"I stopped at the corner as I came along, and old John Tole was standing out in front of his store." Here Nort, thrusting both hands into his rear trousers pockets, leaned a little back and gave a perfect imitation of the familiar figure of our town druggist. "'Mr. Tole,' I said, 'the Star is going to print the poems of Hempfield this week. Haven't you a favourite poem you can put in?' Well, you should have seen the old fellow grin. 'Yes,' says he, 'I've got a favour-ite poem.' I asked him what it was. He kept on smiling, and finally he said:
'I keep a plaster, in case of disaster,
And also a pill, in case of an ill.'"
Nort shook with laughter.
"George! I wish you could have heard him repeat it: 'And also a pi-ll in case of an i-ll.'"
He had the whole office laughing with him.
"I say, let's put it in the Star! 'John Tole's Favourite Poem,' What do you say, Miss Doane?"
He stood there such a figure of irresponsible and contagious youth as I can never forget.
"Tole hasn't favoured the Star with any advertising for over twenty years," observed the Captain.
"We'll advertise him, anyhow," said Nort.
And so it went in, at a special place in the middle of the page. Fergus grumbled and growled, of course, but was really more interested and excited, I think, than he had been before in years. "Fergus's great idea," "Fergus's brilliant thought," was the way Nort referred to the printing of the poetry. For two people so utterly unlike, Fergus and Nort got an extraordinary amount of amusement out of each other.