wouldn't believe at all. He told me so himself. Always he tries to do
good. Only this morning, Mawruss, he was telling me about a young feller
by the name Schenkmann which he is trying to find a position for as
stock clerk. Nobody would take the young feller on, Mawruss, because he
got into trouble with a house in Dallas, Texas, which they claim the
young feller stole from them a hundred dollars, Mawruss. But Linkheimer
says how if you would give a dawg a bad name, Mawruss, you might just as
well give him to the dawgcatcher. So Linkheimer is willing to take a
chance on this here feller Schenkmann, and he gives him a job in his own
place."

"Dawgs I don't know nothing about at all, Abe," Morris commented. "But I
would be willing to give the young feller a show too, Abe, if I would
only got plain bone and metal buttons in stock. But when you carry a
couple hundred pieces silk goods, Abe, like we do, then that's something
else again."

"Well, Mawruss, _Gott sei dank_ we don't got to get a new shipping
clerk. Jake has been with us five years now, Mawruss, and so far what I
could see he ain't got ambition enough to ask for a raise even, let
alone look for a better job."

"You shouldn't congradulate yourself too quick, Abe," Morris replied.
"Ambition he's got it plenty, but he ain't got the nerve. We really
ought to give the feller a raise, Abe. I mean it. Every time I go near
him at all he gives me a look, and the first thing you know, Abe, he
would be leaving us."

"Looks we could stand it, Mawruss; but if we would start in giving him a
raise there would be no end to it at all. _Lass's bleiben._ If the
feller wants a raise, Mawruss, he should ask for it."

Barely two weeks after the conversation above set forth, however, Jake
entered the firm's private office and tendered his resignation.

"Mr. Perlmutter," he said, "I'm going to leave."

"Going to leave?" Morris cried. "What d'ye mean--going to leave?"

"Going to leave?" Abe repeated crescendo. "An idea! You should
positively do nothing of the kind."

"It wouldn't be no more than you deserve, Jake, if we would fire you
right out of the store," Morris added. "You work for us here five years
and then you come to us and say you are going to leave. Did you ever
hear of such a thing? If you want it a couple dollars more a week, we
would give it to you and _fartig_. But if you get fresh and come to us
and tell us you are going to leave, y'understand, then that's some