Базовый курс английского языка - Эккерсли К.Э.
ISBN 5-7871-0174-X
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'I don't see your signature here. Did you sign the book?'
'No, sir.'
'When 1 give orders I expect them to be carried out, and any man who doesn't carry them out leaves. Do you understand that?'
'Yes, sir.'
'Well, why didn't you sign?'
It was an awkward question but I felt the only way was to be quite truthful about it.
'Because I can't write.'
'What! Can't write! Good heavens! You'll tell me next you can't read.'
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'No, sir; I mean, yes, sir, I can't read.'
'This is terrible. I can hardly believe it. An official in an educational establishment (that sounded better to him than "school") and can't read! Well, you know I can't have inefficiency here. You must leave. Take a week's notice.'
'But, sir, I've done this job for over twenty years and no one has ever found any fault with my work. Why should I be dismissed now? The rooms are always well cleaned and warmed, aren't they, and -'
'Oh, yes, that's all right; but the fact of the matter is I can't have a caretaker in my school who can't read and write. No, you must go.'
* * *
" I went home that evening feeling very worried. I wasn't married; I lived in a little house all by myself and looked after myself, cooked my own food and kept the place very clean and comfortable. I used to take my lunch to school with me, as I never had much time during the lunch hour to get a meal then. But I did like to have something tasty for my tea when I got home. A good strong cup of tea-with three lumps of sugar-and a kipper, a tin of salmon or a bit of bacon, but above all, sausages. I was, and am, a great man for sausages. If ever I felt down-hearted I used to find that a good plate of fried sausages always cheered me up again. So I thought I'd get half a pound on my way home and fry them for my tea and then, perhaps, I'd feel less miserable.
"And then I remembered ... Mrs. Wiggs who kept the little shop where I always bought sausages had died and the shop was empty now. Yes, here it was looking as cheerless and unhappy as I felt. There would be no sausages tonight, for there was no other shop anywhere near that sold sausages-at least none that were eatable- and I knew there was nothing else in my cupboard at home. That was the last straw, the straw that breaks the camel's back; just when I needed sausages most there wasn't a sausage anywhere.
And then an idea had struck me. Why not? I'd a little bit of money saved and I'd no job now. Why shouldn't I take Mrs. Wiggs' shop and sell sausages?
559¦
"I got so excited at the idea that I forgot all about my tea and the job I had lost. I knew the landlord of the shop, and 1 went round that evening to see him. There was no difficulty at all; within a week the shop was open and I was behind the counter selling sausages. And then I had another idea. Why not sell sausages ready-cooked? So, I fried sausages and had them all hot just about five o'clock. It was a cold, foggy November just then and I kept the shopdoor open so that the smell of fried sausages floated out into the street. Soon I was selling them as fast as I could fry them. Mind you, they were good sausages. I knew a good sausage when I saw one, and in my shop there was nothing but the best. I used to sell them on small sticks (I was the first man in England to think of that idea) with a piece of bread. Before the month was out I was employing two assistants in the shop and still I couldn't sell sausages fast enough.
"Then I had another idea. I engaged a boy with a bicycle to go round and sell hot sausages in the streets. I had to hire a bicycle. But I soon needed two more assistants to cook sausages for the boy and then two more boys to take round the sausages. 'Hobdell's Sausages' were becoming known and I had started on Big Business. I opened two more shops and still couldn't supply all my customers. It was then, too, that I started to manufacture sausages instead of buying them wholesale.
"But summer came and I thought there would be very little business now until the winter. It was a beautiful hot summer; no one wanted hot sausages-in fact no one wanted hot food at all. Then came another idea. As no one wanted to do any cooking why not supply customers with cold food ready-cooked? And so the boys went round on bicycles with cold sausages on little sticks and we sold more in summer than we had done in winter.
"But I don't need to tell you any more about how the business has grown since then. From that first day I have never looked back. You must have seen the boys on the bicycles and 'Hobdell's Sausage Shops' in every street of London. Now they are in every street in England. There are 10,000 men and girls frying sausages for me now.
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"Funnily enough, up to five years ago I had never had a banking account, but everyone told me I ought to have one, so I went to see the manager of the bank in the place where my factory is and said I wanted to open an account with him.
"He was very polite and friendly. 'Certainly, Mr. Hobdell. How much would you like to start with?'
