o' them bullies that he'd lampooned in the 'Banner' fought
his way past the Kernel in the office, into the composin'-room, to
wreck everythin' and 'pye' all the types. Spoffrel--ye don't remember
Spoffrel?--little red-haired man?--was foreman. Spoffrel fended him off
with the roller and got one good dab inter his eyes that blinded him,
and then Spoffrel sorter skirmished him over to the press,--a plain
lever just like ours,--whar the locked-up form of the inside was still
a-lyin'! Then, quick as lightnin', Spoffrel tilts him over agin it, and
HE throws out his hand and ketches hold o' the form to steady himself,
when Spoffrel just runs the form and the hand under the press and down
with the lever! And that held the feller fast as grim death! And when
at last he begs off, and Spoff lets him loose, the hull o' that 'ere
lampooning article he objected to was printed right onto the skin o' his
hand! Fact, and it wouldn't come off, either."

"Gosh, but I'd like to hev seen it," said the printer. "There ain't any
chance, I reckon, o' such a sight here. The boss don't take no risks
lampoonin', and he" (the editor knew he was being indicated by some
unseen gesture of the unseen workman) "ain't that style."

"Ye never kin tell," said the foreman didactically, "what might happen!
I've known editors to get into a fight jest for a little innercent
bedevilin' o' the opposite party. Sometimes for a misprint. Old man
Pritchard of the 'Argus' oncet had a hole blown through his arm because
his proofreader had called Colonel Starbottle's speech an 'ignominious'
defense, when the old man hed written 'ingenuous' defense."

The editor paused in his proof-reading. He had just come upon the
sentence: "We cannot congratulate Liberty Hill--in its superior
elevation--upon the ignominious silence of the representative of all
Calaveras when this infamous Bill was introduced." He referred to his
copy. Yes! He had certainly written "ignominious,"--that was what his
informants had suggested. But was he sure they were right? He had a
vague recollection, also, that the representative alluded to--Senator
Bradley--had fought two duels, and was a "good" though somewhat
impulsive shot! He might alter the word to "ingenuous" or "ingenious,"
either would be finely sarcastic, but then--there was his foreman, who
would detect it! He would wait until he had finished the entire article.
In that occupation he became oblivious of the next room, of a silence,
a