a little while, but in the mean time he's just
lost the place that he did have on one of the smallest ones an', as a
consequence, his mother thought he'd better spend this summer in the
country an' so sent him up to Mr. Kimball. Mr. Kimball said he really
did n't sense all it meant at first when Elijah arrived at noon
yesterday but he said he had n't talked with him long afore he see as
this was our big chance 'cause the paper as Elijah was on paid him off
with a old printin' press, an' Mr. Kimball says, if we back him up, we
can begin right now to have a paper of our own an' easy get to be what
they call a 'state issue.' It's easy seen as Mr. Kimball is all ready to
be a state issue; he says the printin' press is a four horse-power an'
he's sure as he can arrange for Hiram Mullins to work the wringer the
day he goes to press. Mr. Kimball says he's positive that Hiram 'll
regard it as nothin' but child's play to wring off his grocery bill that
way. I don't know what Gran'ma Mullins will say to that--or Lucy either
for that matter--but Mr. Kimball's so sure that he knows best that I see
it was n't no time to pull Gran'ma Mullins an' Lucy in by the ears. Mr.
Kimball says he's been turnin' it over in his mind's eye ever since
yesterday when he first see Elijah. He says Elijah is just mad with
ideas an' says he 's willin' to make us known far an' wide if we'll only
give him a chance. Mr. Kimball says we all ought to feel ready to admit
that it's time we was more than a quarter of a column a week in the
_Meadville Mixture_. He says the _Meadville Mixture_ ain't never been
fair to us an' Judge Fitch says it ain't got right views as to its
foreign policy. Mr. Kimball says that after Elijah went back to town
yesterday afternoon he went up to Judge Fitch's office an' Judge Fitch
said if we had a paper of our own he'd be more than willin' to write a
editorial occasionally himself, a editorial as would open the
president's eyes to the true hiddenness of things, an' set the German
emperor to thinkin', an' give the czar some insight into what America
knows about _him_.

"Mr. Kimball says this is the day of consolidation an' if we had a paper
the Cherry Ponders an' all the Clightville people'd naturally join in
an' take it too. He says he's figured that if he can start out with a
hundred paid-up subscribers of a dollar each he can make a go of it. He
says Elijah says set him up the press an' _he_ don't ask no better fun
than to live