CHAPTER III
THE DAWN OF A GREAT ENTERPRISE
The great enterprise was sprung on Mr. Merrick the very morningfollowing his arrival at the farm. Breakfast was over and a group hadformed upon the shady front lawn, where chairs, benches and hammockswere scattered in profusion.
"Well, Uncle, how do you like it?" asked Louise. "Are you perfectlycomfortable and happy, now we've escaped so far from the city that itshumming life is a mere memory?"
"Happy as a clam," responded Uncle John, leaning back in his chair withhis feet on a foot rest. "If I only had the morning paper there would benothing else to wish for."
"The paper? That's what that queer tramp at the Junction House askedfor," remarked Beth. "The first thought of even a hobo was for amorning paper. I wonder why men are such slaves to those gossipythings."
"Phoo!" cried Patsy; "we're all slaves to them. Show me a person whodoesn't read the daily journals and keep abreast of the times and I'llshow you a dummy."
"Patsy's right," remarked Arthur Weldon. "The general intelligence andcosmopolitan knowledge of the people are best cultivated by thenewspapers. The superiority of our newspapers has been a factor inmaking us the greatest nation on earth, for we are the best informed."
"My, what big words!" exclaimed Louise.
"It is quite true," said Uncle John soberly, "that I shall miss ourdaily paper during our four months' retirement in these fascinatingwilds. It's the one luxury we can't enjoy in our country retreat."
"Why not?" asked Patsy, with startling abruptness, while a queerexpression--as of an inspiration--stole over her bright face.
"Chump!" said Beth, drily; "you know very well why not, Patsy Doyle.Mooley cows and the fourth estate don't intermingle, so to speak."
"They can be made to, though," declared Patsy. "Why hasn't some onethought of it before? Uncle John--girls!--I propose we start a dailypaper."
Louise laughed softly, Beth's lip curled and Arthur Weldon cast anamused glance at the girl; but Uncle John stared seriously into Patsy'squestioning blue eyes.
"How?" he asked in a puzzled tone. If anything could interest thiseccentric little millionaire more than the usual trend of events it wasan original proposition of this sort. He loved to do things that otherpeople had not attempted, nor even thought of. He hated conversationalplatitudes and established conventions, and his nieces had endearedthemselves to him more by their native originality and frank disregardof ordinary feminine limitations than in any other way. It was generallyconceded that Patsy was his favorite because she could advance more oddsuggestions than the other girls, and this niece had a practicalaptitude for carrying out her whimsical ideas that had long since wonher uncle's respect. Not that she could outdo Mr. Merrick ineccentricity: that was admitted to be his special province, in which hehad no rival; but the girl was so clever a confederate that she gave hererratic uncle much happiness of the sort he most appreciated.
Therefore, this seemingly preposterous proposition to establish a dailypaper on a retired country farm did not strike the old gentleman asutterly impossible, and anything within the bounds of possibility wassure to meet his earnest consideration, especially when it was proposedby one of his favorite nieces.
"How?" responded Patsy; "why, it's easy enough, Uncle. We'll buy apress, hire a printer, and Beth and Louise will help me edit the paper.I'm sure I can exhibit literary talents of a high order, once they areencouraged to sprout. Louise writes lovely poetry and 'stories of humaninterest,' and Beth--"
"I can't write even a good letter," asserted that young lady; "but I'ddearly love to edit a newspaper."
"Of course," agreed Louise; "we all would. And I think we could turnout a very creditable paper--for Millville. But wouldn't it cost a lotof money?"
"That isn't the present question," replied Uncle John. "The main thingis, do you girls want to be tied down to such a task? Every day in theweek, all during our summer holiday--"
"Why, you've made our whole lives a holiday, Uncle John," interruptedPatsy, "and we've been so coddled and swamped with luxuries that we arejust now in serious danger of being spoiled! You don't want threespoiled nieces on your hands, do you? And please make allowance for ournatural impetuosity and eagerness to be up and doing. We love the farm,but our happiness here would be doubled if we had some occupation tokeep us busy, and this philanthropic undertaking would furnish us withno end of fun, even while we were benefiting our fellow man."
"All jabber, dear," exclaimed Beth. "I admit the fun, but where does thephilanthropy come in?"
"Don't you see?" asked Patsy. "Both Uncle John and that tramp weencountered have met on common ground to bewail the lack of a dailynewspaper 'in our midst'--to speak in journalistic parlance. At thepaper mill at Royal are over two hundred workmen moaning in despairwhile they lose all track of the world's progress. At Huntingdon, notfive miles distant, are four or five hundred people lacking all theeducational advantages of an up-to-date--or is 'down-to-date'proper?--press. And Millville--good gracious! What would sleepyMillville folks think of having a bright, newsy, metropolitan newspaperleft on their doorsteps every morning, or evening, as the case may be?"
"H-m," said Uncle John; "I scent a social revolution in the wilds ofChazy County."
"Let's start it right away!" cried Patsy. "The 'Millville Tribune.' Whatdo you say, girls?"
"Why 'Tribune?'" asked Louise.
"Because we three will run it, and we're a triumvirate--the futuretribunal of the people in this district."
"Very good!" said Uncle John, nodding approval. "A clever idea, Patsy."
"But it's all nonsense, sir," observed Arthur Weldon, in astonishment."Have you any idea of the details of this thing you are proposing?"
"None whatever," said the little millionaire. "That's the beauty of thescheme, Arthur; it may lead us into a reg'lar complicated mix-up, andthe joy of getting untangled ought to repay us for all our bother."
"Perhaps so--if you ever untangle," said the young man, smiling at thewhimsical speech. Then he turned to his young bride. "Do you want to gointo this thing, Louise?" he asked.
"Of course I do," she promptly replied. "It's the biggest thing in theway of a sensation that Patsy's crazy brain has ever evolved, and I'llstand by the _Millville Tribune_ to the last. You mustn't forget,Arthur, that I shall be able to publish all my verses and stories, whichthe Century and Harpers' so heartlessly turned down."
"And Beth?"
"Oh, I'm in it too," declared Beth. "There's something so delightfullymysterious and bewildering in the idea of our editing and printing adaily paper here in Millville that I can hardly wait to begin theexperiment."
"It's no experiment whatever," asserted Patsy boldly. "The dailynewspaper is an established factor in civilization, and 'whatever manhas done, man can do'--an adage that applies equally to girls."
"Have you any notion of the cost of an outfit such as is required toprint a modern daily?" asked Arthur.
"Oh, two or three hundred, perhaps, but--"
"You're crazy, child! That wouldn't buy the type."
"Nevertheless," began Patsy, argumentatively, but her uncle stopped her.
"You needn't figure on that," he said hastily. "The outfit shall be mycontribution to the enterprise. If you girls say you're anxious andwilling to run a newspaper, I'll agree to give you a proper start."
"Oh, thank you, Uncle!"
"Of course we're willing!"
"It is all absolutely settled, so far as we are concerned," said Patsy,firmly. "How long will it take to get the things here, Uncle?"
Mr. Merrick considered a moment.
"There's a long-distance telephone over at Cotting's General Store, intown," he said. "I'll drive over and get Major Doyle on the wire andhave him order the stuff sent out at once."
"Oh, no!" protested Patsy; "don't tell daddy of this plan, please. He'dthink we were all fit subjects for the lunatic asylum."
"Major Doyle wouldn't be far wrong in that conclusion," suggestedArthur.
/> "I'd like to surprise him by sending him the first copy of the_Millville Tribune_," added the major's daughter.
"Then," said Mr. Merrick, "I'll call up Marvin, my banker. He'll perhapsattend to the matter more understandingly and more promptly than themajor would. Tell Hucks to harness Joe to the buggy, Patsy, and I'll goat once."
"We'll all go!" exclaimed Beth.
"Of course," added Louise; "we are all equally interested in thisventure."
So Patsy had old Hucks hitch Joe to the surrey, and the three girlsaccompanied their uncle in his drive to town, leaving Arthur Weldonshaking his head in a deprecating way but fully realizing that noprotest of his would avail to prevent this amazing undertaking.
"That old man is as much a child as Beth or Patsy," he reflected. "Itpuzzles me to explain how he made all those millions with so littleworldly wisdom."