iff smiled.

"'You are a newspaper man, I understand, Mr. Randolph?' his Honor
remarked sweetly.

"It took me by surprise, for I had forgotten the Cowbell in the
excitement of succeeding events, and I now saw myself on the edge of the
pit I had digged.

"'That's yer graft. Work it,' Slim prompted.

"'It's all over but the shouting,' I groaned back, but Slim, unaware of
the article, was puzzled.

"'Your Honor,' I answered, 'when I can get work, that is my occupation.'

"'You take quite an interest in local affairs, I see.' (Here his Honor
took up the morning's Cowbell and ran his eye up and down a column I
knew was mine.) 'Color is good,' he commented, an appreciative twinkle
in his eyes; 'pictures excellent, characterized by broad, Sargent-like
effects. Now this...t his judge you have depicted... you, ah, draw from
life, I presume?'

"'Rarely, your I Honor,' I answered. 'Composites, ideals, rather ... er,
types, I may say.'

"'But you have color, sir, unmistakable color,' he continued.

"'That is splashed on afterward,' I explained.

"'This judge, then, is not modelled from life, as one might be led to
believe?'

"'No, your Honor.'

"'Ah, I see, merely a type of judicial wickedness?'

"'Nay, more, your Honor,' I said boldly, 'an ideal.'

"'Splashed with local color afterward? Ha! Good! And may I venture to
ask how much you received for this bit of work?'

"'Thirty dollars, your Honor.'

"'Hum, good!' And his tone abruptly changed. 'Young man, local color is
a bad thing. I find you guilty of it and sentence you to thirty days'
imprisonment, or, at your pleasure, impose a fine of thirty dollars.'

"'Alas!' said I, 'I spent the thirty dollars in riotous living.'

"'And thirty days more for wasting your substance.'

"'Next case!' said his Honor to the clerk.

"Slim was stunned. 'Gee!' he whispered. 'Gee the push gets ten days and
you get sixty. Gee!'"

Leith struck a match, lighted his dead cigar, and opened the book on his
knees. "Returning to the original conversation, don't you find,
Anak, that though Loria handles the bipartition of the revenues with
scrupulous care, he yet omits one important factor, namely--"

"Yes," I said absently; "yes."

AMATEUR NIGHT

The elevator boy smiled knowingly to himself. When he took her up, he
had noted the sparkle in her eyes, the color in her cheeks. His little
cage had quite warmed with the glow of her repressed eagerness. And now,
on the down