"It must be taken home," said Aunt Sue, with decision. "It won't do to have your father's dictionaries thumbed and dog-eared in this way. You must keep your own."
The boys were beginning to think that the custom of their immediate relatives was not going to be profitable. But the seizures were over now, and Aunt Sue actually bought in John's old copy of Original Poems. Bessie, too, concluded to be forgiving, and she and Aunt Sue made several other purchases, so that they left the boys in good spirits in spite of the bad beginning.
In the trying morning hours the boys had decided to close early every Saturday afternoon "for the sake of their clerks." But they felt better after the Flemings came to their assistance, and did not close until six o'clock, when everything had to be packed in boxes and carried home until Monday. Before doing this, however, they took an account of stock and balanced their accounts, which was a comparatively simple matter, as they sold nothing on credit. Aunt Sue had bought half their supply of bird-seed, and Molly Fleming had taken all the bouquets at half price to distribute in the infant school the next morning. The boys spent the evening in talking over the events of the day.
"If we did so well on the first day, what may we not expect on the second?" was the feeling with which the young merchants began business on Monday. But Monday brought new trials. The goods had all to be packed away, and the store closed by school-time, which seemed rather humiliating. Of course the boys intended to resume punctually at twelve o'clock. But how unlucky! They all unaccountably missed their lessons, and were kept in to correct them, so that they lost the whole of their noon trade.
Perhaps this only gave greater zest to the afternoon spell, for they kept open quite late that evening. Still, with all their devotion, business flagged. Infant schools could not absorb a stock of bouquets every day, and Aunt Sue had enough bird-seed to last her a week. The sour-ball business proved to be quite a losing one, for the luscious things melted away mysteriously even when kept in the shade, although each partner kept a strict watch on himself, and seldom, oh, very seldom, refreshed himself with one.
Things got so serious that the four partners held a business meeting that evening after the store closed.
"We've got to do something, boys, or we'll break before the week's out, sure as fate," said Fred Fleming.
By Tuesday the boys had that care-worn look that men acquire when they can't make both ends meet. The other boys really pitied them, and some of them actually bought slate-pencils on their way to school in the afternoon, though they did not need them.
That very afternoon an occurrence took place which threatened to end the boys' store-keeping quite tragically.
An organ grinder, with his red-coated monkey, planted himself just beside the pile of lumber and began to play. This pleased Tom and Bob, who happened to be in sole charge at the time. They enjoyed a monkey's antics as well as any one.