Twenty minutes later Russell departed for Borden Hall and Mr. Kincaid, and, left to himself, Jimmy settled down on his spine and picked out in the catalogue a great many articles that he meant some day to acquire, a favorite diversion of his in moments of leisure at the store. He knew that catalogue quite thoroughly now, from end to end, but he still found it interesting. He had spent something over a hundred dollars, in imagination, by the time Russell was back, looking very pleased and satisfied.
“Find him?” asked Jimmy, laying the catalogue down.
Russell nodded. “I guess we get the order, too, Jimmy. He didn’t say so. Said he would have to consider the prices a bit. But he was awfully nice and said we deserved encouragement and--and all that.” Russell thrust his hands in his pockets and beamed down on Jimmy. “There’s more than forty dollars of clear profit in that bill of goods!”
“Great! Say, do I get a raise of salary?”
“Yes, if we make that sale you get fifteen cents a week.”
“Gosh!” Jimmy was plainly awed. “What’ll I ever do with it?”
They talked over the afternoon’s events then. “You put up a corking game, Rus,” declared the visitor. “I was watching you and Butler, and I’ll say that Butler had nothing on you, son. Say, you’re playing lots better football than you did last year, aren’t you?”
Russell reflected. “Yes, I think I am,” he answered. “Steve Gaston’s a crackajack coach, Jimmy. He has a way of showing you how to do things that--oh, I don’t know, but he just says a couple of words and makes a motion and--and you get him! Yes, I really do think I’ve improved. Fact is, last year there didn’t seem to be any great whatyoucallit--incentive to do very much. You know that yourself. We just went over and let the first team whale us five days a week and that’s all there was to it. This year it’s lots different. We--”
“I’ll say so! This year you just go over and whale the first! Well, I’ll acknowledge that you guys have quite a team there. I’ll hand it to you. Also to Steve. He’s a regular, raging, rampageous tiger these days. Seems as if he’d like to get us all laid up in the hospital and then die happy.”
“Steve says the harder we use you fellows the harder you’ll use Kenly,” said Russell, grinning.