n, but who
had once written a 'poem' for a ladies' journal; a baker's carter who
was secretary to the local debating society; and a man named Joss, who
had a terrific black eye and who told Denison, _sotto voce_, that if
the editor gave _him_ any sauce he would 'go for him' there and then
and 'knock his bloomin' eye out,' and the son of the local bellman and
bill-poster. The editor took their names and addresses, and said he
should write to them all in the morning and announce his decision. Then,
after they had gone, he turned to Denison with a pleasant smile and an
approving look at Sum Fat's shirt, and asked him if he had had previous
experience of proof-reading. Denison, in a diffident manner, said that
he had not exactly had much.

'Just so. But you'll try and do your best, Mr Denison? Well, come in
this evening at eight o'clock, and see Mr Pinkham, the sub-editor. He'll
show you what to do. Salary, L2, 15s. Strict sobriety, I trust?'

The successful one said he never got quite drunk, expressed his thanks
and withdrew. Once into the street he walked quickly into Sum Fat's, and
told the Celestial that he had taken a billet at 'thirty bob' a week on
a newspaper.

'Wha' paper?' inquired Sum Fat, who was squeezing a nasty-looking
adipocerous mass into fish-balls for his boarders.

'The _Trumpet-Call_.'

'That's a lotten lag, if you li.' It close on banklupt this long time.'

Denison assented cheerfully. It _was_ a rotten rag, he said, and
undoubtedly in a weak position financially; but the thirty bob would pay
his board bill.

Then Sum Fat, who knew that the ex-supercargo was lying as regarded
the amount of his salary, nodded indifferently and went on pounding his
awful hash.

* * * * *

'Where is Mr Pinkham?' asked Denison at eight p.m., when an exceedingly
dirty small boy brought him his first proof.

'He's tanked.{*} An' he says he ain't agoin' to help no blackguard
sailor feller to read no proofs. And most all the comps is tanked, too.'

* 'Tanked.' A colonialism which indicates that a person has
indulged in too much liquid refreshment.

However, with the intelligent assistance of the boy, Denison managed to
pull through that night, with the following result in the intercolonial
Telegrams' column:--

'Melbourne, August 13.--The body of an elderly boat was
foundd last night floating down the Yarra, down the Yarra,
with its throat cut. It wvs dr