a suggestion, that there's no reason why you boys shouldn't use a
colored lad's work. He's only a contributor, annyway. When a paper takes
a story or a picture from a man, it doesn't ask who his parents were.
Why don't ye make some color plates and give them as premiums for
subscriptions?"

The Weather Forecaster laughed aloud.

"That's a good business idea, Pat," he said. "Some of the colored
planters and farmers are fairly progressive here, and a premium of a
colored lad's work might be a good scheme."

"But I can't make colored plates!" protested Fred.

"No," said Pat, "you can't, an' that's a fact. I was forgettin' that
this wasn't a regular shop."

"How could we get them made?" asked Anton. "Do you suppose the Weather
Bureau in Washington would make them for us and let us have a few
copies?"

"No," said the Forecaster decidedly, "I know the Bureau wouldn't.
They've a hard enough job doing their work on their present
appropriations, as it is, and if they were going to spend money on
sunset pictures, Anton, such would be done by some big artist, in
consultation with trained meteorologists."

"I've been wondering," began Anton, and paused.

"Go ahead," urged Ross.

"Couldn't we interest some one else to do them, just to help the thing
along?"

"One of the big negro colleges has a lithographing plant," the
Forecaster said thoughtfully; "they might be interested in it, if the
matter were put before them the right way. I don't suppose they'd give
any money, but they might make plates for you at cost and you could sell
them here at enough to cover the expense. Bob has the right idea.

"Talk it over with Deacon Paul, the colored minister; he's closely in
touch with all the progressive work among the negroes. I think you'll
find it can be arranged, because there's a right fine spirit among the
negroes. They're trying hard to improve themselves.

"I believe you could interest them, too, by showing that the study of
the weather, even in sunsets, is a patriotic duty. The negroes are
mighty loyal."

"Mr. Levin!" exclaimed one of the boys, "what has a sunset got to do
with patriotism?"

"They do look pretty far apart, don't they?" replied the Weather expert,
with a smile. "Yet one of the great tragedies of military history, one
which led to the death of hundreds of thousands of men and changed the
map of the world, was due to a failure to study the colors of a sunset."

"What was that, Mr. Levin? Won't you te