re in that? He's a decent,
respectable young feller by the name Tuchman, what works as bookkeeper
by the Kosciusko Bank. They give him a two weeks' vacation and he comes
to work by us, Abe."

"That's a fine way to spend a vacation, Mawruss," Abe commented. "Why
don't he go up to Tannersville or so?"

"Because he's got to help his father out nights in his cigar store what
he keeps it on Avenue B," Morris answered. "His father is Max Tuchman's
brother. You know Max Tuchman, drummer for Lapidus & Elenbogen?"

"Sure I know him--a loud-mouth feller, Mawruss; got a whole lot to say
for himself. A sport and a gambler, too," Abe said. "He'd sooner play
auction pinochle than eat, Mawruss. I bet you he turns in an expense
account like he was on a honeymoon every trip. The last time I seen this
here Max Tuchman was up in Duluth. He was riding in a buggy with the
lady buyer from Moe Gerschel's cloak department."

"Well, I suppose he sold her a big bill of goods, too, Abe, ain't it?"
Morris rejoined. "He's an up-to-date feller, Abe. If anybody wants to
sell goods to lady buyers they got to be up-to-date, ain't it? And so
far what I hear it nobody told it me you made such a big success with
lady buyers, neither, Abe."

Abe shrugged his shoulders.

"That ain't here nor there, Mawruss," he grunted. "The thing is this:
if this young feller by the name of Tuchman does Miss Cohen's work as
good as Miss Cohen does it I'm satisfied."

There was no need for apprehension on that score, however, for when the
substitute bookkeeper arrived he proved to be an accurate and
industrious young fellow, and despite Miss Cohen's absence the work of
Potash & Perlmutter's office proceeded with orderly dispatch.

"That's a fine young feller, Mawruss," Abe commented as he and his
partner sat in the firm's show-room on the second day of Miss Cohen's
vacation.

"Who's this you're talking about?" Morris asked.

"This here bookkeeper," Abe replied. "What's his first name, now,
Mawruss?"

"Ralph," Morris said.

"Ralph!" Abe cried. "That's a name I couldn't remember it in a million
years, Mawruss."

"Why not, Abe?" Morris replied. "Ralph ain't no harder than Moe or Jake,
Abe. For my part, I ain't got no trouble in remembering that name; and
anyhow, Abe, why should an up-to-date family like the Tuchmans give
their boys such back-number names like Jake or Moe?"

"Jacob and Moses was decent, respectable people in the old country,
Mawruss," Abe cor