Excerpt from Philistine Reprints, Being Seven Essays As long as a country store is small, and is run by a man of average ability who can carry in his head a schedule of what he has in stock, the place escapes disaster. The owner buys and he sells; he usually remembers about what a thing costs, and he sells at a profit. In small stores, out West, if a patron was trusted, we used to chalk the item down on the stovepipe. The amount of money in the cash drawer at night represented the cash sales of the day. If somebody pinched a few dollars, or lifted a pair of boots, we did n't know it unless we caught the miscreant in the act. In a country store an inventory is taken once a year. At the end of the second year stock is found on hand that was on hand a year before. No special effort is made to work it off - the hope and expectation is that it will eventually be called for. The h business increases - diligence and hard work have their reward. A clerk is employed besides the usual boy. Thingsvare prosperous. Another clerk is hired. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.