d Lord!" exclaimed Jimmy, aghast, and wiping beads of perspiration
from his forehead. "I didn't have any idea of kicking up such a fuss as
that. I just blundered into a chance to have some fun with that pompous
old rooster that hated me because we looked so much alike and----" In
the midst of all his woes he could not suppress a laugh of amusement.

"So you still think it's a joke, do you?" snorted the irate manager,
exasperated by this further evidence of irresponsibility. "Well, you'll
not think so any longer. I'll attend to that. You turn your samples in
and go to the cashier with your expense account. You're fired! Maybe you
can understand that! Fired! F-I-R-E-D!"

"You needn't have troubled to spell it out," remonstrated Jimmy. "I get
you. But--hang it all, man!--you might at least put me into some new
territory. I didn't mean anything by it. I'll admit I was a chump; but I
can sell stuff, and you know it."

He stopped and stared at the floor with a face so frankly troubled and
perplexed that the manager for the moment forgot his wrath. The boy in
Jimmy Gollop was never more manifest than at that moment. There was
something very appealing about him that Falkner could not fail to
discern.

"Jimmy," he said, gravely, "I'm sorry, but it has to be done. What on
earth made you such a fool? You must have been crazy!"

"I sort of reckon I must have been," admitted Jimmy, dolefully.
"But--honestly!--I didn't mean to do any real damage to that old stiff
Granger, and certainly not to the firm. The firm? Why Mr. Falkner, I've
stuck up for it for nearly ten years because it has treated me white,
and because it's an honest firm that makes honest goods. But--well--all
I can do is to square matters up as best I can. You people have been
very good to me. Very good and very kind. I've drawn your money
and,--prospered, and so I'll write the public apology or confession, or
whatever you call it, that those chaps out there demand, and take all
the blame. And I'll write to every customer that has communicated with
you and tell 'em that, although I'm out and gone, the orders were
solicited in good faith and that it's not fair to make you suffer for
that fool joke of mine. I'm done with jokes of all sorts from now on.
I'll do anything except this--I'll not write one word of apology to that
man Granger!"

Falkner looked out of the window as if troubled, and then said, with a
sigh of regret, "Well, Jim, I'm sorry, but it can't be hel