tty near throw me out of the store, on account you got so much to
do. At last you say you would take a cup coffee with me at six o'clock,
and I go away with the two-thousand dollar feller, and when we meet
again at six o'clock, he's pretty near crazy to invest his money with
you. Do you get the idee?"

"Might you could even get the feller to pay for the coffee, maybe,"
Zamp suggested, completely carried away by Shimko's enthusiasm.

"If the deal goes through," Shimko declared, in a burst of generosity,
"I would even pay for the coffee myself!"

"And when would you bring the feller here?" Zamp asked.

"I would see him this afternoon yet," Shimko replied, as he opened the
store door, "and I would telephone you sure, by Dachtel's place, at
four o'clock."

Zamp, full of gratitude, shook hands with his landlord.

"If I would got such a head like you got it to think out schemes, Mr.
Shimko," he said fervently, "I would be a millionaire, I bet yer!"

"The thinking out part is nothing," Shimko said, as he turned to leave.
"Any blame fool could think out a scheme, y'understand, but it takes a
pretty bright feller to make it work!"

* * * * *

"If a feller wouldn't be in business for himself," Shimko said to Isaac
Meiselson, as they sat in Wasserbauer's Cafe that afternoon, "he might
just as well never come over from Russland at all."

"I told you before, Mr. Shimko," Meiselson retorted, "I am from Lemberg
_geborn_."

"_Oestreich oder Russland_, what is the difference?" Shimko asked. "If
a feller is working for somebody else, nobody cares who he is or what
he is; while if he's got a business of his own, understand me, everybody
would respect him, even if he would be born in, we would say for example,
China."

"Sure, I know, Mr. Shimko," Meiselson rejoined; "but there is
businesses and businesses, and what for a business is a small retail
clothing store on Canal Street?"

"Small the store may be, I ain't denying it," Shimko said; "but ain't
it better a feller does a big business in a small store as a small
business in a big store?"

"_If_ he does a big business, yes," Meiselson admitted; "but if a
feller does a big business, why should he want to got a partner?"

"Ain't I just telling you he _don't_ want no partner?" Shimko interrupted.
"And as for doing a big business, I bet yer we could drop in on the
feller any time, and we would find the store full of people."

"_Gew