I see, commented the Doctor interestedly. And so you and Patterson, your room-mate, decided to start this shop. That was last spring, you say?
We didnt exactly decide then, sir. That is, I decided to do it if I could, but I couldnt get Stick thats Patterson, sir: his names George, but every one calls him Stick I couldnt get him to promise until about the middle of the summer. Id have gone into it alone, only I didnt have enough money, and Stick had some hed saved and I wanted it. You see, it takes quite a lot to get a thing like this started, sir.
The Doctor nodded gravely. Undoubtedly, he agreed. And between you, you managed to get enough together to put it through, Emerson?
Russell shook his head ruefully. No, sir, not enough, but well, it has to do, he answered a bit defiantly. Stick didnt want to I mean he found he couldnt put in quite as much as he thought he could, sir, and I didnt make quite as much during the summer as Id expected to, and so it left us sort of short when the time came.
You worked during the summer, then?
Yes, sir, I waited on table at the Pine Harbor House. They didnt have a very good season. Too much rain and cold weather. A lot of the fellows made less than I did, though, so I guess I oughtnt to kick, added Russell thoughtfully.
There was silence for a moment, and then the Doctor, having taken up his pencil again, said: I dont want to pry into matters that dont concern me, Emerson, but it must have taken at least several hundred dollars to start this shop of yours. Now, just suppose that there isnt the demand for your wares that you anticipate. What then? Its going to whisk that money away, isnt it? Youve laid out most of it, I presume, on goods, youve had to sign a lease of the premises you occupy and youve paid some rent already. Have you thought what may happen? What happens every day in retail business?
Yes, sir, replied Russell. Its a risk, I know, but it isnt as big as you think, I guess. We didnt have much money to start on and so we dont stand to lose very much, even if all went, which it cant. Weve taken only half a store and weve leased it by the month. A florist has the rest of it, a man named Pulsifer. You see, we couldnt afford to take a whole store, not where we wanted it, and so we made an offer to this florist fellow and he fell for it right away. He had more space than he needed, except around Christmas and Easter time, and he was quite keen about renting it. Then we havent put in a very big stock, sir. You see, there are so many things that we have to handle that we just couldnt begin to keep them all. So we have samples of most everything and a fair line of the fall things. If we dont happen to have whats wanted to-day we telephone to New York for it and we get it to-morrow.
I see, said the Doctor. And of course you arent depending solely on the Academy trade?
No, sir, were after the High School fellows and the public generally. But we do expect to get a good deal of patronage from the Academy. In fact, sir, what I want to do ultimately is persuade the athletic teams to trade with us instead of New York!
Well, I endorse your courage, Emerson, and I trust you wont be disappointed. That is The Doctor stopped and frowned at the pencil. To be frank, Emerson, he went on, I had some idea of persuading you to give up this scheme when I sent for you. I say persuading because there is nothing in the rules of this institution that empowers me to forbid it. The mere fact that it has never before been done doesnt prohibit it; although it is probably the reason that there is no regulation that does! I dare say you can understand why the faculty would view such a proceeding askance, Emerson.
Russell looked frankly puzzled and finally shook his head. No, sir, Im afraid I cant, he said.
The Doctors brows went up a trifle and he smiled faintly. Really? Doesnt it occur to you that keeping a shop might interfere somewhat with the real purpose of your presence here?
You mean it might keep me from studying, sir?
Exactly, from study and progress, which, after all, Emerson, are what you are here for.
Why, but dont you see, sir, exclaimed Russell, that if I dont run that store I cant stay here? Why, I Im doing it just because I want to study and learn! Im doing it so I can, Doctor McPherson!
The Doctors golden-brown eyes lighted kindly and the creases that ran from each side of his straight nose to the corners of his rather wide mouth deepened under his smile. Yes, I do see it, my boy, he replied heartily. And because I see it Ive quite changed my course of action since you arrived. I certainly would not like to see your example followed by well, by many of your companions, Emerson. And for that reason I trust shop-keeping wont become the fashion here at Alton! But in your case well, well see how it works out. I sincerely hope that we shall be satisfied with the results, Emerson. And I certainly hope you will, too. In fact, I wish you the best of luck, my boy. And, while I know very little of merchandising, Ill be very glad to give you any assistance in my power. And whereupon the Doctors eyes twinkled Ill certainly patronize The Sign of the Football in preference to the gentleman who keeps second-rate goods at first-rate prices! Good morning, Emerson.
Good morning, sir, stammered Russell. And and thank you.
Not at all. And let me know how youre getting on sometime!
CHAPTER VI
BILLY CROCKER DROPS IN
Alton played her first game two days later, against the local High School team. The latter had suffered quite as much as the Academy from graduations, and the eleven that took the field to oppose the Gray-and-Gold knew very little football. Alton fairly ran High School off her feet in the first half, scoring three touchdowns and missing two excellent opportunities to kick goals from the field because of the Coachs instructions to play only a rushing game. Along in the third period Mr. Cade began to send in substitutes, and ere the brief contest was ended Alton had tried out just twenty-one players. There was only one score in the last half, the result of a blocked kick on Altons thirty-two yards. High School, held for downs, had attempted a goal, but a plunge of eager Alton substitutes had borne down the defense and the ball had bounded aside from some upstretched arm to be gobbled up by Harmon and borne fleetly down the field. There was little opposition, for the nearest High School pursuer reached the final white line a good two yards behind the swift-footed left half-back. Harmon, rather tuckered, was taken out and Mawson replaced him, and it was Mawson who strove to add another point to the Academys total of 26. But his attempt was weak and the ball never threatened the cross-bar. That was in the third period. In the fourth the playing on both sides became amusingly ragged, and fumble followed fumble and signals were mixed and the spectators fairly howled with glee at times. Twice over-eagerness was penalized under the visitors goal and so two more probable touchdowns were averted. High School showed one brief session of determined offensive in the third quarter and, taking advantage of Crockers sleepy game at right end, managed two long runs which, together with a rather flukey forward pass, landed the pigskin on Altons twenty-two yards. There, however, the attack petered out and, after losing seven yards in three downs, High School faked a try-at-goal and tossed forward over the line, where the ball landed untouched on the turf.
Considered even as a first contest, the afternoons performance wasnt encouraging from an Alton standpoint, for the line had been slow and had played high, the backs had worked every man for himself, with no semblance of team-play, and even Ned Richards generalship had been particularly headless. Against an equally green and much lighter team, Alton had failed to show any real football. However, one swallow doesnt make a summer, nor one game a season, and so Coach Cade had little to say after the contest, and the audience, taking itself lazily away through the warm sunlit afternoon, chose to view the humorous aspects of the encounter and disregard its faults. Harley McLeod did fairly well at right end until he gave way to Billy Crocker, and Jimmy played at right half during a brief and glorious third quarter and retired with a bruised and ensanguined nose.
In the Coachs room, across Academy street from the Green, Mr. Cade and Captain Mart Proctor conferred long that evening and in the end reached the conclusion, among other less certain ones, that the task of building a team this fall was going to be a man-sized job!
Jimmy had determined that he would drop in at the Sign of the Football and look the shop over at the first opportunity. By that he meant the first occasion when he was in want of something that might reasonably be expected to be on sale there. But it didnt seem that the opportunity would come, for, with the football management supplying everything from head harness to shoe-laces, there wasnt anything he stood in need of. Nor, between the reading of the advertisement to Stanley that Thursday afternoon and the hour of eleven on the following Tuesday, did he even get as far from the Green as West street. He had heard, though, many comments on the Sign of the Football. Among his acquaintances the store was treated as something of a sensation, while Russell Emerson and his partner in the enterprise were both scoffed at and commended. The idea of an Alton student descending to shop-keeping disturbed many fastidious ones, while others thought it rather a joke though they couldnt seem to put their finger on the point of it! and still others declared that it was a corking good stunt and they hoped Emerson and his pal would make it go. Jimmy lined up with the latter when the matter was discussed in his hearing, and so did Harley McLeod, as, for instance, on Monday night when a half-dozen fellows were gathered in Harleys room in Haylow. The number included Jimmy and Stanley, Ned Richards, Harleys room-mate, Billy Crocker and Cal Grainger, the Baseball Captain. It was the latter who introduced the subject when, apropos of something Ned Richards had said regarding his finances, he informed them that anything approaching financial depression wouldnt bother him hereafter as he and Brand Harmon were going to open a tea shop in the town.
Keeping a shop is getting to be all the rage, he explained airily, and those that get into it early are going to reap the shekels. Brand and I have got it all doped out. Some swell little joint were going to have, too. Rose and gray is to be the the color motif. Were going to have three kinds of tea: hot, cold and Oolong; and a full line of sandwiches and cakes. Wait till you see us swelling around there with the High School girls! Fine moments, boy, believe me!
Better stock up with chewing gum, suggested Ned Richards. From what I see, I guess thats about all those High School girls ever eat!
Youre jealous because you didnt think of it yourself, retorted Cal untroubledly.
Hope you get more trade than those fellows who opened the sporting goods store are getting, said Billy Crocker. He was a rather large, though not heavy, youth, with black hair and thick eyebrows that met above his nose. The latter, being beak-like, gave him an unattractively parrotish look. Billy lived at home, in the town, but spent most of his evenings at the Academy. He wasnt especially popular, and fellows sometimes found themselves wondering why it was he was so frequently in evidence at such gatherings as to-nights. The explanation, however, was very simple. Billy Crocker took his welcome for granted and didnt wait for a formal invitation. Being a football player, he affected the company of the football crowd, and although many protested him as a nuisance he was allowed to tag along. Ive looked in there twenty times, continued Billy, not too truthfully, and Ive never seen any one there yet. Theyre a couple of nuts!
As a member of the Alton Academy Merchants Association, began Cal protestingly.
They must have some money they dont need, interrupted Ned Richards enviously. I heard theyd put a thousand dollars into the thing.
A thousand dollars! scoffed Billy Crocker. More like a hundred! Why, those fellows havent any money, Ned. Theyre on their uppers. Patterson wears clothes that were made when Grant took Richmond!
What scandal is this? murmured Jimmy. Whos Grant?
Well, thats what I heard, replied Ned coldly. Of course, if the gentlemen are personal friends of yours, Crocker
Theyre not, thanks, answered Billy emphatically. I dont
Theyre friends of mine, though, cut in Harley. At least, Emerson is. And I wish him luck. Hes got courage, that chap. Guess its so about his being poor, though, for we came across him two or three weeks ago waiting on table at a hotel at Pine Harbor. He was a good waiter, too.
Jimmy rather wished that Harley hadnt told that, for, while he had only admiration for the deed, he doubted that Ned and Cal and Billy Crocker would view it in the same way. However, no one looked other than faintly interested; no one, that is, save Billy Crocker. Billy laughed scornfully. Those fellows would do anything to get a bit of money, he said. It was Patterson who wore Irv Rosss suit up and down West street a couple of years ago, with a placard on him like a sandwich man, and all for a dollar and a half. You fellows remember.
Yes, but it was Stacey Rosss suit, and not Irvs, said Stanley. Girtle charged Stacey ten or twelve dollars more than he charged another chap for the same thing. Girtle said it was because the other fellow paid cash and Stacey didnt, but Stacey was mad clean through and got Patterson to put the suit on and walk up and down in front of the store with a placard saying Bought at Girtles. Of course the clothes hung all over Patterson
Thats all ancient history, Stan, said Harley.
Well, what I was getting at is that, as I remember it, this fellow did it for a joke and wasnt paid for it.
He certainly was paid, exclaimed Billy. I know!
He ought to have been, remarked Ned. Anyway, Stan, theres no sense in arguing with Crocker about what his friends do or did. Hes in the know, arent you, Crocker?
I told you they arent my friends, answered Billy gruffly. I dont know either of them, except by sight.
Then why, asked Ned, yawning, persist in talking about em?
I only said they wouldnt make that store pay, replied the other defensively. And they wont.
Say, Crocker, inquired Jimmy, isnt it your father or uncle or something who runs the hardware store?
Father, said Billy in a tone that suggested reticence.
Thought so. Maybe youre a bit prejudiced then. You folks sell the same line of stuff as Emerson and Patterson do, eh? Guess you dont like the idea of a rival almost next door.
All those fellows will sell wont affect my father any!