the amazing prices, but hesitating like an animal that
fears a tempting bait. The ceaseless activity of the shop reassured
them. One by one the customers arrived. Numbers bred numbers, and in
a week a rush had set in. It became the fashion on the Road to loll in
the shop, carelessly reading the papers for all the world to see, while
your boots were being mended. On Saturday for the first time Jonah
turned a profit, and the battle was won.

Among the later arrivals Jonah noticed with satisfaction some of
Paasch's best customers, and every week, with an apologetic smile,
another handed in his boots for repair. Soon there was little for
Paasch to do but stand at his door, staring with frightened,
short-sighted eyes across the Road at the octopus that was slowly
squeezing the life out of his shop. But he obstinately refused to
lower his prices, though his customers carried the work from his
counter across the street. It seemed to him that the prices were
something fixed by natural laws, like the return of the seasons or the
multiplication table.

"I haf always charge tree an' six for men's, an' it cannot be done
cheaper without taking de bread out of mine mouth," he repeated
obstinately.

In three months Jonah hired another workman, and the landlord came down
to see if the shop could be enlarged to meet Jonah's requirements.
Then a traveller called with an armful of samples. He was travelling
for his brother, he explained, who had a small factory. Jonah looked
longingly, and confessed that he wanted to stock his shop, but had no
money to buy. Then the traveller smiled, and explained to Jonah, alert
and attentive, the credit system by which his firm would deliver fifty
pounds' worth of boots at three months. Jonah was quick to learn, but
cautious.

"D'ye mean yer'd gimme the boots, an' not want the money for three
months?"

The traveller explained that was the usual practice.

"An' can I sell 'em at any price I like?"

The man said he could give them away if he chose. Jonah spent a pound
on brass rods and glass stands, and sold the lot in a month at sixpence
a pair profit. His next order ran into a hundred pounds, and Jonah had
established a cash retail trade. Meanwhile, he worked in a way to
stagger the busy bee. Morning and night the sound of his hammer never
ceased, except the three nights a week he spent at a night school,
where he discovered a remarkable talent for mental arithmetic and
figures.