"To make a living."
"Oh," sneered the editor, "thought perhaps you wanted to elevate the press.
You're a college graduate, of course?"
"I went to college for a year and a half, sir; I had to leave then."
The editor's face brightened.
"Did they throw you out?"
"No, I—I had no money left; my father died very suddenly, and—and so I had to leave."
"Too bad; if you'd been fired there might have been some hope for you." Tom tried to detect a smile somewhere on the frowning face; there was none. "So you think you can do newspaper reporting, do you?"
"Yes, sir."
"Of course you do! I never found a college boy yet that wasn't plumb sure he could start right in on fifteen minutes' notice and beat Horace Greeley or old man Dana. It's so easy!"
"I don't think that," answered Tom, "but I think I could do reporting— after a day or two. I'm ignorant as to the exact duties of a reporter, but I can learn, and I can write English."