This announcement appeared greatly to relieve the old man. "Oh, you'll
succeed in life, my dear young man; but really you ought to come into
the store with us. It would do your father so much good; he would feel
that he has a sure hold on the future, you understand. You don't know
what a comfort Brooks is to me. Why, if my daughter had married a man
in any other line, I--well, it would have been a great disappointment.
Are you going back to work now?"

"No; to the Press Club."

"Why don't you come to see us oftener?"

"Oh, I'm there often enough, I should think--two or three times a
week."

"Yes, of course, but we are all so anxious that you should become
interested in our work. Don't discourage yourself with the belief that
a man brought up in the South is not a good business man. I am from
the South, my dear Mr. Witherspoon."

They had reached the sidewalk, and the roar from the street impelled
the old man to force his squeaky voice into a split shout.

"Southern man"--He was bumped off by the passing throng, but he got
back again and shouted: "Southern man has just as good commercial
ability as anybody. Well, I must leave you here."

CHAPTER XVI.

AN AROUSER OF THE SLEEPY.

In the Press Club Henry found Mr. Flummers haranguing a party of men
who sat about the round table. He stood that he might have room in
which to scallop his gestures, and he had reached a climax just as
Henry joined the circle. He waited until all interruptions had ceased
and then continued: "Milwaukee was asleep, and I was sent up there to
arouse it. But I shook it too hard; I hadn't correctly measured my own
strength. The old-timers said, 'Let us doze,' but I commanded, 'Wake
up here now, and get a move on you,' and they had to wake up. But they
formulated a conspiracy against me, and I was removed."

"How were you removed, Mr. Flummers?" McGlenn asked.

"Oh, a petition, signed by a thousand sleepy citizens, was sent down
here to my managing editor, and I was requested to come away. Thus was
my Milwaukee career ended, but it ended in a blaze that dazzled the
eyes of the old-timers." He cut a scallop. "But papa was not long
idle. The solid South wanted him. They knew that papa was the man to
quiet a disturbance or compel a drowsy municipality to get up and rub
its eyes. Well, I went to Memphis. What was the cause of the great
excitement that followed?" He tapped his forehead. "Papa's nut. But
again had he underestimated