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"Oh, Frank, I'm sure something is wrong!" cried Richard, when the boy was gone. "It looks so," replied the stock-clerk. "Never mind. Remember you are in the right, and keep a stiff upper lip." Much troubled in mind, Richard slowly descended the steps, and entered Mr. Mann's office. As before the gentleman was alone.
"Do what?" asked Richard. "Go down and have a talk with him. He's in the wrong, and ought to be told so." "No, no, don't go down!" cried Richard in alarm. "I could plainly see that he was in a bad temper, and you'll only get yourself into trouble." "I don't care, it's " began the stock-clerk with flashing eyes, that showed up well the force of character within. "No, no!" repeated Richard.
Our house had always made a specialty of filling orders complete, and I was surprised at what I had just heard. I remarked this, and that I was the stock-clerk, and that I feared he was visiting on our heads the sins of others. "No, I am not," said he. "In the last bill we sent you there were two items left out;" and he found the bill and showed me our own memorandum regarding the items.
"He had very little to say. He said I knew quite as well as he did why I was discharged." "But didn't he give you a chance to explain?" "No; he wouldn't let me say a word. I tried to, but he shut me right up." "It's a shame," exclaimed the stock-clerk, indignantly. "I never thought Mr. Mann could be so unfair." He hesitated a moment. "I'll do it; yes, I will," he went on, half to himself.
A warm friendship sprang up between Frank Massanet and Richard a friendship that was destined to bear important results. The stock-clerk, though Richard's superior in the business, acted more like a chum, and in the evenings the two, accompanied by Mattie Massanet, walked, talked, played games, or listened to Mrs. Massanet's music on the flutina, and were all but inseparable.
"I guess I won't change, at least for the present," replied the boy. When he returned to the stock-room he related to Frank what Norris had said about keeping too quiet. "I don't agree with him," said the stock-clerk. "I don't know what he means by having lots of sport and all that, but I never believed in being out late nights. It isn't right, and besides it doesn't pay.
"I hope you haven't been discharged." "No, it's not as bad as that, but I I don't know what to make of it, and that's a fact." The stock-clerk listened carefully to the story Richard had to tell. "Depend upon it there is something in the wind. You had better watch Norris; he may be getting you into trouble." "I half wish I had told the firm of Norris's actions," said Richard.
Talking did not interfere with the progress of either of the workers, and attracted by Frank Massanet's cordial manner, Richard gradually revealed to the stock-clerk why he had come to the city, and what his ambitions were. In return Frank related much concerning himself. His father, who had been a Frenchman, was dead, and his mother, sister Martha and himself kept house up-town on the east side.
In a moment Richard was on his way back to the house. He found Frank just finishing breakfast. "Why, what's up?" asked the stock-clerk. "What brings you back?" "Nothing only I've got a situation for you," replied Richard as coolly as he could, although he could not suppress a hearty smile. "A situation for me!" ejaculated Frank, in undisguised wonder. "Surely you don't mean it!" "Don't I though?
Left alone with Frank Massanet it did not take long for Richard to become well acquainted with the stock-clerk, who gave him a few brief directions and then set him to work filling up broken sets of books, dusting them, and placing them in a case for shipment. "We must get this whole batch away by next Tuesday," said Massanet.
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