sburg, have we got those 672
infants' in pink?"

"Sure thing. Wait, Miss Ruby--I'll climb for you. I have to go up
anyway."

"Aw, you're busy with your own customers. Don't trouble."

"Nothing's trouble when it's for you, Miss Ruby. Show her those tassel
tops, too."

"Oh, Mr. Ginsburg, ain't you the kidder, though! Yes'm; the tassel tops
are eighty. Ain't they the cutest little things?"

At six o'clock a medley of whistles shrieked out the eventide--clarions
that ripped upward like sky-rockets in flight; hard-throated soprano
whistles that juggled with the topmost note like a colorature diva. The
oak benches emptied, Mr. Ginsburg raised the front awning and kicked the
carpet-covered brick away from the door, so that it swung quietly
closed; daubed at his wrists and collar-top with a damp handkerchief.

"First breathing space we've had to-day, ain't it, Miss Ruby?"

Miss Cohn flopped down on a bench and breathed heavily; her hair lay
damp on her temples; the ruffles at her neck were limp as the ruff of a
Pierette the morning after the costume ball.

"You should worry, Mr. Ginsburg! With such a business next year at this
time you'll have two clerks and more breathing space than you got
breath."

Mr. Ginsburg seated himself carefully beside her at a wide range, so
that a customer for a seven-E last could have fitted in between them.

"I've built up a good business here, Miss Ruby. The trouble with poor
papa was he was afraid to spend, and he was afraid of novelties. I
couldn't learn him that a windowful of satin pumps helps swell the
storm-rubber sale. Those little dollar-ninety-eights look swell on your
feet, Miss Ruby; you're a good advertisement for the stock--not?"

"Funny what a hit them pumps make! Mr. Leavitt was crazy about them,
too; but, say, what your mother thinks of these satin slippers I'd hate
to tell you. When she was down the day before I left she looked at 'em
till I got so nervous I tripped over the cracks between the boards. Say,
but wasn't she sore about the new glass fixtures! I kinda felt like it
was my fault, too; but I was strong for 'em because--"

"Mamma's the old-fashioned kind, Miss Ruby--her and poor papa like the
old way of doing things. She's getting old, Miss Ruby, but she means
well. She's a good mother--a good mother."

"She's sure a grand woman--carrying soup across to old Levinsky every
day, and all."

"She's more'n you know she is, too, Miss Ruby--little things that wo