orward to meeting Mr.
Trevor Smith with the hope that he might point the way to better things.

The exact position of that local representative of the Fourth Estate is
best defined as district reporter. The paper which employed him was
published in the busy industrial centre of Wheelton, some twenty-five
miles distant, where it maintained a struggling existence as the
_Wheelton Guardian_.

It was the duty of Mr. Smith to write a column of notes on men and
affairs in the Stratford district every week, to supply reports of the
local police court proceedings, municipal meetings, and so forth, and
also to canvass for advertisements, the few hundred copies of the paper
sold in Stratford every week, thanks to these attractions, being
mendaciously headed _Stratford Guardian_.

What the district reporter--who occasionally hinted that he was really
the editor when he saw a chance to impress a stranger thereby--called
"the office," was a desk in the back premises of the news-agent and
fancy-goods-shop whence the _Guardian_ was distributed weekly.

Everybody did like Mr. Smith. It was part of his business to be well
liked, and if there was a good deal of humbug about him, he was still
excellent value to the _Guardian_ for the twenty-one shillings which the
proprietors of that journal paid him each week. One does not expect
genius for a guinea a week; not even the ability to write English. But
it is a mistake to suppose the latter is ever required of a district
reporter. The essential qualifications are a working knowledge of
shorthand and a good conceit of oneself. Mr. Trevor Smith was deficient
in neither; certainly not in the latter quality. He was generously
impressed with the magnitude of his importance, and had chosen the
Miltonic motto for his "Stratford Notes and Comments":

"GIVE ME THE LIBERTY TO KNOW, TO THINK, AND TO UTTER FREELY ABOVE
ALL OTHER LIBERTIES."

He took this liberty whenever he knew that the weight of local opinion
tended in a certain direction. At other times he was lavish in his use
of complimentary adjectives concerning every one he wrote about, from
the Mayor to the town crier. No wonder he was popular.

The notes which appeared in the _Guardian_ during its reporter's holiday
were from another hand, but Henry looked forward with pleasure to
reading Trevor's contributions when his mighty pen was at work again. It
is one of the strangest experiences that comes to the writing man--this