Ain't it the truth? I jollied him just like I did Sam
Bloom, of Ganz & Pick, Novelties, an hour before. He
laughed just where Sam did. And they both handed me a line
of talk about my hair and eyes, only Sam said I was a doll,
and this Schabelitz, or whatever his name is, said I was as
alluring as a Lorelei. I guess he thought he had me there,
but I didn't go through the seventh reader for nothing. `If
you think I'm flattered,' I said to him, `you're mistaken.
She was the mess who used to sit out on a rock with her back
hair down, combing away and singing like mad, and keeping an
eye out for sailors up and down the river. If I had to work
that hard to get some attention,' I said, `I'd give up the
struggle, and settle down with a cat and a teakettle.'
At that he just threw back his head and roared. And when
Mrs. Brandeis came up he said something about the wit of
these American women. `Work is a great sharpener of wit--
and wits,' Mrs. Brandeis said to him. `Pearl, did Aloysius
send Eddie out with that boiler, special?' And she didn't
pay any more attention to him, or make any more fuss over
him, than she would to a traveler with a line of samples she
wasn't interested in. I guess that's why he had such a good
time."

Sadie was right. That was the reason. Fanny, coming into
the store half an hour later, saw this man who had swayed
thousands with his music, down on his hands and knees in the
toy section at the rear of Brandeis' Bazaar. He and Sadie
and Aloysius were winding up toy bears, and clowns, and
engines, and carriages, and sending them madly racing across
the floor. Sometimes their careening career was threatened