atton, holding them out of reach. "Can't you
wait two minutes before you begin your sub-editing tricks? Josie, keep
him in order!"

"He's a disgrace," replied Josie. "Don't pay any heed to him, Arty!
They'll cut up your verses soon enough, and they're just lovely."

The others laughed, all talking at once, commending, criticising,
comparing. Arty laughed and joked and quizzed, the liveliest of them all.
Ned stared at him in astonishment. He seemed like somebody else. He
discussed his own verses with a strange absence of egotism. Evidently he
was used to standing fire.

"The metaphor in that third verse seems to me rather forced," said
Stratton finally. "And I think George is right. 'Rushes' does sound
better than 'wanders.' I like that 'rudely punctuated' line, but I think
I'd go right through it again if it was mine."

"I think I will, too," answered Arty. "There are half-a-dozen alterations
I want to make now. I'll touch it up to-morrow. It'll keep till then."

"That sort of stuff would keep for years if it wasn't for the
Scrutineer," said Stratton. "Very few papers care to publish it
nowadays."

"The Scrutineer is getting just like all the rest of them," commented
George. "It's being run for money, only they make their pile as yet by
playing to the gallery while the other papers play to the stalls and
dress circle."

"It has done splendid work for the movement, just the same," said Ford.
"Admit it's a business concern and that everybody growls at it, it's the
only paper that dares knock things."

"It's a pity there isn't a good straight daily here," said Geisner.
"That's the want all over the world. It seems impossible to get them,
though."

"Why is it?" demanded Nellie. "It's the working people who buy the
evening papers at least. Why shouldn't they buy straight papers sooner
than these sheets of lies that are published?"

"I've seen it tried," answered Geisner, "but I never saw it done. The
London Star is going as crooked as the others I'm told."

"I don't see why the unions shouldn't start dailies," insisted Nellie. "I
suppose it costs a great deal but they could find the money if they tried
hard."

"They haven't been able to run weeklies yet," said George,
authoritatively. "And they never will until they get a system, much less
run dailies."

"Why?" asked Ned. "You see," he continued, "our fellows are always
talking of getting a paper. They get so wild sometimes when they read
what the papers sa