"and for two hours I got to sit and hear him and his friend
there, that big feller--I guess you seen him, Mr. Perlmutter--he told me
he keeps a beer saloon--another lowlife--for two hours I got to listen
to them loafers cussing together, and then he gets mad that I don't
enjoy myself yet."

Mr. Small shrugged his shoulders.

"Let's forget all about it," he said. "Come, Abe, I want to look over
your line, and you and me will do business right away."

Abe and Morris spent the next two hours displaying their line, while Mr.
Small and Mr. Burke selected hundred lots of every style. Finally, Abe
and Mr. Small retired to the office to fill out the order, leaving
Morris to replace the samples. He worked with a will and whistled a
cheerful melody by way of accompaniment.

"Mister Perlmutter," James Burke interrupted, "that tune what you are
whistling it, ain't that the drinking song from Travvy-ater already?"

Morris ceased his whistling. "That's right," he replied.

"I thought it was," Mr. Burke said. "I was going to see that opera last
Saturday night if that lowlife Walsh wouldn't have took me to the
prize-fight."

He paused and helped himself to a fresh cigar from the "gilt-edged" box.

"For anybody else but a loafer," he concluded, "prize-fighting is nix.
Opera, Mr. Perlmutter, that's an amusement for a gentleman."

Morris nodded a vigorous acquiescence. He had nearly concluded his task
when Abe and his new-found brother-in-law returned.

"Well, gentlemen," Mr. Small announced, "we figured it up and it comes
to twenty-five hundred dollars. That ain't bad for a starter."

"You bet," Abe agreed fervently.

Mr. Burke smiled. "You got a good line, Mr. Potash," he said. "Ever so
much better than Klinger & Klein's."

"That's what they have," Mr. Small agreed. "But it don't make no
difference, anyhow. I'd give them the order if the line wasn't _near_ so
good."

He put his arm around Abe's shoulder. "It stands in the Talmud, an old
saying, but a true one," he said--"'Blood is redder than water.'"

CHAPTER X

The Small Drygoods Company's order was the forerunner of a busy season
that taxed the energies of not only Abe and Morris but of their entire
business staff as well, and when the hot weather set in, Morris could
not help noticing the fagged-out appearance of Miss Cohen the
bookkeeper.

"We should give that girl a vacation, Abe," he said. "She worked hard
and we ought to show her a little considerat