Chapter XX: Conclusion

That's about all there is to it. Skip stuck it out two weeks, then he moved over to Sunfield into Mr. Hoffer's store where he couldn't bother us any more. And that was the last of him.

The business was a little slack at first, but it began to pick up in a day or two, and just before the Saturday when the announcement of the result of the beauty contest was to be made there was quite a rush. Mark Tidd had stirred it up with advertising. The last time we put up the names before the final count the contestants stood:

Mr. Pilkins, 967 votes.

Mr. Bloom, 958 votes.

Chet Weevil, 947 votes.

Chancy Miller, 941 votes.

Of course there were others, but these men were at the top and nobody was near them.

Well, sir, on Saturday morning in came young Mr. Hopkins, whose father owns the bank, and bought a phonograph just like Old Mose Miller's, and a lot of records. It gave him eleven hundred votes.

"You can v-vote 'em for yourself," says Mark, with a grin, "and elect yourself the handsomest m-man in town."

Mr. Hopkins, who was a bully fellow, grinned back. "What'll I do with 'em?" says he.

Mark's eyes twinkled. "It wouldn't be f-f-fair for me to suggest anything," says he, "but if those votes were mine I'll bet I'd have some f-f-fun with 'em."

Mr. Hopkins thought a few minutes and then began writing a name on every ballot. It took him quite a while. I couldn't see who it was, but all of a sudden Mark started to grin and I knew there was a joke on somebody.

"Who is it?" says I.

"Peabody," says Mark. "Jupiter Peabody."

"Don't know him," says I. I didn't, either. I'd never heard of such a man. "Who is he?"

"Oh, he's been living here a long time," says Mr. Hopkins. "Maybe you never happened to meet him, though."

I racked my brains, but for the life of me I couldn't catch on to who he was.

At half past two the list was to go up, and there was a crowd on hand. Everybody was anxious, especially Chet and Chancy and some of the women. The men mostly pretended it was a joke, anyhow, and they didn't care how it came out--but they did care, all the same.

Prompt on the minute Mark stepped into the window and pasted up the list. For a minute the folks were quiet; then there was a hubbub. Everybody was astonished. Here, at the last minute, somebody had come in and beaten everybody.

"Peabody," says a man, "who's Jupiter Peabody? I know Sam Peabody, but he hain't got no relatives named Jupiter that I know of."

"Me, neither," says Mr. Bloom. "Anyhow he's handsomer'n I be. I'd like to git a look at him."

Chet and Chancy both looked like they wanted to cry.

"Who is it?" says Chet.

"Never heard of him," says Chancy, "but I'll bet he's homelier'n you be."

"Anyhow," says Chet, "he probably hain't got curly hair."

It looked for a minute like there might be a scrimmage, but just then an old man came along, driving a dump-cart filled with pumpkins.

"There," says Mr. Bloom, "is Sam Peabody. Let's ask him if he knows this Jupiter."

So they stopped the old fellow, and Mr. Bloom says:

"Got any relatives livin' here?"

"No," says Mr. Peabody, "nary relative."

"Any other Peabodys hereabouts that you know of?"

The old man shook his head slow and allowed he didn't know of any.

"Well," says Mr. Bloom, "this here is a mystery, all right. Here's a Jupiter Peabody that's won the handsomest-man contest, and nobody knows him."

"What?" says the old fellow. "What's that? Won the handsomest-man contest? Got most votes for bein' the handsomest man in Wicksville? Ho!" He threw back his head and roared. "Handsomest man! Whee! Think of that, now." He sat a minute laughing like all-git-out; then he reached out with his whip and touched his mule. "Giddap, Jupiter!" says he. "Giddap!"

It was a minute before folks caught on--and then you should have heard the laugh. Jupiter, Jupiter Peabody--a mule. And he'd been elected the handsomest man in Wicksville. Everybody, including even Chet and Chancy, roared so hard they almost choked, and they pounded each other on the back and danced up and down and shrieked. It was the funniest joke that ever happened in Wicksville.

Maybe if a real man had won the losers would have been mad, but nobody won but a mule! And everybody saw the joke. I guess it was about the best way the thing could have come out.

So that was the end of the beauty contest.

In another two weeks father came home, a little lame, but so he would be all right in no time, and mother came with him. I'll never forget the way she took Mark Tidd by the hand, nor what she said to him. It made him blink his eyes, I can tell you.

"Mark," she says, "it's a fine thing to have brains that you can scheme with, and it's fine to be brave, and it's fine to be able to stick to things to the very end, but when you add to that a heart that's willing to do things for other folks, and that is happiest when it's helping somebody that needs help, you've got about the finest kind of a man there is. And that's the kind of man you're going to be, Mark. I'm glad my son is your friend."

I felt the same way about it myself.

THE END

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Books for Boys by a Master of Fiction

The Mark Tidd Stories

By CLARENCE BUDINGTON KELLAND

MARK TIDD

An ingenious fat boy and his three friends meet danger and excitement in solving the mystery of the strange footprint in their secret cave.

MARK TIDD IN BUSINESS

Mark and his three friends take Smalley's Bazaar and make a success of it, in spite of unfair competition from the villain of the story.

MARK TIDD, EDITOR

The resourceful fat boy runs a country newspaper. As editor, foreman of the press room, circulation manager and business manager, he makes the Wicksville Trumpet a paying proposition.

MARK TIDD, MANUFACTURER

The boys take over an old mill fallen into disrepair and soon have it showing a profit. How Mark outwits the unscrupulous representative of a big power company makes an irresistibly funny book.

MARK TIDD IN THE BACKWOODS

Mark turns detective and foils a scheme to defraud his pal's uncle--an exciting story of mystery and fun.

MARK TIDD'S CITADEL

The boys run into mystery in a closed-up summer hotel where they rescue a kidnapped Samurai boy from his pursuers.

MARK TIDD IN ITALY

Here is fun and action aplenty and a story that will hold Mark's old friends and make many new ones.

GROSSET & DUNLAP : Publishers : NEW YORK

------------------------------------------------------------------------

BOOKS FOR BOYS

Thrilling best-seller tales of mystery and adventure

THE SPOTLIGHT BOOKS

STOCKY OF LONE TREE RANCH Chas. H. Snow
CRIMSON ICE C. Fitzsimmons
70,000 WITNESSES C. Fitzsimmons
DEATH ON THE DIAMOND C. Fitzsimmons
FLASH GORDON Alex Raymond
TAILSPIN TOMMY Mark Stevens
SMILEY ADAMS R.J. Burrough
HAWK OF THE WILDERNESS W. L. Chester
THE PONY EXPRESS Henry James Forman
THE IRON HORSE Edwin C. Hill
THE MYSTERY OF THE YELLOW TIE Laurence Dwight Smith

THE LONE RANGER BOOKS
by Fran Striker

THE LONE RANGER
THE LONE RANGER AND THE MYSTERY RANCH
THE LONE RANGER AND THE GOLD ROBBERY
THE LONE RANGER AND THE OUTLAW STRONGHOLD
THE LONE RANGER AND TONTO

THE G-MEN BOOKS

THE G-MEN SMASH THE "PROFESSOR'S" GANG William Engle
THE G-MEN IN JEOPARDY Laurence D. Smith
THE G-MEN TRAP THE SPY RING Laurence D. Smith

THE JIMMIE DRURY BOOKS
by David O'Hara

JIMMIE DRURY: CANDID CAMERA DETECTIVE
JIMMIE DRURY: WHAT THE DARK ROOM REVEALED
JIMMIE DRURY: CAUGHT BY THE CAMERA

GROSSET & DUNLAP Publishers NEW YORK

End of Project Gutenberg's Mark Tidd in Business, by Clarence B. Kelland