e an engine
driver?"

"I was a boy once," said Matthew Kendrick. "Trains in my day were doing
well when they made twenty-five miles an hour. I shouldn't mind your
racing with one of those."

"I'm racing with one of the fastest engines ever built when I set up a
store in Eastman and try to appropriate some of your methods. I wonder
what you'll think of it?" said Richard gayly. "Well, here's the bad
stretch. Sit tight, grandfather. I'll pick out the best footing there
is, but we may jolt about a good bit. I'm going to try what can be done
to get these fellows to put a bottom under their spring mud!"

When the town was reached Richard convoyed his companion straight to the
best hotel, saw that he had a comfortable chair and as appetizing a meal
as the house could afford, and let him rest for as long a time afterward
as he himself could brook waiting. When Mr. Kendrick professed himself
in trim for whatever might come next Richard set out with him for the
short walk to the store of Benson & Company.

The young man's heart was beating with surprising rapidity as the two
approached the front of the brick building which represented his present
venture into the business world. He knew just how keen an eye was to
inspect the place, and what thorough knowledge was to pass judgment upon
it.

"Here we are," he said abruptly, with an effort to speak lightly. "These
are our front windows. Carson dresses them himself. He seems a wonder to
me--I can't get hold of it at all. Rather a good effect, don't you
think?"

He was distinctly nervous, and he could not conceal it, as Matthew
Kendrick turned to look at the front of the building, taking it all in,
it seemed, with one sweeping glance which dwelt only for a minute apiece
on the two big windows, and then turned to the entrance, above which
hung the signs, old and new. The visitor made no comment, only nodded,
and made straight for the door.

As it swung open under Richard's hand, the young man's first glance was
for the general effect. He himself was looking at everything as if for
the first time, intensely alive to the impression it was to make upon
his judge. He found that the general effect was considerably obscured by
the number of people at the counters and in the aisles, more, it seemed
to him, than he had ever seen there before. His second observation was
that the class of shoppers seemed particularly good, and he tried to
recall the special feature of Carson's advertis