“Here’s what the correspondence course says——”
“Spare us!” cried the club in a chorus.
“I hate all these cut and dried rules!” cried Billie. “It would take all the spice out of literature if we stuck to them.”
“That’s just it,” answered Lilian. “We are not making literature but trying to sell our stuff. Persons who have arrived can write any old way. They can start off with the climax and end up with an introduction and their things go, but I’ll bet you my hat that you will not find a single story by a new writer that does not have to toe the mark drawn by the teachers of short story writing.”
“Which hat?” teased Billie. “The one you put on for Great-aunt Gertrude? If it is that one, I won’t bet. I wouldn’t read a short story by a new writer for it.”
“To return to my story,” pleaded Molly, “do you think if I rewrite it, leave out the letters, strengthen the plot a bit and make Polly a little wiser that I might sell it?”
“Sure!” encouraged Lilian.
“Yes, indeed!” echoed Nance.
“And the black man—please cut him out! I can’t bear to think of him,” from the girl from Alabama.