The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-08-19

burn would turn around to see IT you wasn't standing right there. Will you pay $115 P
 ..I, might if you dickered with me hard enough,~ laughed Waliingford.
 .Youn get some of the hardest dick ering that was ever done to you, promised SpraddIes, reaching an awk- ward arm for his coat. "I'm going out and buy stock can get to where 1t is quicker than you can"
 ssI guess so,'' sighed Wallingford, with the air Of an abused person. ssBut promise me one thing whether you obtain any stock or not report to me at the hotel this evening, won't you7''
 ''All right, agreed Spraddles and hiphopped out of the room in earnest haste without waiting for Wailingford to accompany him
 Perfectly contented, WaI1fngford re turned to his hotel and waited. Sprad- dies. as he had expected. hunted him up at 3 o'clock instead of half past g.
 You owe me wages, anyhow, he announced, with his oddly shaped grin. s4Petey Wilks beat me to it, and even he didn't get any. You'd think Bess- mer stock was diamonds, and old Eli Spooger wanted to have me ostracnted because only offered him $105-"
 Wailfngford felt sweet peace surg ing through him. Eli Spooger was planted and ripe. He hurried away from that topic.
 .sDid you try buying any at the fac tory?' he asked, eager for news of Blackie. &
 spraddles exhibited such alarming manifestations of amusement that Walingford was on the point of call ing doctor
 ssBessmer's, got new partner" the Billiken said when the worst of the symptoms had passed He's long skinny fellow and was playing the sailors hoe down on a horn like big gourd pipe when I was down there tfis noon, and Sandy McClintoek was batting a big hole in the cinders with both feet
 ssBessmers new partner must be ec- centric, wondered Wailingford, real iy anxious to know the prevailing opinion.
 s.I thought he was a fool, but hap pened to say so to Tommy Grail, and nearly got licking. The men down there are crazy about him. They say he's the busiest kidder in the United States. but there with the large brain or the straight arm jab or any other game.
 Wallingford chnckled to himself as he pictured B1ackie in his earnest spe- ciaity Of having a good. time wherever be happened to be. When does the factory intend to start work again i's be inquired, sympa thizing with the proprietor.
 .sBessmer says they never lose g stroke He says they laugh more and work harder than any set of men he ever saw think I'll get job down there myself.
 How about the stock ?n asked Wal 1ingford, suddenly remembering that he had serious business on hand.
 .sThere isn't any, declared Spraddies. seWhen I asked Mr. Daw about it he said that the malleable casting busi- ness was his regular ambition He's learning to make molds.a
 Eli Spooger looked over his glasses at WaIlingford with a benevoIent smile and rubbed his bony old knees very, very gently. Yes, T am MT. Spoo- ger,n he acknowledged to Wa1Ifngfordis query, and his voice was full of human Kindness. And you are Mr- Walling- ford, am sure
 Wailingford smiled with fully as much benevolence as MT. Spooger had exhibited ..I seem to have been de scrfbed accurately = he returned and ceased to study MT. Epooger with any degree of curiosity. On the door of MT Spooger's plain but clean little of flee in neat script was the golden text +En Spooger. first mortgages- On the walls were bright colored pictures of little children playing with lambs and happy fathers returning from honest toll to vine clad cottages and sweet faced grandparents playing horsy for the babies. and Wallin gford knew without looking twice that a benevo- lent old man who could smile as sweet ly as Eli Spooger would foreclose a widows mortgage on a snowy night i and prove it to be an act of mercy.
 .sCerfainly, agreed MT Spooger. eAny gentleman endeavoring to buy control in a local concern for the bene- fit of trust is sure to be much dis cussed.o
 .sIts the sad truth" admitted Wal nngford, very yisibly annoyed by the fact sThe public works double swivel spotlight on any one connected with a big concern such as I am sup posed to represent. Personally. I shrink from publicity, but since I can't. what do you want for the Bessmer stock ?.'
 eve are coming on,'' approved MT. Spooger, much gratified. He had been so eager as to be almost impatient. CT have ten shares of my own and twenty-five shares that yesterday ac- cepted from clients of mine to apply l on mortgage payments that were in arrears ?
 .sThfrty-five shares" figured WaIIing- ford in a dfsanDoifted tone ssIs that al17'
 l tssThat is all for the present., . regret fully admitted MT. Spooger. The price will be $125."
 CHAPTER xxIx.
 The Gentle Art of Being Done.