Small gazed at Kid with open mouth, and Kid almost held his breath for fear that Small’s emotion would precipitate a spasm of coughing. But it didn’t. The temptation to be for a moment a person of importance was too much for him. He closed his mouth and nodded gravely.
“That’s so,” he said. “I took one of the tablets—swallowed it whole—and it stopped my cough at once. I don’t think I’ve coughed since then. You haven’t heard me, have you, Kid?”
“No, I haven’t. It was marvelous the way they worked with you, Small. And you certainly did have a mean old cough, didn’t you?”
“It was awful,” replied Small solemnly. “Sometimes at night I thought I’d never get to sleep!”
“Funny I never noticed it,” said Sam Perkins, his roommate.
“It was usually after you’d gone to sleep,” said Small hastily. “And then the way it hurt me!” He laid a hand cautiously over the top button of his waistcoat as though the gentlest touch was excruciating pain. The assemblage was impressed. That is, most of it was. Lanny still looked suspicious, and Bert, although his face was quite serious, somehow gave the impression of being secretly amused by something.
“What made you think of throat tablets?” asked Ben Holden. “Seems to me something else would have sold better.”
“Well, at this time of year,” replied Kid, “almost every fellow has a cough or a cold or a scrapy throat. I guess most of us have one now, if we stopped to think about it.” Several fellows cleared their throats experimentally. “We don’t notice at first, but after a while we wake up some morning with tonsilitis or—or quinsy or diphtheria or something. It’s taking a little medicine in time that does the business. That’s where Tinkham’s Throat-Ease comes in, you see. The first time you feel the least bit scratchy in your throat you just dissolve one of these in your mouth and you don’t have any more trouble. They’re great little things!”
“Gee, you talk like a patent medicine almanac!” declared Ben admiringly. “Here, I’ll take a box of them, Kid. And here’s your quarter.”
“Thank you.” Kid gravely handed him a box of the tablets and as gravely accepted his quarter. Then he turned away as though to go back to his reading, as though the idea of further sales didn’t occur to him. But Steve Lovell was already hunting for the price of a package of the invaluable Tinkham’s Throat-Ease. And after Steve had purchased Dick Gardner fell into line. And after Dick came Stanley Pierce, and then Kid had to climb the stairs to get more of the remedy. George Waters only had fifteen cents with him and Sam Perkins had only a dollar bill which was so badly torn that Kid balked at it. Kid said politely that he would trust them both. Whereupon Harold Cupples and Sewall Crandall said they’d each take a box too if Kid didn’t mind waiting a few days for payment. Kid secretly did mind, but declared he didn’t.