he's openin'
up what he calls the field of the future. He says he's goin' to have a
editorial this week on beginnin' from now on to make every issue of the
_Megaphone_ just twice as good as the one afore. I told him if he really
meant what he said it could n't possibly be worth no dollar a year now,
but he said wait an' see an' time would tell an' virtue be her own
reward. He says he's goin' to make arrangements with a woman in the city
for a beauty column, an' arrangements with some other woman as is a
practical preserver, an' have a piece each time on how to be your own
dressmaker once you get cut out; I thought that these things was about
enough for one paper, but oh my! he went on with a string more, as long
as your arm. He's goin' to begin to have a advice column too, right
off, an' that's this I've brought over to read you; he says lots of
folks want advice an' don't want to tell no one nor pay nothin' an' they
can all write him an' get their answers on anythin' in the wide world
when the paper comes out Saturday. I could n't but open my eyes a little
at that, for I know a many as need advice as I should n't consider
Elijah knew enough to give, but Elijah's a man an' in consequence don't
know anythin' about how little he does know, so I did n't say nothin'
more on that subject. He's full of hope an' says he's soon goin' to show
big city papers what genius can do single-handed with a second-hand
printin' press, an' he talked an' talked till I really had to tell him
that if he did n't want his breakfast he'd have to go back to bed or
else down town."

"Is the--" asked Mrs. Lathrop.

"Yes, this is it. He done it last night an' he give it to me this
mornin' to read to you. It's to be called 'The Advice Column' an' he's
goin' to head it 'Come to My Bosom' an' sign it 'Aunt Abby' 'cause of
course if he signed it himself he'd be liable for breach of promise from
any girl as read the headin' an' chose to think he meant her."

"But who--?" began Mrs. Lathrop.

"Why, nobody the first week, of course. He had to make 'em up
himself--an' the answers too, an' that's what makes it all seem so silly
to me. But he did work over it,--he says no one knows the work of
gettin' people stirred up to enthusiasm in a small town like this, an'
he says he'd ought to have a martyr's crown of thorns, he thinks, for
even thinkin' of gettin' a advice column started when most of his
energies is still got to go tryin' to get our fund for the