“Let me see it.”
Chester handed over the paper and regarded his seat mate with some anxiety. He wanted to see what impression this, his maiden effort, would have on a staid man of middle age.
“Ha! very good!” said his companion, “but I don’t see anything very remarkable about it. Yet you were looking at it for as much as five minutes.”
“Because it is mine,” said Chester, half proudly, half in embarrassment.
“Ah! that is different. Did you really design it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I suppose you got pay for it. I understand Puck pays for everything it publishes.”
“Yes, sir; I got ten dollars.”
“Ten dollars!” repeated the gentleman, in surprise. “Really that is very handsome. Do you often produce such sketches?”
“I have just begun, sir. That is the first I have had published.”