"Well, I am very sorry, but the young lady told me she wrote it, and, as I thought it was very good, I published it."
"You were right enough there, for it is good, but I have a copyright, which the young lady should have seen and respected. Will you make a correction in your next issue?"
"I certainly will, Mr. Brooke, and be glad to. You don't think that I would have published the verses had I known the truth?"
"No, I hope not. You might call the young lady's attention to the fact, while you are about it."
"I would do so gladly, but she has left town. She is making a tour of the towns in the neighborhood."
"And getting up a reputation on other persons' literary efforts," laughed Brooke. "Well, send me the paper. Sorry you were fooled that way. Take the News and you won't be again. Goodbye."
"That is the cheekiest thing I ever heard," laughed Percival, "taking a thing bodily and claiming it as your own. I should call that stealing, if I were asked about it."
"That's what it is," replied Brooke, "but it is a very common practice with some papers. Why, I had an editor show me an article of my own, and ask me if I did not think it quite clever. One of his compositors had written it, he said. I said a few things myself."
"I imagine you did!" chuckled Dick. "Well, I am glad we have settled this matter. We might not have known anything about it only for a blunder made by a fellow who has not the sense to read the News every week."
The editor looked puzzled and Percival explained briefly, Brooke laughing and adding: