irs."

"And double our expenses, too, Abe," Morris added. "No, Abe, I don't
want to work for no landlord all my life."

"But I seen Marks Henochstein yesterday, Mawruss, and he told it me
Klinger & Klein ain't paying half the rent what they pay down here. So,
if we could get it two floors we wouldn't increase our expenses,
Mawruss, and could do it maybe twicet the business."

"Marks Henochstein is a real-estater, Abe," Morris replied, "and when a
real-estater tells you something, you got to make allowances fifty per
cent. for facts."

"I know," Abe cried; "but we don't have to hire no loft what we don't
want to, Mawruss. Henochstein can't compel you to pay twicet as much
what we're paying now. Ain't it? So what is the harm if we should maybe
ask him to find a couple of lofts for us? Ain't it?"

"All right, Abe," Morris concluded, "if I must go crazy listening to you
talking about it I sooner move first. So go ahead and do what you like."

"Well, the fact is," said Abe, "I told Marks Henochstein he should find
it a couple lofts for us this morning, Mawruss, agreeing strictly that
we should not pay him nothing, as he gets a commission from the landlord
already."

Morris received this admission with a scowl.

"For a feller what's got such a nerve like you got it, Abe," he
declared, "I am surprised you should make it such a poor salesman."

"When a man's got it a back-number partner, Mawruss, his hands is full
inside and outside the store, and so naturally he loses it a few
customers oncet in a while," Abe replied. "But, somebody's got to have
nerve in a business, Mawruss, and if I waited for you to make
suggestions we would never get nowhere."

Morris searched his mind for an appropriate rejoinder, and had just
formulated a particularly bitter jibe when the store door opened to
admit two shabbily-dressed females.

"Here, you," Abe called, "operators goes around the alley."

The elder of the two females drew herself up haughtily.

"Operators!" she said with a scornful rising inflection.

"Finishers, also," Abe continued. "This here door is for customers."

"You don't know me, Potash," she retorted. "Might you don't know this
lady neither, maybe?"

She indicated her companion, who turned a mournful gaze upon the
astonished Abe.

"But we know you, Potash," she went on. "We know you already when you
didn't have it so much money what you got now."

Her companion nodded sadly.

"So, Potash," she concluded