CHAPTER XI
FAIR PROMISES
Russell was spared an answer, for just then Jimmy appealed to him.“That’s right, isn’t it, Rus? If it wasn’t for football these fellowswould be prying up asphalt or laying sewer pipes, wouldn’t they? Wehave to earn money to keep their old hockey teams and basket ball teamsgoing. Yes, and pay for the crew and the baseball nine, too!”
“Not by a long shot,” exclaimed Cal. “Leave the Nine out of it, Jimmy.We’ve paid our own way for many a season, old scout!”
“Pooh! Made expenses, maybe, but you generally have to come a-borrowingfrom the old sock every spring.”
“Well, we pay it back, son.”
“You fellows have to have too many bats and gloves and fancy fixings,”continued Jimmy. “And you wear too good clothes, too. I’ll bet it costsyou a fortune to outfit every spring, and--”
“Listen to him!” exploded Cal. “Great Guns, what does it cost to run afootball team?”
“That’s different,” laughed Jimmy. “A football team’s worth while, Cal.Besides, when it comes to that, those uniforms you fellows wear costmore than a football suit, I’ll bet.”
“Rot!”
“Well, what do they cost? Come on, now. Let’s hear.”
“I don’t know, you idiot. We get ’em by the bunch. Maybe eight dollars,maybe nine.”
“Can you beat that?” Jimmy appealed to the company. “Captain of theNine and doesn’t know what his uniforms cost him!”
“That’s not my business, you chump. That’s up to the managers. I’ve gotenough to look after--”
“Well, here’s a fellow can tell us.” Jimmy turned to Russell. “What dothose uniforms cost, Rus, per uniform? You ought to know.”
Russell smiled and shook his head. “I’m afraid I don’t. You can payalmost any price for a three-piece uniform, from six dollars up totwelve. It depends on how many you buy, of course, and on quality, too.”
“Are you an authority on the subject, Emerson?” asked Greenwood.
Russell shook his head. “No, not at all,” he answered.
“You’re an awful bluffer, Jimmy,” laughed Cal.
“Not a bit,” denied Jimmy stoutly. “Rus sells uniforms and he ought toknow the prices of ’em better than we do. It’s his busi--”
“Oh!” exclaimed Cal. “You’re the Emerson who has the store on Weststreet! Of course! I missed that. Yes, you must know something aboutbaseball togs. Football togs, too, eh? Well, tell us, then, whichoutfit costs the most, Emerson.”
“Football,” answered Russell, smiling. “There’s more wool. Footballtogs have to be better because they get harder use.”
“There you are!” exclaimed Cal, in triumph. Russell noted that Coolidgeand Greenwood were observing him with new interest.
“I still maintain,” said Jimmy, with great dignity, “that one of thesuits you fellows wear costs more than my football outfit. I got myjersey for nothing, from a chap who was leaving school--”
“It looks it,” breathed Coolidge.
“That’s not the point,” said Cal. “Every one knows you’re such a miseryou wouldn’t _buy_ anything. We were discussing new uniforms, andEmerson says himself--”
“Say, Emerson, what’s a hockey shirt w-w-worth?” asked Bob Coolidge.
“I can’t say. We haven’t stocked any yet. I’ll find out for you,though, if you want me to.”
Coolidge shook his head. “Thanks, no, it doesn’t matter. I justwondered.”
“Bet you Rus can sell you shirts and whole outfits, too, for thatmatter, less than you paid for them last year,” announced Jimmy. “Youfellows always get stuck when you send to New York.”
“It’s not my funeral,” said Greenwood, with a shrug. “Let the managerworry.”
Coolidge, however, seemed impressed. “I don’t know about that,B-B-Bob,” he said earnestly. “We’d ought to get th-th-things as cheapas p-p-p-possible.”
“You ought, but you don’t,” jeered Jimmy. “You pay any price you’reasked, and then go broke before the end of the season and have to diginto the old Ath. Com. stocking. Say, why don’t you give Emerson achance this year? Let him bid on the stuff. Might as well hand theprofit to one of our own crowd as send it on to some guy you don’t knowin New York. That applies to you, too, Cal.”
Cal pursed his lips. “Why, we usually buy a goodish lot, Jimmy; newuniforms all through, bats, balls, a raft of stuff; I’m afraid Emersoncouldn’t handle our business.”
“Why couldn’t he?” demanded Jimmy. “Of course he could, you chump!Besides, the uniforms would fit a blamed sight better than they didlast year if he took the fellows’ measurements. This thing of sendingthe size of your waist and the number collar you wear and expectingto get a decently fitting suit gets my goat! And as for your bats andall the other lumber you have to have to play your absurd game, why,Emerson could sell you those better and cheaper than the New Yorkfolks, I’ll bet. Besides, you could see what you were getting, whichis something you don’t do now.”
“Well, I’m not throwing off on Emerson,” replied Cal, throwing a kindlyglance toward that youth, “but, unless I’m mistaken, Jimmy, they triedgetting their outfits here in town several years ago and it didn’twork. If I were--”
“Course it didn’t work,” interrupted Jimmy scornfully. “They went toCrocker’s. Every fellow knows that Crocker’s stuff is punk. I mean hissporting goods. Maybe he keeps good nails and--”
“I bought a fielder’s glove there last spring,” began Stanley eagerly.But Cal groaned and Jimmy threatened his roommate with the empty candybox.
“I oughtn’t to have introduced the subject,” continued Jimmy sadly. “Imight have known Stan would try to tell about his old glove--”
“‘Old’ is right,” muttered Stanley gloomily.
“I th-th-think Jimmy’s right,” declared Coolidge. “No reason why wesh-sh-shouldn’t pat-pat-pat--”
“Stop talking Irish, Bob,” said Greenwood. “Are you going to havebasket ball stuff, Emerson?”
“Yes, we’ll have a pretty complete line by the first of December, ora little before. I’d like to have you come in and let me show you,Greenwood. We’re agent here for the Proctor and Farnham Company, andtheir basket balls are certainly corkers.”
“Never heard of them,” said Sid Greenwood unenthusiastically. “We’vealways used--”
“He’s got the other makes, too,” assured Jimmy. “But if those P. and F.folks make as good a basket ball as they do a football, I advise you totie to them. I’ll bet even you could shoot a basket with one of thoseballs, Sid!”
Greenwood grinned. “I’d surely like to see one of them,” he said. “I’lldrop around some time, Emerson, and have a talk. Of course, it’s themanager’s place to do the buying, but I dare say I could get him toconsider your stuff. There’s no special reason, so far as I can see,for sending to New York for things if we can get them just as good intown.”
“Say,” said Stanley, after a long silence, “why not start a HomeConsumption League, if that’s what they’re called? We fellows representfour of the school sports, and here’s Emerson and his pal trying tomake a little coin out of a store in the village that sells just thestuff we buy. Let’s see if we can’t--can’t head some trade his way.What do you say? It took pluck to start that store, I guess, and we alllike pluck. Seems to me he deserves to win out. And he can’t fail to ifhe gets the school trade. Of course, there wouldn’t be any favoritismabout it. He’d have to make as good prices as New York, and sell asgood stuff, but I dare say he could do it, eh, Emerson?”
Thus appealed to, Russell nodded, smiling rather seriously. “I’m quitesure we can supply just as good stuff, including uniforms, as can bebought in New York, and I think we can sell a little cheaper. How muchcheaper I don’t know now, but enough to be worth considering, I’d say.Besides that, there’d be no express to pay, for I’d deliver the goodsright to you.”
“S-s-sounds reasonable,” declared Coolidge.
?
??And,” continued Russell, “I don’t need to tell you fellows that if wehad the job of outfitting some of the teams we’d be certain of makinga go of that business. We don’t ask any favors, or expect any, but Iguess we can prove that we can sell just as high quality goods and justas cheaply as any New York house can. We’d be mighty glad of a chance,anyway.”
“F-f-fair enough,” exclaimed Coolidge. “Far as I’m c-c-concerned--”
“Look here, Jimmy,” said Cal, prodding that youth to attention with hisshoe, “did you get us here to--to work this scheme for Emerson?”
“Get you here!” replied Jimmy indignantly. “Why, you poor fish, whoasked you around, anyway?”
“Well, Bob and Sid, then. I know you didn’t say anything to me aboutit. But I suspect--”
“Go on and suspect,” said Jimmy, virtuously. “I had no idea that youwere coming here this evening. If you don’t believe that--”
“You asked me, though,” said Greenwood, grinning.
“M-m-me, too,” said Coolidge. “Not that I m-m-mind, because--”
“Oh, well, I don’t mind fessing up,” Jimmy broke in, “now that youfellows have taken the bait. I did ask Sid and Bob--Rus, too, of coursewith the notion of getting something started. Your arrival, Cal, was asunforeseen as--er--pleasing. There’s nothing to apologize for. Rus is agood sort and needs to make a success of that store over there. We canhelp him. So let’s do it. Any objections?”
“Of course not,” said Cal, laughing. “I’ll do what I can to steer somebusiness to him. I don’t make any promises, for our management havebeen buying in New York for some time and aren’t likely to make achange. Still, I’ll do my best.”
“We don’t buy much new stuff,” said Sid Greenwood, “but I guess I canpromise Emerson that he shall have what trade there is.”
“Thanks,” murmured Russell. He was finding the situation just a bitembarrassing in spite of the evident good-will of the fellows.
“And that g-g-goes for me, too,” announced Coolidge earnestly. “I’llsee Nagle to-morrow and b-b-bully him into g-g-giving you a ch-ch-ch--”
“Spoken like a man, Bob!” said Jimmy warmly. “Your speech is halting,but the spirit that prompts your words--”
“Go to th-th-thunder!” grunted Coolidge.
“The Home Market Club is organized,” announced Stanley, yawning.
“It was a Home Consumption League awhile back,” objected Greenwood.“But never mind. The motto is: Patronize Home Industries! Emerson, Ihope your place will do well and make you a rich man; as rich as Jimmy!”
“And m-m-more generous,” supplemented Coolidge. “A f-f-fellow whooffers one box of c-c-caramels to a mob like this is a p-p-p--”
“Introducing Mr. Robert Coolidge, gentlemen, with his famous imitationof a flivver working on one cylinder. Gentlemen, Mr. Coolidge!” AndJimmy clapped loudly.
“--p-p-p-piker!” ended Coolidge triumphantly.
Whereupon the assemblage broke up, greatly aided by a tussle betweenJimmy and the hockey captain. Russell left with the others, partingwith Cal at the stairs and with the others outside, since bothGreenwood and Coolidge lived in Haylow. “Glad to have met you,Emerson,” said the basket ball leader affably. “I’m coming into yourplace some day soon and see what you’ve got there. Good night.”
A somewhat unintelligible utterance from Coolidge followed and Russellwent his way. Of course, reason told him, nothing might come of thosefair promises, but he couldn’t help feeling elated and encouraged,and even when, reaching Number 27 Upton, he unfolded the tale of theastounding success of the evening to Stick and was met with gloomypessimism his elation was not much subdued. Stick was like that, hereflected, and climbed into bed to lie awake a long while in thedarkness and vision rosy dreams. His last conscious reflection ere hefinally fell asleep was that Jimmy Austen was certainly a corking chap!