"And would your parents put up cash security for you?"
"Caution. Don't you understand? Security! There's lots of money handled, and I must know who I'm turning the shop over to. And--do you know Danish?"
Mr. Motto did not always speak grammatically.
"What! Nor Danish, either? But Danish sailors come in here to buy tobacco, and then you need to speak Danish. In a business like this here you must know all languages. That's the main thing--otherwise your cake's dough! I've even had Greeks to come in here."
Walter's heart gave a jump. What heroic deeds might they not do on such occasions!
"Yes, Greeks; but they were drunk and wanted a smoke for nothing. We don't do it that way. The main thing is to look out for the little things. Otherwise your cake's dough, you understand. Yes, in business you must know all languages, otherwise you can't talk to the customers. That's the main thing. But that will be all right if your parents can deposit a caution. Sometimes there are at least ten florins in the cash-drawer, you know; and in business a man must have security. That's the main thing. Otherwise your cake's dough; you can see that for yourself."
"My father is dead," said Walter, as if that fact rendered the cash security unnecessary. He didn't know anything else to say.
"That so? Dead! Yes, it often happens. Dead? All right! But haven't you a mother who can pay for you?"
"Certainly. Ask her right away; for you know in business things are done in a hurry. Said, done! That's the main thing. Otherwise your cake's dough. Here is another shop, and you will have work to do in there, too--if your mother can put up the money. That's the main thing."
Mr. Motto conducted Walter into the circulating library. On three sides of the room were bookcases reaching to the rather low ceiling. For the rest, the place was provided with a ladder to be used in gathering such fruits of literature as hung out of reach. And then there was a big, thick book, in which the diligent and reliable young man of Protestant faith was to enroll the names of the people who paid a dubbeltje a week for a book. It's cheaper now.
"You see," said Mr. Motto, "that is the book, so to say the great book. You understand bookkeeping, don't you?"