t boy; and if zwieback and coffee is good enough
for you and him, Abe, I guess it must be too good for me. But, just the
same, I am going to eat with you, Abe, and we'll let bygones be
bygones."

* * * * *

It was some weeks before Abe could bring himself to recount to Morris
the full details of Sidney Koblin's regeneration, but Morris had learned
the facts long before there appeared in the advertising section of the
_Clothing and Haberdashery Magazine_ the following full-page
advertisement:

KATZBERG, SCHAPP & KOBLIN
Announce the
OPENING OF THEIR NEW OFFICE AND SHOWROOM
In the Chicksaw Building,
West 4th Street, New York
MAKERS OF TROUSERS FOR FINICKY FOLKS

A HEADLINER
THE RAINSHED PANTS
Manufactured from the Famous Rainproof Fabric
"KOBLINETTE"
KEEPS THE LEGS WARM AND DRY
Spring Line Now Ready

It caught Morris's eye one morning in January and he read it over--not
without envy.

"Some people's got all the luck, Abe," he said bitterly.

"I bet yer!" Abe replied, without looking up from his order book, which
was overflowing with requisitions for spring garments. "I bet yer,
Mawruss! You take my Rosie for instance: at her age you got no idee what
a sport she is. Yesterday afternoon she went to a bridge-whist party by
Mrs. Koblin's and she won a sterling solid-silver fern dish. And mind
you, Mawruss, she only just found out how to play the game."

"Who learned her?" Morris asked.

"Mrs. Klinger and Mrs. Elenbogen," Abe replied. "That's two fine women,
Mawruss--particularly Mrs. Elenbogen."

CHAPTER FIVE

A RETURN TO ARCADY

"Yes, Abe," Morris Perlmutter said with bitter emphasis; "Max Kirschner
steals away trade from under our noses while you fool away your time
selling goods to a feller like Sam Green."

"What d'ye mean, fool away my time?" Abe cried indignantly. "Sam Green
is an old customer from ours; and if Henry Feigenbaum gives for a couple
of hundred dollars an order to Max Kirschner he only does it because
he's got pity on the old man. And, anyhow, Mawruss, even if Sam Green is
a little slow, y'understand, sooner or later we get our money--ain't it?

"Sure, I know, Abe; and if them sooner-or-later fellers would pay you
oncet in a while sooner, Abe, it would be all right, y'understand. But
they don't, Abe; they always pay you later."

"Well, Sam has got some pretty stiff competition up there,