These drawers are full of skins of birds and small animals. I get
them for next to nothing from the sailors, and sell them to furriers
and feather preparers, who supply ladies' hat and bonnet makers. In
future, I propose that you shall mount them and sell them direct.
We shall get far higher prices than we do now. I seem to be putting
most of the work on your shoulders, but do not want you to help me
in the shop. I will look after the birds and buy and sell as I used
to do; you will have the back room private to yourself for stuffing
and mounting."
Frank was delighted at this allotment of labor, and was soon at
work rummaging the drawers and picking out specimens for mounting,
and made a selection sufficient to keep him employed for weeks. That
evening he sallied out and expended his two pounds in underlinen,
of which he was sorely in need. As he required them his employer
ordered showcases for the window, of various sizes, getting the
backgrounds painted and fitted up as Frank suggested.
Frank did not get on so fast with his work as he had hoped,
for the fame of the sailor's cat and macaw spread rapidly in the
neighborhood, and there was a perfect rush of sailors and their
wives anxious to have birds and skins, which had been brought from
abroad, mounted.
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