us.'

"'He'll run the paper into the ground,' said Fitz, prophetically.

"'If he does, it'll only be to give it firmer root.'

"'You are crazy about that country lout,' said Fitz. 'It isn't much
to edit a little village paper like that, after all.'

"So you see what your friend Fitz thinks about it. As you may be in
danger of having your vanity fed by compliments from other sources, I
thought I would offset them by the candid opinion of a disinterested
and impartial scholar like Fitz.

"I told my father of the step you have taken. 'Oscar,' said he,
'that boy is going to succeed. He shows the right spirit. I would
have given him a place on my paper, but very likely he does better to
stay where he is.'

"Perhaps you noticed the handsome notice he gave you in his paper
yesterday. I really think he has a higher opinion of your talents
than of mine; which, of course, shows singular lack of
discrimination. However, you're my friend, and I won't make a fuss
about it.

"I am cramming for the summer examinations and hot work I find it, I
can tell you. This summer I am going to Niagara, and shall return by
way of the St. Lawrence and Montreal, seeing the Thousand Islands,
the rapids, and so on. I may send you a letter or two for the
'Gazette,' if you will give me a puff in your editorial columns."

These letters were actually written, and, being very lively and
readable, Harry felt quite justified in referring to them in a
complimentary way. Fletcher's depreciation of him troubled him very
little.

"It will make me neither worse nor better," he reflected. "The time
will come, I hope, when I shall have risen high enough to be wholly
indifferent to such ill-natured sneers."

His brother arrived in due time, and was set to work as Harry himself
had been three years before. He was not as smart as Harry, nor was
he ever likely to rise as high; but he worked satisfactorily, and
made good progress, so that in six months he was able to relieve
Harry of half his labors as compositor. This, enabled him to give
more time to his editorial duties. Both boarded at Ferguson's, where
they had a comfortable home and good, plain fare.

Meanwhile, Harry was acknowledged by all to have improved the paper,
and the most satisfactory evidence of the popular approval of his
efforts came in an increased subscription list, and this, of course,
made the paper more profitable. At the end of twelve months, the two
partners had