"'Well,' said he, after I'd figured out and shown him the difference
between 50 off straight and 40-10-5, 'This dollar doesn't belong to
me. Come on, let's spend it.'"

"That's pretty good," chimed in the shoe man, who was sitting on a
camp stool. The smoking compartment was full. "But it was dangerous
play, don't you think? Suppose he'd done that figuring before you'd
got around and shown him voluntarily that you skinned him and why. I
know one of my customers, at any rate, who would have turned you down
for good on this sort of a deal. He is a fair, square, frank man--most
merchants, I find, are that way anyhow."

"Yes; you're right," said John.

"I got at the man I speak of this way," said the shoe man. "I had
called on him many times. He was such a thoroughbred gentleman and
treated me so courteously that I could never press matters upon him.
There are merchants, you know, of this kind. I'd really rather have a
man spar me with bare 'knucks' than with eight-ounce pillows. This
gives you a better chance to land a knock-out blow. But there is a way
of getting at every merchant in the world. The thing to do is to
_find the way_.

"As I stood talking to this gentleman--it was out in Seattle--in came
a Salvation Army girl selling 'The War Cry.' When she came around
where I was, my merchant friend gave her a quarter for one, and told
her to keep the change. Do you know, I sized him up from that. It
showed me just as plain as day that he was kind hearted and it struck
me, quick as a flash, that my play was generosity. People somehow who
are free at heart admire this trait in others. When a man has once