2
CHICKENS COMING HOME TO ROOST
IX. SKINNER FISHES WITH A DIPLOMATIC HOOK
X. SKINNER LANDS A CURMUDGEON
XI. THE OSTRICH FEATHER
ILLUSTRATIONS
"I WON'T TAKE YOUR ORDER UNLESS YOU THROW IN THAT TROUT DINNER" . . . . . . Frontispiece
"IT'S COME AT LAST! SKINNER'S ASKED FOR A RAISE"
"THE GENERAL EFFECT DOESN'T SEEM RIGHT!"
"THERE," SHE CRIED, "YOU CAN CREDIT
YOUR DRESS-SUIT ACCOUNT WITH THAT!"
"MRS. SKINNER, DAUGHTER OF THE LATE ARCHIBALD RUTHERFORD, OF HASTINGS-ON-THE-HUDSON, ACCOMPANIES HER HUSBAND"
"WHY CAN'T I GO WITH THOSE PEOPLE," SHE SNIFFLED
From Drawings by F. Vaux Wilson
CHAPTER I
SKINNER ASKS FOR A RAISE
Skinner had inhabited the ironbound enclosure labeled "CASHIER" at McLaughlin & Perkins, Inc., so long, that the messenger boys had dubbed him the "cage man." To them he had become something of a bluff. Skinner's pet abomination was cigarettes, and whenever one of these miniatures in uniform chanced to offend that way, he would turn and frown down upon the culprit. The first time he did this to Mickey, the "littlest" messenger boy of the district, who was burning the stub of a cigarette, Mickey dropped the thing in awe.
But Jimmie of the Postal said, "Don't be scared of him! He's locked up in his cage. He can't get at you!"
So the sobriquet "cage man" was evolved from this chance remark, and the wit of the thing had spread until everybody had come to think of Skinner as the "cage man"--a fact which did not add greatly to his dignity.
But on this particular morning the "cage man" was even more harmless than usual. There was n't a frown in him. He sat at his tall desk and stared abstractedly at the open pages of his cash-book. He did n't see the figures on the white page, and he paid no more heed to the messenger boys, whose presence he was made