QUICK WIT WINS.

Bruce Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 1761, 25 June 1886, Page 6

QUICK WIT WINS.

Tears ago, into a wholesale grocery store in Boston walked a tall muscular looking man, evidently a fresh comer from some backwoods town in Maine or New Hampshire. Accosting the first person he met, who happened to be the merchant himself, he said — "You don't want to hire a man in your store do you?" " Well." said the merchant. "I don't know ; what can you do 1" "Do? 1 ' said the man ; "rather guess I can turn my hand to almost anything. What do you want done f "Well if I was to hire a man, it would be one who could lift well — a strong, wiry fellow ; one, for instance, that could shoulder a sack of coffee like that yonder, and carry it across the floor and never lay it down." " There, now, capting," said the countryman, " that's just me. I can lift anything I hitch to ; you can't suit me better. What will you give a man that will suit you V " I'll tell you," said the merchant ; "if you will shoulder that sack of coffee, and carry it across the store twee and never lay it down, I will hire you a year at 100 dollars per month." "Done," said the stranger; and by this time every clerk in the store had gathered around, waiting to join in the laugh against the man, who, walking up to the sack, threw it across his shoulder with perfect ease, though extremely heavy, and, walking with it twice across the store, went quietly to a large hook which was fastened to the wall, and, hanging it up, turned to the merchant and said — " There now, it may bang there till doomsday ; I shall never lay it down. What shall I go about, mister ? Just give me plenty to do and 100 dollars a month and it's all right." The clerks broke into a laugh, and the merchant, discomfited, yet satisfied, kept his word, and to-day the green countryman is senior partner in the firm, and is worth a million of dollars.