Mr. Pip Sells Nails

One day Fritz stopped in at Pip's lumber yard to get an odd and ehd assortmLnt of nails. Twenty-one pounds all told. Fritz paid for only 21 pounds, but he actually got 24 pounds. The extra w6ight might have been good advertising-only Fritz never knew about getting that much over. He thought he perhaps did get just a little over weight, but did not know it was 14 per cent.

Pip has a first rate regulation counter scale that sets on one end of the regulation hail counter, with regulation hen's nest bins. The nails are kept in regulation order, 3-penny first, then 4d,, 6d,8d, on up to 20d, down at the far end of the line. Fritz' list called for 1 lb. shingle nails. Mr. Pip raked approximately a pound of shingle nails into the blS scoop and set them on the scales. The weight was a trifle shy lnd he added a small handful. The beam clicked up against the guard. Pip picked up some to test the errqr, but it was suih a small amount-not more than a quarter of scoop that will set on any flat surface and from which smali quantities can be reidily poured into small llgtr Jy* the ordinary family scale of 25-pound capacity. Wilh +i: size scoop -Pep cin tell almost to a nail when it is full enough, ind when placed on the scale it will show at a glan& what is onef or lacking. At any rate there is lots iiss trouble and no embarrassmeht whatever in merely picking up a handful and dropping enough to adjust the weight as shown by the dial, putting the surplus back rnto bln where they belong to Mr. PeP.

Mr. Pep does not do a lot of walking back and forth-when selling a Tew pounds of nails or ceme'nt or yellow ochre or any olher commodity, but slides his little household scale aldng down the counter or carries it into the back room if ,receir"ty, placing it right over the bin he is servin$ out-of. When hi einptieJthe contents it is done with ease and dispatch and n6 o'tter running nor missing the bag. And he