I told him that if a good man could not fall we would have to pray not to be led into temptation, and wound up with:
“My dear brother, God knows what has happened; you know and I know. We three understand. The rest of the world might not. Let us keep it among ourselves, and decide that anything of the kind shall not happen again.”
I think, perhaps, that little incident did us both good, though the preacher was more than ever abashed when he learned that I was not a brother clerico, but a traveling—I never explained to him what, for fear the lesson I had read him might be thrown away.
CHAPTER XIV.
Temperance Town and Cold Tea Racket—Busted Again—Money Making Schemes—The Shoemaker Couldn’t Sleep—Going Back to Street Work—The Fifty Thousand Dollar Money Deception—Jewelry Packages to Be Used Any Old Way—Some More Street Jokes—A Watch and Chain for Twenty-Five Cents.
The ensuing weeks were possibly the most varied and really the most eventful of my career.
There was no time to be choice. Being broke and far away from headquarters, I was forced to spread myself after any and every fashion that presented itself; and I found that the most foolish and harmless of fakes sometimes presented very handsome returns.
Bless your soul, I never was at fault. I filled a nice lot of bottles with clear water, put in a cent’s worth of flavoring extract, and sold it as an electric face wash—price ten cents per bottle. Used according to directions I haven’t a doubt it did all that it was guaranteed to do. Clear water, fresh air, a good conscience and a whole lot of imagination “will do heaps.”
I sold a renovating liquid, made from vinegar, salt and ammonia, at twenty-five cents per bottle.