“Like to look at some swell neckties!” a voice asked.
“Oh, come in, you blooming old haberdasher!” cried Andy with a laugh, and Ikey Stein, with a bundle under his arm, slid in.
“Fine business!” he exclaimed. “Give me a chance to make a little money, gentlemen; I need it!”
“No more of that Japanese ‘vawse’ business!” warned Dunk. “I won’t stand for it.”
“No, these are genuine bargains,” declared the student who was working his way through college. “I’ll show you. I got ’em from a friend of mine, who’s selling out. I can make a little something on them, and you’ll get swell scarfs at less than you’d pay for them in a store.”
“Let’s see,” suggested Andy, rather glad of the diversion and of the chance to stop studying, for he had been “boning” hard. “But I don’t want any satsuma pattern, nor yet a cloisonne,” he added.
“Say, forget that,” begged Ikey. “That Jap took me in, as well as he did you fellows.”
“Well, if anybody can take you in, Ikey, he’s a good one!” laughed Dunk.
“Oh, don’t mind me!” exclaimed the merchant-student. “You can’t hurt my feelings. I’m used to it. And I’m not ashamed of my nature, either. My ancestors were all merchants, and they had to drive hard bargains to live. I don’t exactly do that, you understand, but I guess it’s in my blood. I’m not ashamed that I’m a Jew!”
“And we’re not ashamed of you, either!” cried Andy, heartily.