"It isn't a very long story," suggested Tom, ruefully, for he was much disappointed.
"Well, why should it be?" demanded the Bellows. "A story doesn't have to be long to be good, and as long as it is all there—"
"I know," said Tom; "but in most stories there's a lot of things put in that help to make it interesting."
"All padding!" sneered the Bellows, "and that I will never do. If a story can be told in five words what's the use of padding it out to five thousand?"
"None," said Tom, "except that you can't make a book out of a story of five words."
"Oh, yes, you can," said the Bellows, airily. "It isn't any trouble at all if you only know how, and in the end you have a much more useful book than if you made it a million words long. You can print the five words on the first page and leave the other five hundred pages blank, so that after you get through with the volume as a story book you can use it for a blank book or a diary. Most books nowadays are so full of story that when you get through with them there isn't anything else you can do with the book."
"It's a new idea," said Tom, with a laugh.
"And all my own invention, too," said the Bellows proudly.
"He's the most inventive Bellows that ever was," put in the Poker, "that is, in a literary way. How many copies of your book of 'Unwritten Poems' did you sell, Wheezy?" he added.
"Eight million," returned the Bellows. "That was probably my greatest literary achievement."