man would be down
there at six a.m. waitin' for the place to open. Why, there's prob'ly
a hundred or more there right now!"

"I hope there's a million!" he comes back. "It'll be more satisfaction
when they hire me over all them others. Now I ain't goin' near that
there office as yet. My system gets away from the old stuff--just keep
your eye on Cousin Alex from now on!"

He buys a newspaper, finds the automobile section and, finally, a big
display advertisement of the Gaflooey Auto Company. He takes out a
letter from his pocket and on the back of it he marks the price, style,
and a lot of other dope about Gaflooey light delivery wagons and then
throws the paper away.

"Now," he grins, "I'm all ready, except to give them folks my full name
for the payroll!"

At that minute, somebody slaps me on the back and I swing around to see
Buck Rice chucklin' at me. Buck used to be one of the best second
basemen that ever picked up a bat, till his legs went back on him and
he got into the automobile game. I remember thinkin' how funny it was
that he come along right then when me and Alex was talkin' about autos.

"Well, how are they breakin', Buck?" I says, shakin' hands and
introducin' Alex.

"I think I have fanned with the bases loaded again," he laughs. "I put
in five hours to-day tryin' to get the Mastadon Department Store to put
in a line of six-cylinder Katzes on their delivery system. I got a
private tip that they're changin' from the Mutz-36 and the first order
will be about eighty cars. Of course that's a sweet piece of money for
somebody and everybody in New York will be there to-day tryin' to grab
that order off. You might as well try to sell radiators in Hades
though, because Munson, the bird that does the purchasin', is stuck on
the Clarendon and he wouldn't buy anything else if they was givin' 'em
away!"

"Well, that's tough, Buck!" I sympathizes.

"Sure is!" he says, givin' me and Alex a quarter perfecto and grinnin'
some more to show how disappointed he feels. "But I should worry! If
I lose that one, I'll get another, so what's the difference?" He turns
to Alex, "Y'know in New York here," he confides, "we don't have no time
to hold no coroner's inquests over failures. We forget about 'em and
go after somethin' else--always on the job, get me? You'll learn after
you're here a while--that's what makes the town what it is. If I
stopped to moan over every order I didn't put across, I'd be now