The next week I went with Charlie Martin and Fred Barlow to Boston to buy the automobile accessories which we had decided upon when old man Barlow and I had fixed up that gasoline deal.

He had come to the house one evening and suggested it was time to get busy.

"Fred knows the automobile business thoroughly—and Charlie is well up on it also," said Barlow, "so I would suggest that, as I have to put up the money, if necessary, on what you buy, you let Fred and Charlie go with you. Their knowledge should be helpful to you."

"That's a good idea," I agreed; "we'll go next Monday."

"I'll tell Fred to be ready to go with you then," Barlow said. He was silent for a minute, then he went on, "Fred has to buy a lot of automobile accessories for his people, so perhaps, by pooling his and your orders, you can get prices shaved a bit."

I looked up with surprise. "I thought Fred had left his Detroit people."

"He has," said Barlow, abruptly, "but he has made new connections recently."

I wanted to ask what they were, but Barlow's attitude warned me not to.

So, the three of us went to Boston and bought a complete stock of automobile accessories. I followed Fred Barlow's lead, for he certainly was familiar with the goods.

The next day the men came to make arrangements for putting in the gas tank. While they were measuring the pavement, and deciding just where to fix the pump, Stigler happened along.

"Morning, Stigler," I said, with an attempt at joviality; "how's business?"

"Fine," he responded. "How's bread mixers going?" He sneered as he spoke, and I felt myself getting mad.

"So, so," I replied—then, in an attempt to equal up the score, I added, "Too bad your five-and-ten-cent store proved such a fizzle!"

He turned sharply on me and snarled, "You keep yer damned tongue still when yer see me. I don't let whelps like you talk 'big' to me and get away with it, savvy?"

Without another word he walked away, leaving me taut and trembling with agitation.

I had been given to understand that Stigler's plan of continual price cutting had cut his profits to the vanishing point. He had brooded over it so much that it had become a mania with him. Unfortunately, he held me responsible for his troubles.

I told Betty about it as a good joke on Stigler, but she didn't laugh, instead she said gravely, "Leave that man alone, my dear; he is dangerous. Don't pick quarrels with him, or you may come to blows, or worse. Remember, dearest, that I need you more than ever—now."

How dear she was, and how brave and happy she kept while waiting—I could not let her have anything to worry about until after.

Charlie Martin had asked if he could come around to the house that evening, and, of course, I had said, "Yes."

Charlie had grown to be one of us almost, and I hardly realized how much I had come to depend on him until the thought of losing him occurred to me.

I don't know how I had happened to get into the habit of looking upon Charlie as a fixture with me. I knew his people were fairly well to do, and that the eight dollars a week I paid him were a mere bagatelle toward his living expenses. One gets into the habit, however, of accepting things on surface evidence, until one loses sight of the motive which is at the back of the evidence. For instance, if I had thought a bit, I would have known Charlie hadn't worked for eight dollars a week just because he needed a job.

One thing it taught me was that I must not confuse the apparent with the real. Thereafter, whenever a man said anything to me, I remembered that there was a motive at the back of what he said, and that if I was going to understand other people I must understand the motive which impelled their action. For instance, I knew that, when a man came in to buy a saw from me, he had a reason for buying that saw. The more I knew of his reason for buying it, the more able I was to sell him just what he wanted.

If a man put up a business proposition to me which looked good for me I remembered that it was not for me that he was doing it. I was not the reason which impelled him to give me a good deal. It was something which he eventually was going to get out of it himself. So I said to myself, "Why does he want to do this for me?" And if I could not find a good logical reason I left it alone until I could.

"Dawson," said Charlie, after dinner—he had got to calling me Dawson outside of business—"Do you know why I have been working for you for the last few months?"

"Why, no, unless you've just wanted to do something."

"I never do anything just because I want to fill in some spare time," he smiled. "My business training has taught me that I cannot afford to make a lot of waste motions. I came to your store because I wanted a small-store experience."

"We're not so small," I protested.

"Well, let's say small compared to Bon Marche in Paris, or Selfridges in London, or Marshall Field in Chicago, or such young concerns. However, I think I know more about small-store conduct than I did before, now that I've had some experience. You see, I studied retail merchandising, but that was only half the battle, you know. All I learned there was no use whatever until I found whether I could actually apply it.

"As you know," he continued, "I went to Detroit and studied the automobile business—not from the manufacturing end, but from the distribution end—because Fred Barlow and I had a hunch that there was a big future in automobile selling, if we could discover it."

"I should think there was a big 'present,'" I remarked."Yes, there is a big present for the manufacturers, and some few distributors make a fine thing out of it. But the distribution end struck us as being very inadequate."

"Fancy you two young fellows deciding that the big bucks up in Detroit don't know how to sell automobiles!"

"I guess you're right, at that," agreed Charlie; "but the outsider often gets a different slant on things from the fellow who is continually on the job. But that's neither here nor there," and he waved his hand as if to brush aside the discussion. "The point is that Fred and I went to Detroit together and studied the automobile business from the distribution end, and, of course, we also learned how they are made. We then looked into the accessories, and found out quite a lot about selling them. Then we decided we wanted retail-store experience, particularly in hardware. So Fred has been studying the practical side of retail-store management in his dad's office, while I have been studying it in yours."

"Do you think that's quite fair?" I said indignantly, "for you and Fred Barlow to use his father and me as suckers?"

"Don't get vexed," he said quietly, "until you know the reason for our actions." Then he continued, "I don't think you have any cause to complain at what I've done for you, Dawson. I think I've been worth my eight dollars a week."

"Of course you have. Forgive me."

"Here's the idea," he resumed. "The hardware stores of the country are at last waking up to the fact that automobile accessories are logically a department of the hardware store. We feel, however, that the garage itself is a logical department of the hardware store. The hardware store in the past has lost several lines which ought to belong to it. Look at the number of hardware lines the drug stores sell, and the department stores also. If the hardware stores had been on the job it would have been impossible to have bought a bicycle anywhere than at a hardware store.

"Now, we have to admit that, of late, the hardware repair shop has not been a flourishing, profitable department. In fact, many hardware stores have eliminated it, sending outside such odd jobs as must be done. We believed—in fact, we still believe, that the hardware store of the town should also be the leading garage of the town, and that the garage is the natural development of the tin shop. Many hardware stores are selling gasoline, and, as you know, automobile accessories are becoming quite common in a hardware store.

"If we had a garage adjacent to our hardware store," he continued, "we could not only supply a man with accessories, but attach them to his car. If a man has a breakdown, we are in a position to repair his car, and then exercise our selling ability to sell him accessories.

"Just look at the average garage! Did you ever know of a garage man who made a display of accessories? If the present garagemen were on to the job they could put the hardware man out of business, so far as accessories are concerned." Here Charlie paused for a minute, and then added: "Except, perhaps, in the larger cities.

"As you know, my dad has quite a little money, and he is willing to set me up in business. Fred Barlow's dad has a little money, also."

I smiled at this, because it was known all over town that old man Barlow was one of our wealthiest citizens.

"Fred and I and our dads," he continued, "have formed a little corporation under the title of Martin & Barlow. What we plan to do is to operate a chain of garages in connection with the best hardware store in each town. We are going to run a garage in Farmdale here, in that place exactly opposite Barlow's store. We are also going to have a display window in the garage where accessories will be shown. The hardware store will also contain a big display of accessories, which will be under our control. We are going to pay Mr. Barlow a small sum for rent of space in his store. Fred or I will be in charge of that to begin with.

"We have a man coming from the Michigan Car Company to look after the garage. We will also have the exclusive agency for this territory for the Michigan car. That is how it will work out," he continued, after a moment's pause.

"We shall train one of Barlow's clerks to look after the accessories department in the store. We shall then have our own man who will go around selling cars in this locality. We shall also have a man in the garage who understands repairs of all kinds, and particularly the Michigan car, for which he shall carry a complete line of parts."

"Will that pay Barlow?" I asked.

"Yes, for in return for his providing a salesman for the accessories department, we will give him a percentage of the profits from that department, besides guaranteeing him a small sum for rent every month.

"Now our salesman for the Michigan car will also canvass the car owners in the locality—representing Barlow's store, you understand,—and secure their business for accessories. We believe that he will sell enough cars and accessories to pay for himself and to make money for the store and us. In addition to this the salesman will take orders for general hardware whenever the opportunity occurs, and on such business the store gives us a commission. In other words, you see, our salesman is really a salesman for everything that Barlow will sell.

"The man we will have in charge of the garage is not only thoroughly trained in repair work of all kinds by the Michigan Car Company, but he has also been given a special schooling in simple bookkeeping, salesmanship, the need of cleanliness, courtesy, and the best way to keep his garage smart and attractive. He is not only able to repair cars, but he knows how to charge for his repairs."

"All the garage men I know don't need any training in that," I said, with a grin.

He smiled and went on: "Now, when we have this town working properly we want to make arrangements with a good hardware man in another town. Fred Barlow and I will get hold of a local man, train him in the selling of the Michigan car, and show him how to go about building up accessories and general hardware trade. We will also teach one of the hardware man's clerks how to sell accessories; and the Michigan Car Company will then send us another man with the same training as the first to look after the garage for us, which will in every case be located as near to the hardware store as possible. The Michigan Car Company is running a regular class-room in its factory, so that we will have fifty men, properly trained, if we need them.

"Of course, we shall have signs up in the garage that automobile accessories and hardware can be bought from the hardware store, and in the hardware store there will be signs saying that gasoline and repairs of all kinds are to be had in our garage, at such an address.

"In each town we will operate our business in the name of the local store."

"Won't you have a job in checking up your cash? Do you have your salesman look after that, and bond him?"

"No," he replied. "The local hardware man is responsible for all cash. We get him to receive all the money collected, render us a weekly report, and send us a check for the full amount, with a list of any goods wanted for either the garage or the accessories department."

"Can you get the hardware people to do that?" I asked skeptically.

"We think we can."

"Do you think you can get them to go to all that bother and trouble?"

Charlie smiled and replied: "If they are not willing to go to that bother and trouble we would not want to work with them, for it would show they were 'dead ones.' We believe that live hardware people will be glad to work with us on a proposition such as this, which will be a source of profit to them, as well as increased sales on their regular hardware lines.""What's the local garage man going to say about this?" I asked.

"It will be a survival of the fittest," he said quietly. "We have not entered into this to put the garage man out of business, but merely to get a garage business for ourselves. We shall not consider him in any way, or go out of our way to fight him. We shall merely mind our own business, and get as much of it to mind as we can."

"When are you going to start here?"

"May 1st," he replied.

"Say," I exclaimed, sitting up straight, "then all those goods Fred and you bought while with me in Boston are really for your store here?"

"Yes."

"Well, why didn't you or Barlow say something about it?"

"Look here, Dawson, we can trust you to the last gun shot; but, if one wants to keep a thing quiet the best way is to tell nobody, for if he starts to tell one, before he knows it he is telling some one else, and his plans may be frustrated before he has a chance of putting them into operation."

"Why bother to tell me about it all, then?" And then another distressing thought occurred to me. "Look here, Charlie, this is going to hurt me. If you have a man going around selling hardware he is going to upset Larsen on his weekly trips to get business. Then, what's the good of my having accessories, if you are fighting me all the time?"

The more I thought about it the more alarming it became.

"I'm going to see old Barlow first thing in the morning." I felt my temper rising. "I am going to tell him to keep his old gas tank. I won't have it; and as for those accessories, I'll return them right away. You're not going to use me as a cat's-paw in your business, and you and Barlow can go—"

"Oh, shut up!" said Charlie, sharply. "Look here, Dawson, old man Barlow never did anything to hurt you, and is not going to now. Fred and I think too much of you. In fact, we want you to help us and yourself at the same time. This town is big enough for two hardware stores with accessories. The only man who is going to be pinched here is Martin, who runs the garage, and as a matter of fact, old Barlow is out for Martin's scalp."

I then recalled an episode between old man Barlow and Martin, the garage man, some years ago, when they had a lawsuit over a land boundary. Martin played some very dirty trick on Barlow, who lost his case. The only comment Barlow ever made was, "I can wait." It looked to me as if Barlow was helping to start a new idea in chain store organization, and at the same time paying off an old score.

"Well, where do I come in on this deal?" I asked, somewhat suspiciously, I must own.

"Listen, Dawson," said Charlie, putting his hand on my knee, "you're a mighty original chap. Some of the selling stunts you have pulled off here show you have an excellent merchandising instinct. You have made some 'bulls,' of course, but I'd hate to have a fellow around me who couldn't make some mistakes. When we've got our plan in this town working properly, we would like you, if we could get you, to thoroughly study the automobile accessories business, and think up ways and means of selling them; and then we'd like you, if you would to come in with us as a partner and take charge of the selling and displaying of the accessories for all our stores. We would also like to have you write up form letters to send to car owners, and go around and visit the stores and see that the goods are being displayed properly. Think up new selling wrinkles for salesmen, and things of that sort."

Then he got up abruptly, leaving my head in a whirlwind with the torrent of thoughts he had given me, and said, "Think it over, old man, and talk about it with Betty, but don't let it go any further!"