“Now, we come to the time when this crafty uncle of yours met his friends at lunch. What do you think his plot was? Well, just listen and I will tell you,” and Mr. Talmage nodded his head warningly at his brother.
“One of his guests was Mr. Connell, the man that owns one of the largest engraving plants in the city. This Uncle Ben told his story in such an engaging way that that business man actually offered to turn out the plates you needed for the magazine at actual cost for several months. We all know what that means—several hundred dollars on the credit side of the ledger.”
All eyes were turned toward Uncle Ben for confirmation of the great offer, and he nodded his head smilingly.
“One of the best business advisers I know in New York said that he thought you children had an unusually good idea for a successful business investment, and hoped that you would keep it up until you were adults and saw the financial benefit in it,” said Uncle Ben, seriously.
The girls were pleased at this news, but the boys were hilarious to find that a clever business man approved of the plan they were working out.
“When will the machinery be here, Uncle Ben?” asked Ned.
“It is coming by freight and will take a few days, but you will be kept busy until then in finishing the shop-work,” returned Uncle Ben.
“Yes, indeed, we will have to build some stands for type, too, with the boxful you got for us,” answered Ned.
“We Blue Birds spent all of our afternoon engaging editors to take charge of the pages,” ventured Ruth, who thought the Blue Birds had been quiet too long.
“You’ll have to have all the pages ready to hand over to me by the tenth of October, you know; I’ll need about three days for making linotype and then you can have the proofs back,” said Uncle Ben.