The telegraph operator reminded him that the daily market letter must be got out and sent to all customers and prospective customers. John decided that it was best to start this letter at once; his ignorance of what a market letter should contain was colossal and it would take all his spare time to write it.
“Make it optimistical,” was the only hint the operator offered.
He hoped for help from Miss Davenport, but that good-looking young lady was proof of the saying, “You can’t have everything.”
“Did Mr. Howard ever dictate one to you?” John asked her.
“Yes, every day since I’ve been here, but that’s only a week.”
“How does he start them?”
“I forget.”
It never occurred to John that there must be dozens or hundreds of old ones around the office. He must work out one of his own.
“Well,” he said, “get me a paper with the market reports and we’ll see what we can do.”
She brought him the paper and sat down at the desk opposite him ready to take dictation.
“Here we go,” he said. “To customers of Beasley and Comerford: We do not like to advise you to buy stocks that are not likely to go higher or at least not go lower—”
The telephone rang. It was Wallie Blair asking him to come to the lake Saturday afternoon and stay over Sunday. He said he couldn’t leave his mother alone.
“Charlotte’s going to stay with her.”
“Well, let me think it over.”
“No. You’ve got to say yes right now. You’ve got no excuse in the world. I’m in the Maynard cottage and anybody can tell you where it is. I’ll expect you Saturday afternoon.”
Perhaps if it hadn’t been for the market letter, John would have argued. As it was he said all right, so he could go on with his work.
“All right, Miss Davenport. What have we said?”
“ ‘We do not like to advise you to buy stocks that are not likely to go higher or at least not go lower.’ ”
“But we cannot help feeling a feeling of optimism.”
“How do you spell that last word?”
“O-p-t-i-m-i-s-m. As the summer promises to be hot, we might recommend the purchase of American Ice preferred; still, one cannot always depend on the weather predictions. General Motors is another good stock.” The telephone rang. It was J. M. McInerny and he wanted to place an order for two hundred shares of Murray Corporation at the market. John wrote down the order, repeated it aloud as it was given to him so Miss Davenport could get it, too. She took the slip to the telegraph operator and returned for more dictation. But the telephone was ringing again.
“This is Irene Comerford.”
“Yes,” in a voice that shook a little.
“I just wanted to speak to the telephone girl, but she gave me you. Aren’t you Mr. Knowles?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I expected to drop in the office today and my father was going to send me a telegram there. If one comes, will you mail it to me at the lake? In care of Mrs. Charles Parrish. I’ll be there over the weekend.”
“I’ll attend to it, Miss Comerford.”
“Thanks. Goodbye.”
He wrote down Mrs. Charles Parrish’s name and then looked out the window. Miss Davenport waited five minutes before she asked whether the market letter was all done.
“No. I was figuring what to put in next.” The telegraph operator came in and suggested that as business seemed to be slow, the telephone operator might call him instead of John to take the orders and he would keep a record of them and give it to John later.
“I’ll just take this one,” said John as the telephone rang again. “Then you can handle them the rest of the day.”
“K.O.,” said the operator.
A man named Francis Elliott wanted six hundred shares of American Linseed. John and Miss Davenport wrote it down. Then John looked at the paper to be sure there was such a stock.
“Great heavens!” he exclaimed. “There are two of them, common and preferred. I’m pretty sure he said common. No, I’m sure he said preferred.”
“Why not call back and ask him?”
“That would be silly, because I’m positive he said preferred.”
Miss Davenport took the order out to the operator and came back to John’s desk.
“Where were we?”
“ ‘General Motors is another good stock,’ ” read Miss Davenport.
“Oh, yes. Well, U.S. Steel is always a good buy. So are the railroads, as people do a great deal of traveling these days especially during the summer. People go south in the winter and north in the summer, so at this time of year the stocks of the northbound railroads would be the best ones to buy. Automobile stocks are also pretty good stocks to buy at this time of year as many of the tourists and vacationists travel by motor rather than by rail. They prefer it. Railroad travel is perhaps safer, but that does not affect the value of the stocks.”
He ran on in this way for nearly a thousand words, four times as many as the letter usually contained. He made a tremendous effort to talk sensibly to customers and was immensely relieved when four o’clock struck.
On the way home he worried a little about that American Linseed order, but decided that a man who would order as many as six hundred shares would certainly deal in preferred stock instead of common.
He told Charlotte about his invitation from her friend Wallie Blair. It was no news to her. He didn’t want to go, but she said he must or Wallie would feel hurt.
Mr. Beasley was back next morning, which was Friday, and congratulated John on his smooth work in a pinch. Luckily, he did not see the market letter and more luckily he was shut up in his office when Francis Elliott came in to how his Linseed was going. The telegraph operator told John who
