u think you could get for a school paper?"

"I don't know. I haven't thought much about it. Perhaps a dollar, or a
dollar and a quarter a year. Not more than that."

"And how many members would be likely to take it?"

Paul meditated.

"There are about fifty seniors," he said. "But of course the other three
classes would subscribe--at least some of them would. We shouldn't
confine the thing simply to the doings of the seniors. We should put in
not only general school news but items about the lower classes as well
so that the paper would interest everybody. It ought to bring us in
quite a little money. Shouldn't you think we could buy a press and run
it for two hundred dollars?"

"Have you considered the price of paper and of ink, son?"

"No; but they can't cost much," was the sanguine response.

"Alas, they not only _can_ but _do_," replied his father.

"Then you think we couldn't have a school paper."

"I did not say that."

"Well, you mean we couldn't make it pay."

"I shouldn't go so far as that, either," returned Mr. Cameron kindly.
"What I mean is that you could not buy a printing press and operate it
with the money you would probably have at hand. Nevertheless there are,
as I said before, other ways of getting at the matter. If I were in your
place I should look them up before I abandoned the project."

"How?"

"Make sure of your proposition. Find out how many of your schoolmates
would pledge themselves to subscribe to a paper if you had one. Then,
when you have made a rough estimate of about how much money you would be
likely to secure, go and see some printer and put the question up to
him. Tell him what you would want and find out exactly what he could do
for you. You've always been in a hurry to leave school and take up
business. Here is a business proposition right now. Try your hand at it
and see how you like it."

Mr. Cameron pushed back his chair, rose, and sauntered into his den; and
Paul, familiar with his father's habits, did not follow him, for he
knew that from now until late into the evening the elder man would be
occupied with law books and papers.

Therefore the lad strolled out into the yard. His studying was done; and
even if it had not been he was in no frame of mind to attack it
to-night. A myriad of schemes and problems occupied his thought. Slowly
he turned into the walk and presently he found himself in the street.

It was a still October twilight,--so still that one could