Argosy, Vol. 123, No. 1 — page 50: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

40 had made it clear by his attitude during that month that he never would tackle anything that he did not understand thoroughly; his encounter with Mr. Hope had impressed the importance of that on his mind for all time. So Jimmy was given a desk and a dic- tating machine, and a steady stream of letters, comparatively unimportant letters at first, was diverted in his direction. All that summer Jimmy worked very hard. He entered a night school where three evenings a week he studied with a view to getting ‘dope ” on his big idea. He found this study helpful to him in gen- eral, but not very useful in giving him specific information on how to burn coal underground, especially since he was de- termined not to broach the subject directly to any one. When he had been with the company about a week, Jimmy approached Mr. Hope in the office and thanked him for the job. “All right,” said the secretary, and smiled. “ I’m glad you like it.” Jimmy felt then that his first impression of Mr. Hope had been quite a wrong one. “I do,” he answered earnestly. “‘ Thank you very much—did you see Mr. Went- worth yet about that—that idea of mine?”’ Mr. Hope looked him steadily in the eyes. “Yes. He said to tell you he’s not interested. Sorry.” 7 _ This was hardly a blow to Jimmy, for he had expected as much. But next time he broached the subject—it would be dif- ferent, then! ‘Take my advice, young man,” the sec- retary went on, “ get that foolish stuff out of your head. Stick to your job—you’ll get along—you look as though you had brains.” “Thanks,” said Jimmy. He tried to avoid sarcasm. ‘I will.” Mr. Hope nodded and left him. That summer was a hard one for Jimmy. Even though he had an all-absorbing idea to fill his thoughts, the utter loneliness of his life was hard to bear. He worked all day at the office. Three evenings a week he spent at the night school; and the others he wandered aimlessly about, going to the movies often and to a play occasionally, and always alone. THE ARGOSY. At the office Jimmy made many business friends. Every one liked him; his ready smile and his ingenuous manner made friends easily. Jimmy’s work took him constantly into many different departments of the organization, and in each of them he soon found opportunity to learn what there was to know about that particular branch of the work. His system, as he developed it in his mind, was not only to learn about his own job, but about the jobs of as many others as he possibly could. It wasn’t so very hard to do either, as he soon found out. There was no particu- lar mystery about business, as he had al- ways supposed, and among the clerks and under officials with whom he was working during this period, the competition, so far as brains was concerned, was not alarming. Jimmy was not the least inclined to be conceited, but there were at least twenty young men in the company that he told himself he had “skinned to death for brains.” It was just after his second visit home, and when he had been with the Wentworth Company about three months, that he first made friends with George Cooper outside of the office. The office manager was a lanky chap of thirty-one. He was smooth-shaven, with big, rough-hewn features; piercing blue eyes, and sparse, sandy hair. His voice had a deep, booming quality, and, around the office, a vigorous note of authority that commanded respect. But at the theater, where he and Jimmy went that first-evening, he was very dif- ferent—a modest, unassuming, laughing boy, years younger than he appeared dur- ing business hours. The change surprised Jimmy tremendously. He immediately lost the awe he had always unconsciously felt for his business superior, without los- ing any of the respect or admiration; and in consequence felt his own importance and confidence in himself enhanced. This friendship of Jimmy and George Cooper grew rapidly; until finally, one evening in September, Jimmy felt he could no longer keep his great secret to himself. So he told his friend all about it, and just what Mr. Hope had said. cComicloook< C©