After Sam had given the order his one thought was impatience for the completion of the job.
“I must have that stuff all installed so that I can have my opening a week ahead of the other people.
“Here, Stucker,” called Sam to that gloomy soul, who had gone behind a stock of work-shirts, while the order was being signed, “we’ll let you dispose of the old fixtures. That’s a job that’s just about your size.
“I tell you, Stucker, a natural-born retrencher has his virtues. But if you give him rope enough he will retrench you out of business. He never builds anything. If it wasn’t for the creative man there would be nothing to retrench.
“The retrencher is all right if you don’t pay him too much. He is worth about $10 a month, because you can find fifty of them in any old man’s home that you can hire for less money than that.
“No, Lem, I won’t be unfair. You’re not as bad as all that. It takes all kinds of people to make a world and there is plenty of room for both of us in this business—there always will be leaks to stop and work to do for an earnest man who has the interest of the store at heart.
“The fault has been in the division of our labor. I’ll show you the way we can get the best out of ourselves.”
“Sam,” said Lem, “I reckon I’ve been looking at the world through a crack in the fence and I’ll have to widen out my view a little. You give me the books and the sales slips to look after. In the meantime I’m going to make the most exact inventory this store ever had and be ready to check in the fresh stock that is to go in these New Way wardrobes.
“My talents are all right if I don’t try to cover too much territory.”
The two men shook hands.