tore:

"Sniffin', are they, Mr. Graham?"

"They certainly _are_ sniffin'," that ponderous grocery man would
respond.

Both would then sniff solemnly in unison, and Nort would go on down the
street laughing. A new joke in Hempfield! I do not wonder that he got
them.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XIX

FERGUS'S FAVOURITE POEM

I recall now vividly the growing excitement of those winter days, the
interest we all had. Each day brought something new, some surprised
comment in a "contemporary," some quotation from a city paper, some
curious visitor to see the old Captain, some new subscriber or
advertiser, some necessity for adding to our order for "insides."

One of the best ways to attract and interest other people is by going
about one's own business as though it were the most wonderful and
fascinating thing in the world. People soon begin to look on wistfully,
begin to wonder what all this activity and triumphant joyousness is
about, and are presently drawn to it as bees are drawn by a blooming
clover field. So the printing-office began to be a place of importance
and curiosity in Hempfield. The news spread that almost any surprise
might be expected in the _Star_.

"It's that fellow Carr that's doing it," said old Mr. Kenton, voicing
the hopeless philosophy of the country when facing competition with the
city. "One o' these days, you'll see, he'll get a better job in Bosting,
and that'll be the end of _him_."

In the meantime, however, we were too busy to indulge in any
forebodings, and as for Nort the whole great golden world of real life
was opening to him for the first time.

No sooner had the interest in the old Captain's autobiography somewhat
subsided, and the advertising scheme, with several lesser matters, been
disposed of, than Nort's fertile brain began to devise new schemes.

"Say," he exclaimed one winter day, coming in from one of his
expeditions and looking us all over as though we were specimens of a
curious sort, "this office is a pretty interesting place."

"Just found it out?" grunted Fergus.

"Well," said Nort, "I've suspected it all along, and now I know it.
There's the Cap'n, for example. We didn't know we had a gold mine in the
Cap'n, now, did we? But we had! Great thing, the Cap'n's story! Finest
thing done in country journalism anywhere, at any time, I suppose."

I exchanged an amused glance with Anthy, and we both looked at the old
Captain. As Nort talked the Captain grew mor