“Now, my dear Mr. Torpyhue,” began Partington, gaining courage, “I beg you not to feel called upon to discriminate against your old favorites in my favor.  Your present rates of payment are entirely satisfac—­”

“You misunderstand me, Mr. Smithers,” interrupted Mr. Torpyhue.  “What I’m going to do to you that I never before have done even to our most popular author is to return to you at once every one of those highly entertaining manuscripts you have favored us with—­we receive so many real letters from real children that, of course, we cannot afford to buy from you purely fictitious ones.  These of yours are excellently well done, but you see my point.  One does not pay for things that can be had gratis.  Perhaps later you will try us with something else,” he added, with a grin.

Here Mr. Torpyhue paused, and Partington tried to think of something to say.  It was all so sudden, however, and, in spite of his misgivings, so extremely unexpected, that his breath was taken away.  He had neither breath nor presence of mind enough left even to deny the allegation, and when he did recover his breath he found himself walking dejectedly down the stairs of the Nursery Days building with his bundle of encomia in his hands.

“I wonder how he caught on!” he groaned, as half an hour later he entered his room and threw himself face downward on his couch.  Investigation after dinner gave him a clue.

Not one of the letters had been mailed from the town in which it had been dated.  The envelope containing the Washington letter bore the Boston postmark.  The Brooklyn missive had been sent from Chicago, that from Norwich had been posted at Yonkers, and vice versa, and so on through the whole list.  Each and every one had, through some evil chance, started wrong.  In addition to this, Partington found that in a forgetful moment he had appended to two of the communications an editorial response promising more work from Mr. Smithers.

“I must have been muddled by my success with ’Tommy and the Huckleberry-tree,’” he sighed, as he cast the documents into the fire.  “If that’s the effect literary honors have on me I’d better quit the profession, which leaves only two things to be done.  I shall have to commit one of two crimes—­suicide or matrimony.  The question now is, which?”

He thought deeply for a moment, and then, putting on his hat and over-coat, he turned off the gas and left the room.

“I’ll call on Harris, borrow a cent from him, and let the toss decide,” he said, as he passed out into the night.

Is it really any wonder that Mr. Smithers has given up literature?

THE BASE INGRATITUDE OF BARKIS, M.D.