Page:Tongues of Flame (1924).pdf/196

 late summer, happen on a grove of wild plums down in the creek bottom, just as pink and ripe as your best girl's cheeks and just as sweet as sugar?"

"I found a rare patch of wild strawberries once," recalled the young man wonderingly.

"Well, what did you do?" demanded Mr. Boland quickly. "Rush out and tell the whole town about it? Or did you keep that secret rather carefully, and just sneak off down there every day or two yourself, and maybe take one trusted pal with you, and keep those strawberries to yourself all summer?"

Harrington flushed. "Well, I guess I kept it kind of dark," he smiled, "until the pal peached on me."

"Exactly," exulted Mr. Boland; "and then what did you do?"

"I licked him," admitted Henry.

"Well, was that ethical?"

"It was rather—rather human, I suppose," he confessed with a sickly smile.

"Exactly!" gloated Mr. Boland. "It was very human, and business, Henry, is very human. The ethics of business is the ethics of human nature. Business doesn't try to remake humanity—it caters to it. And the more successfully you cater, Henry, the bigger the business you build."

The young man was frankly stopped; he was beginning to surrender. He felt somehow that he had been out-maneuvered rather than out-argued, but here he was with nothing on his tongue.

"You mustn't let your sympathies run away with you, Henry," smiled Mr. Boland expansively. "You've done a big job for us; you found a nice little strawberry patch. Now don't go and tell all the boys in town