put a price on your product.
Mr. Carter has done quite a little to boost your undertaking and you can
afford to grant him a favor or two. But I will say you are getting
pretty deep into newspaper work, Paul."

"I do seem to be, don't I?" smiled Paul, flushing boyishly. "I'm crazy
over it, too. The more you do at it the better you like it. I don't know
but that when I'm through college, I'd like to go in and be a reporter.
I'd like to write up fires and accidents and wear a little badge that
would admit me inside the lines at parades and political meetings."

"I'm afraid you'd find there was lots to it besides the badge and the
pleasure of stalking under the ropes."

"I suppose so; but I'd like the chance to try it. I've always envied
those chaps who whispered some magic word and walked in while the rest
of us waited outside."

"There you go!" cried his father. "You are just as bad at wanting what
other people cannot have as ever were the early book collectors!"

Paul colored.

"I know it," he admitted. "I'm afraid we all enjoy having a pull and
getting the best of other people. It is human nature."

"It is human, that is true; nevertheless, the impulse is a very selfish
one," said his father.

A silence fell upon the two. They were sitting in the living room and it
was almost Paul's bedtime. Outside the rain was beating on the windows;
but inside a fire crackled on the hearth and a crimson glow from the
silken lampshade made cheery the room.

"I was telling the fellows to-day some of the things you told me about
early bookmaking, Dad," remarked Paul. "They wanted to know if printing
came soon after the illuminated books, and who invented it. I couldn't
answer their question and as yet have had no time to look up the matter.
We had quite a discussion about it. Perhaps you can save me the trouble
of overhauling an encyclopedia."

"I've no business to save you from such an expedition," retorted Mr.
Cameron with amusement. "Morally, the best thing you can do is to look
up the answer to your question yourself. It is good for you. However,
because the subject happens to interest me, I am going to be weak enough
to reply to your query. Printing did follow the hand-illuminated and
hand-penned manuscripts and books; but before printed books made their
appearance, there was an interval when printers tried to say what they
had to say by means of pictures. You know how we give a child a picture
book as a first approach