DOING HIS BEST by Sydney Dare

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 25, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 43.

DOING HIS BEST.

By Sydney Dare

"YES, dear, if you can only keep that situation we shall get along very well."

"Keep it! I must keep it." Robert spoke with determination. "It will take me a long while, mother, to forget the walks I have taken up and down these streets looking for something to do. If my very best trying will keep it, you may be sure that there I will stick."

"Your best trying will include a great deal when others have a right to your time and efforts."

"Of course, mother, I shall keep honestly in view the interest of my employer."

Robert had found a situation at the muslin counter of a large dry-goods house. It took him some little time to acquaint himself with the qualities of goods which he sometimes thought were more in the line of women's work. But he remembered that a person who can not do what he likes must do what he can. Unable through force of circumstances to choose his employment, he wisely resolved to do his very best with what came to his hand. As to what that best might be, he soon found that his opinion slightly differed from that of his employer.

"You needn't be so particular in measuring the goods for a customer," said Mr. Merrill one day. "All these are assumed to be a yard wide."

"But she asked me the width," replied Robert.

"Then you should have simply said that they are a yard-wide goods."

"But some of them fall a little short, sir."

"What is that to you?" Mr. Merrill spoke with a little impatience. "It is your place to sell goods, not to be too particular about the width of them. There isn't one customer in a hundred that will go home and measure her goods if she thinks that in a general way the width is all right."

"In a general way." Robert knew what was meant, for he had heard some of the ways by which some of the clerks, without telling an exact falsehood, clearly avoided telling the exact truth. "I don't feel at all sure I've got a place," Robert concluded in great discouragement after, during the first few weeks, he had several times given offense to his employer, by acting firmly upon his own sense of what alone is up to the very letter and spirit of fair and honest dealing. The time seemed to have come to him, which comes to so many, in which a choice must be made between worldly gain and the loyal standing by the fixed principles of right and wrong in which he had been trained.

"It seems to me this piece of goods is not the same make as the last I bought of you."

The question was asked by a lady who frequently came to Robert's counter, and always made liberal purchases, without haggling over prices, or giving unreasonable trouble.

"No, ma'am, it is not," said Robert.

"Have you any more of the same?"

"No, we have sold it out."

"Do you think this," pointing to a piece she had been examining, "is as good? It doesn't seem so to me, but if you will assure me that it is I will take it."

Robert caught sight of his employer within easy hearing distance. Mr. Merrill had a way, a good way it is too, of keeping his own eye over his own interests, and for one moment the boy hesitated. Quickly to his mind came the thought of going home to tell his mother that he had lost his situation, for which he had searched and waited so long. Nothing else in the place, he felt sure, was open to him. The leaving Mr. Merrill's would mean leaving his home and his widowed mother to find employment elsewhere. By a few smooth words and a trifling evasion he could easily lead Mrs. Denby to believe he thought what he did not think. That was one side of it.

But there was a better, nobler side, and Robert will never cease to be thankful for the grace granted him in a moment of sore temptation.

"No, ma'am," he quietly answered, "I do not think the quality quite up to what you bought last."

"And yet it is the same price?"

"Yes. The other was a lot of goods Mr. Merrill happened on at a forced sale, and he was able to put them low. I really think, however, that this is about as good as you can get for the money."

"I will look a little further," she said, and went out. Robert, without looking, had felt the angry eyes of his employer, and he now heard his angry voice.

"Is that the way you drive off my customers? This is one of the best I have. She brings in no end of country friends."

"I'm sorry if I've driven her off," said Robert, "but I did the best I could."

"Best you could!" The low tone which Mr. Merrill was obliged to maintain, through danger of being overheard, lent an added rancor to his words. "Have you forgotten that your pay depends largely upon the amount of sales you make?"

"No, sir, I have not."

"It looks as tho you had. Have you thought of looking for another place in which to do your very peculiar 'best'?"

With a weight at his heart Robert turned to attend to the wants of another customer. He had feared this, and yet had hoped that time would have been given him in which he might have been able to so recommend himself, by faithful and unremitting attention to duty, as to lead Mr. Merrill to overlook the matters of conscience in which he more and more saw they could never agree. But here it was. He was ready to do his very best by Mr. Merrill, but he must do his best by himself also—must persevere in the seeking of the great best which means, first and foremost, faithful service to the Lord. Surely He would reward such service by tender care of His own. And, while still keeping eyes and wits on the alert for the duties of the hour, Robert was able to resolve within himself that nothing should ever turn him from the full measure of that service.

And close upon the determination came the peace growing out of the added resolution to accept such fortune as might come to him as its result, even tho it might be far from what he would have chosen for himself. And, in telling of the sorry outlook to his mother, he found great comfort in her loving words:—

"That's right, my boy. Do your own best, and be ever sure the Lord will do His best by you. Perhaps Mr. Merrill will not turn you off."

"Perhaps so," said Robert. "Mrs. Denby came back later and bought a good lot of the goods, and Mr. Merrill heard her tell me that she would take anything I recommended."

At the end of the month it would have been easily guessed by any one who closely observed Robert as he went to Mr. Merrill's office that his mind was not greatly perturbed as to what might be the result of the interview. Mr. Merrill paid his salary without comment, and was turning to other things when Robert said:—

"You spoke of my looking for another situation at the end of the month, sir."

"Did I?" Mr. Merrill looked as if he had forgotten. "O, yes, we had a little difference of opinion about one or two small matters! But we will let it pass. I do not mind saying you have given very good satisfaction."

"Thank you, sir. But I will give you the month's notice if you please—"

"What's that?" Mr. Merrill gazed at him in surprise. It was he who was accustomed to give the month's notice. Could it be that this boy was leaving his employ of his own will and pleasure?

"Mr. Denby has offered me a place in his hardware store."

"H'm!" Mr. Merrill took a moment for rather chagrined thought as Robert closed the door. "This is Mrs. Denby's work, of course. They know perfectly reliable boys are not found every day. I know it too. But in spite of my knowledge I have let this one slip through my fingers."—Sydney Dare, in the Inland.