. ‘Like a breeze,’ said I. ‘Get you to the station in three minutes, sir!’ So they grabbed their bags from Pat, although they very nearly had to fight him to get them, and came across and got in. They made a lot of fun of the car on the way, but I didn’t mind that; they can josh all they want to if they give me their quarters! And, besides, when I landed them at the station in something less than four minutes they didn’t think The Ark was so poor, after all! I’ve made three dollars and a quarter so far to-day. What do you think of that? And now that we can stand at the platform we’d ought to do a heap better. After dinner we’ll go down and get the agent to give us our stand.”
“One of them, anyway,” agreed Willard.
“One of what?”
“One of our stands. Didn’t you notice that I’d got permission for two autos?”
“No! What for? We haven’t got two.”
“We may have some day,” responded Willard, “and I thought it might save trouble to fix for the other one now. Look here, why shouldn’t we have two if we make this thing go? Why shouldn’t we carry trunks as well as people, Tom? As it is now, even if we get a passenger he has to have Connors bring his trunk up for him. We might as well do that as Connors. And, besides, there’s lots of money to be made hauling stuff from the freight house to the shops. If we get ahead by the end of the summer we could very easily buy a light truck; you can get one for about twelve hundred.”