nd--"

The little guy goes on with a lot of talk about figures, to which Alex
and me listens respectfully and Jared don't listen at all. And fin'ly
the little guy says again that they're gonna give Jared the contract,
and mebbe, if his future wife is waiting--

"Thanks!" says Jared. "She _is_ waiting and--"

"Shall we draw up the contract now?" butts in Alex. "They's a notary
on this floor."

In half a hour we are down in the lobby again, havin' had to hold Jared
by main force long enough to sign this thing. The first guy we bump
into is his boss!

"Where have _you_ been?" he hollers at Jared. "I suppose you've
botched everything all up. I'll be the laughing stock of New York!
Where are those figures for that steel contract?"

Jared looks at him for a minute like, Who is this person? Then he
reaches into his pocket and pulls out the contract.

"Here's your old contract!" he says. "I'm going to take a month off.
I'm going to get married. When I come back I want seventy-five dollars
a week to start and a job as head of the contract department. And,
also--don't never yell at me like that again."

I thought his boss would die of apoplexy then and there. He stares at
Jared, snatches the contract, reads a few lines--and then I got the
idea he was gonna kiss all of us!

"My boy, you're a wonder!" he says. "I always knew you had the stuff
in you! I'll discuss--the--er--the matter of your salary when you come
back."

"We'll finish it right now!" butts in Jared. "I don't want nothing
worrying me while I'm on my honeymoon. Do I get that or don't I?"

"But," stammers the boss, "your commission on that contract alone will
run--"

"Yes or no!" says Jared very cold.

"Yes!" says the boss, with a sigh that could be heard in Harlem. "No
wonder you landed that contract if you went after them that way! I've
been asleep!"

"No," says Jared, "I've been doing the dreaming."

CHAPTER VII

ART IS WRONG

Every time some guy goes over the top to notoriety and money in this
movie called life, they is some 5,678,954 also rans which wags their
heads from side to side and says, "Well--no wonder. He was born that
way and couldn't help himself!" Then, they go back to their dub jobs
and wish they was lucky.

That stuff is all wrong! A guy may be born with different color hair
from the next guy, but he's never born with any secret of success that
the kid in the adjoinin' crib ain't got. All you need to