“I don’t think I have.”
“I am having a serial story run through it. It is called ‘The Ragpicker’s Curse.’”
Ben was not much of a judge of literature, but it didn’t seem to him that this title suggested a high order of literary merit.
“Did it take you long to write it?” he asked.
“I wrote it in four weeks. It is in forty chapters. I was greatly enthused when I wrote it.”
“Were you?”
“I was so much interested that one day I wrote eight hours on a stretch, and then fainted away.”
Mr. Snodgrass mentioned this little circumstance in a very complacent tone.
“The literary life is a very absorbing one,” he continued. “When I have finished a story I am simply exhausted.”
“I hope it pays well,” said Ben.