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—YHAPPY DAYS
“HAPPY DAYS”
Bicycle Coupon.
To the fifteen persons sending us the larg-
est number of these Coupons
cut from copies of Happy Days”?
between the numbers
224 AND 235,
We will send to each one
A “HAPPY DAYS” BICYCLE,
See Directions
— ON PAGE 16. —
Name AND ADDRESS,
Cut out this Coupon and send it to Art Editor, ‘ Happy Days,”
See 16th Page.
29 West 26th Street, N. ¥.
“HAPPY DAYS”
Watch Coupon.
i
Send us 10 of these Coupons:
cut from any numbers of
“HAPPY DAYS,” with 75
cents in money or postage
stamps, and we will send
you the watch by return
registered mail.
His Own Master.
BY P. T. “RAYMOND. .
CUAPTER I
CHARLIE BRACKETT LOSES MIS PLACE IN
THE STORE,
“ CHARLIE) r
thi
“We didn’t have it, sir,”
“What did he want?”
““A certain kirid of calico,”
“And we didn’t have it?”
On,
0.”
“Well, why didn’t you tell him we had
something just as good?”
aft ut we haven't, Mr. Jordan,”
m{! You didn’t teli him so, did you?”
fo “Nov sir, I told him we'd try and get it
him,
“ ROS you | know him?”
“Sane in town, ain't he?”
. 80.”
“ Then he Syon' "bt come again and: you've
lost a good customer, You ought to have
sold htm something, anyhow.”
“But he didn’t want anything else, I
asked him.”
“Ah, might have made him buy
something if you'd had any push, You’re
no good as a salesman,”
Charlie Brackett said nothing, for he
knew that the accusation was an unjust
one...
He had tried every reasonable means of
selling something to the stranger without
being offensive and had failed,
The man wanted one thing and it was
not in the store and h not want any.
thing else, but had seemed satisfied with
Charli ie’s explanation,
“What -sort of goods did the man
sant?” asked Mr, Jordan.
Charlie told him.
“I'm! the other stuff is just as good, I
can’t bother keeping all kinds of stock for
chance customers.. You ought to have
convinced him, that this was, just as good,
if not b etter,”
“ But it isn’t, sir,” said Charlie,
“* Yes, it is, too,” declared Mr, an,
who was very obstinate, ‘*Go and see
what those women want and be sure you
sell them something, or you'll lose your
quietly.
Chartie walked to the other end of the
long counter and stopped in front of the
wo women.
. “Cant ano you anything, Jadies?” he
asked, polite!
Ile was a Fon. built,- handsome boy of
eighteen, with a pleasant face, and quiet,
retined manners, and most of Mr, Jordan’s
customers liked him exceedingly, although
he had been in the store but a few weeks,
want something for adress,” said the
reer woman, “something light and
pre
Charlie took down a piece of print goods
and spread it out on the coun
“ That's § nice, but we want 0 see some
others,” said the elder woman, | irhe was
evidently an experienced sho
Charlie ppread out several “pieces of
goods, but apparent that the
younger women preferred the firs!
“* T guess I'll take ® some of this She said,
putting her hand o1
ts very pretty, om said the more expe-
rienced woman, * But will it wash?”
vo, ma‘am,” said Charlie, quietly,
“but sath vordinary care it will keep clean
along ti
“We don’ t waat itifit won't wash.”
” Baid
the boy, indicatin some other patter
“rT b like I hose at all, Thats ‘the
only one nr a wea -
“We have some others,” said Charlie,
taking down five or six pieces of goods one
Yes,
“Wh “didn't you sell that man some-| as
after the other. “ Here i is. a pretty pattern,
and I know it will wash
oy ther have the first,” said the
“T believe Tu take it
said the other, ‘“ You'll
younger woman,
after all,”
** Nonsense |”
look like a fright in it after you have worn | an
it a mont’ on’t want it at all, you
know you don’
“This is as sorett y a pattern as the other,
ma’am,” said Charlie, ‘and it doesn’t cost
muck 5
Th nger woman would have taken
it, but athe older one dissuaded her from it.
‘Charlie was beginning to despair of seli-
ing anything, although he was as affable
as thongh just beginning to wait upon a
eure customer, when Mr. Jordan came
“ We 11, can’t you find anything to suit
the ladies, Brackett?” he asked, brusquely,
**T hope so, sir,” said the boy, flushin,
“e Wo" t these goods wash, ‘Mr. Jordon?”
asked the younger woman, who was abou
Charlie's age, holding up the coveted
goods, the first she had examine
5:
“Of course they will, and they’d make a
lovely dress for you, Miss Crompton,
‘That's
a pattern that’s’ sure to sell quick,
and you ought to have it.”
“Phe young man says it won't wash,”
said the the older woman, who was the young
dy's a
area wal “wasb 5 he is mistaken,” said
Mr, Jordan, sharply. “OF course it wil
wash, Brackett, gO and, draw a gallon of
molasses for Mr, Brown,"
The boy wentaway withont a word, and
was ‘cepe busy for some time at. several
not very clean jobs, for Mr, Jordon sold
nearly everything, and when he finally re-
rned he saw the ladies just going out,
the | older one with a bundle under her
Wash our hands, Brackett, and then
ub these things aways “said the proprietor,
sharp) qu too, for
we're Ciways busy at this time, and two of
the clerks are at dinner.”
washed my hands ben T left the
Brocery department,” said
on't answer back, bat “do as I tell
you pe was the ill- mannered retor
Charlie obeyed, and gave his hands a
second washing, although they were clean
enough to have handled the most delicate
‘abrics,
Jie returned to the counter, put away
the goods he had taken down, and several
more that he had not, and had just fin-
ished when Mr, Jordan came pp there be-
ing no one in the store at the ‘
“What did you mean by telling Miss
Crom ton that those goods wouldn't
wash ¢" ’ demanded the storekeeper, angrily.
rT hat i isn’t the way to sell goods.”
meey asked me, and I had to tell the
trut
“Nonsense! You don’t have to tell them
anything of the Sort, | - You could say you
thought 89, or you didn’t iknow. Besides,
the goods will wash, t sold ’em enough
for a dress off that piece, and you might
have done the same, if you hadn’t been so
stupii
Charlie blushed crimson, but said noth-
ing, although he knew that he did not de-
serve the rebuke, and that he had told only
the truth regarding the goods in question.
Ie had wanted to give his sister a dress
made from these same goods, for a birth-
day present, and had brought home a sam-
ple which h
Tade very quickly.
Since being in'the store he had tried to
learn all about the stock, and he knew
much more th
if harlie Brackett §
ster, had comef}to the little Western town
oF Coldwater five or six weeks previous to
this time, and had found employment with
Mr, Jordan at the end of a week or tw
The family had taken a Jittle story- vand-
a half cottage in a quiet street in town and
bad furnished it neatly but modestly, it
ad been washed and found to b
being quite apparent that their means
were limited, as the mother tried to get
ork at dressmaking ° a and the daughter
applied for a position in the town school,
Where they came from no one knew, for
they were rery reticent about their affairs,
all that was known was that Mrs,
Brackett. Was a widow, and that te had
very little money, and had moved to
town where fhe living was not so. expen:
sive as int
“They've better days, I’m sure,”
said Miss Tuldah Clarke, the village dress-
maker, “and the children have been. well
I'm sure there's some mystery about ’em.”
Very little more ot the family w: as known
now than-when they had first come
Charlie pad been in thestore about
- ma t man.
friends,’ Mrs. Brackett helped Miss Clarke
now and then when the latter was crowded
with work, and had proved herself an ex-
pert’ needlewoman, and Bessie had occa-
sionally taken a class in the school in the
absence of one or another of the teachers,
The Bracketts went nowhere, and-
not invited anyone to their house, although
the minister had called, from a sense of
duty, and the doctor had ‘been sent for once
or twice to prescribe for Mrs. Brackett, so
that really | there seemed to be little chance
of the Coldwater gossips finding out any
more than they knew at first.
When Charlie had pat away the goods
that had been. taken down, he stood be-
hind the counter waiting for the. run of
eustom that Mr, Jordan had said he would
have; but it was fully half an hour before
anyone entered, as this was the dinner
hour, and no one was abou
At last some one entered, and Cutler
was as Tomiacerins as S his father: and aped
the latter in everything.
“T want some turkentime and some yal-
ler paint, and some white lead, too, I reck-
on, ‘cause I've got a job at paintin’, and it
wants to be done good,” said the man, who
was something of a character in town.
“Very well, Hiram, Come with me,”
and Charlie led the way toa big room in
the rear of the store, where paints and oils
and such things were kept.
Iie sold the man what he wanted, re-
ceived the money, made out a memoran-
dum, and after washing his nands, gave
in the slip at the cashier's window, an
returned to his position behind the
counter,
Before long Mr, Jordan returned, and as
some ladies entered at the same moment,
© took. down sonie goods and then said,
perempto y:
“Brackett, come here!”
Charlie walked to that end of the
counter, ant Mr, Jordan showed him a
bolt of
Cant a be more careful than that?
I told you to wash your hands After selling
that molasses, Now look at
the edge of the cloth w: as the sticky
imprint of five fingers,
harlie flushed reply. at being rebuked
efore str strangers, an gaid
my hands twice before put-
ting those Boods | backs, and I don't see how :
Icould have don
‘You don't, cht "You were the last to
handle these things. I’m! here's another,”
Mr, Jordan took down a second bolt,
some ones that Charlie had
handled, and Show ed the mark of sticky
fingers on that also,
“You'd better Sei to molasses and tar
and paints and those things,” sneered Jor-
dan. “That's about as clean a job as you
Cut to the quick, but too manly to pro-
test at such a time, Charlie walked away
and attended to another customer who ha
just entere
When the absent clerks retur ned, Charlie
put on his hat and was about to go to his
a| dinner, when Mr, Jordan called him to the
“The marks of* your dirty fingers have
gone through two or three folds, and we'll
have to waste a good three yards on cach
of those folls.’ It'll, come’ out 0}
wages, Brackett, I can’t have ¢ goods spoiled
lke that by your carelessne
I did not do it, sir, and { ‘Gon’ t see how
ou! can acciise me,” said Charlie, : trying
ard’ to keep cool, “I am not the only
o | one to handle those goo
““You are the only one that’ handled
them this noon, and no one touched them
after Miss Crompton went out nntil I got
them down to show Mrs, Muruen, You'll
pay, for that stuff to make you more care
“Twon’b pay a cent!” said Charlie, irri-
tated jpepond ex endurance, ‘because J did
ad | not soil t'
“You worer™ “snapped Jordan,
** No, sir.”
The storekeeper glared savagely at the
boy for a moment, then pulled open the
cash drawer, took out some money in bills
and coin, counted it, thrast it rudely to-
ward Charlie, and said,
“There’s your money rar what you've
done this week, - You “needn't come back
You are discharged iid
money, counted it, and
then left the store without a word, al-
though it cost him ‘the greatest effort to -
keep stil].
As he closed the door after him Cutler
Jordan chuckled and said softly, being now
a
one:
“That settles him, and it’s a good rid-
ance |” _
. CHAPTER I,
A GOOD RECOMMENDATION.
tere you want to hire a clerk, Mr, Cut+
“T dunno’s I do. Mebby’ Ido. Thought
you was workin’ fur Jurd’n,’’cross th’
street?”
“So I was, but I am not now
“ ys at's 's “the matter? Got Se Sharged ?”
“ What fur?”
fa aie necessary to tell? It wasn’t my
“No, *t never is a feller’s fault when he
gits sacked.”
“Mr, Jordan wanted me to pay for some
goods which I did not spoil and I refused,
ond he paid me off and, ‘discharged me.”
“Wh 0 did spile ‘e em
“T don't know.”
“ Well, Ido want some one here, I 8 "pose,
an’ I guess you e’n come,’ Want t’ got’
work now ?”
“* As soon 3s Ican get back from dinner,
if you say s
“AIL rig! ht,
ola a week, th
eth That'll have to ‘ao for the present then,”
Gu ess Ic'd make it six after awhile, if
you’ re cap’ble.”
“Thanks, Good-b
Jeremiah Cutter Kept a dingy little hard-
ware shop opposite the general store, and
harlie stopped in there on his way to dir-
ner, thinking that possibly the man might
want some one as he kept no help, and yet
ida fair amount, of business,
Mr, Cutter used only a few words, and
these he generally clipped, as though he
had little time to waste upon them, his
tanner being short and. sharp in al
Can’ t e pay you more’n five
Charlie told of his changed position at
the dinner table, but sald very little about
it, and his mother, seeing that it was not
ett ee dae oh ence
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