gh which merged into an agonized
groan.

"Oo-ee!" he exclaimed; "that lumbago still gets me in the back."

"You see, Abe," Morris commented maliciously, "you ain't so young
yourself. From forty-eight to sixty ain't a thousand years neither,
Abe."

Abe scowled and then his face lightened up in the conception of a happy
idea.

"I give you right about that, Mawruss," he said: "but with me it's
different, Mawruss. If I get so I couldn't go out on the road,
y'understand, we could always hire some one to go for us."

"Could we?" Morris grumbled.

"Sure," Abe went on; "and even to-day yet, while I am making Denver and
the coast towns, it wouldn't harm us we should get a feller which is
acquainted with the trade up the state and in Pennsylvania and Ohio."

"Wouldn't it?" Morris croaked.

"We are losing every day business, Mawruss, because I got such a big
territory to cover," Abe said. "A feller in a small town wants his fall
goods early just so much as one of them big concerns in Denver _oder_
Seattle; and if I don't show up in time they place their orders with
some one else. Whereas, Mawruss, if we would wait a couple of weeks, we
would say for instance, until he finds out that every one ain't paying
fancy salaries like Klinger & Klein, y'understand, for a couple thousand
dollars a year, Mawruss, we could get Max Kirschner and----"

"Max Kirschner?" Morris yelled. "What d'ye mean, Max Kirschner?"

"Yes, Mawruss," Abe said, "we could get Max Kirschner; and, even if he
would be a little _kranklich_ oncet in a while, sometimes maybe he would
be worth to us two thousand a year anyhow."

"Two thousand a year!" Morris bellowed. "What the devil you are talking
nonsense, Abe? We should give two thousand a year to a cripple like
Kirschner! What do you think you are running here anyhow--a
cloak-and-suit business or a home for the aged? If you want to give to
charity do it with your money, not mine."

For the remainder of the forenoon Morris Perlmutter moved about the
showroom with his face distorted in so gloomy a scowl that to Abe it
seemed as though a fog enveloped his partner, through which there
darted, like flashes of heat lightning, exclamations of "_Schnorrer!_
Cripple! With my money yet!" and "Crust that feller got it!" At length
he put on his hat and went out to lunch, while Abe gazed after him in
mute disgust.

"When some people talks charity," he grumbled, "you got to reckon a
hundred per cent. discount for