Page:The lady or the tiger and other stories, Stockton (Scribner's 1897 ed).djvu/161

Rh. "I have a great love for music, and wish to thoroughly understand it; but my business is quite different. I am a night druggist, and that is the reason I have so much leisure for reading."

"A night druggist? " repeated Mr. Tolman, inquiringly.

"Yes, sir," said the other. "I am in a large downtown drug-store, which is kept open all night, and I go on duty after the day-clerks leave."

"And does that give you more leisure?" asked Mr. Tolman.

"It seems to," answered Glascow. "I sleep until about noon, and then I have the rest of the day, until seven o'clock, to myself. I think that people who work at night can make a more satisfactory use of their own time than those who work in the daytime. In the summer I can take a trip on the river, or go somewhere out of town, every day, if I like."

"Daylight is more available for many things, that is true," said Mr. Tolman. "But is it not dreadfully lonely sitting in a drug-store all night? There can't be many people to come to buy medicine at night. I thought there was generally a night-bell to drug-stores, by which a clerk could be awakened if any body wanted any thing."

"It's not very lonely in our store at night," said Glascow. "In fact, it's often more lively then than in the daytime. You see, we are right down among the newspaper offices, and there's always somebody coming in for soda-water, or cigars, or something or other. The store is a bright warm place for the night editors