It is hardly necessary to say that Prof.  Henderson got an excellent notice in the next number of the Centreville “Gazette;” and it is my opinion that he deserved it.

CHAPTER XXXV.

FLETCHER’S OPINION OF HARRY WALTON.

In two weeks all the business arrangements were completed, and Ferguson and Harry became joint proprietors of the “Centreville Gazette,” the latter being sole editor.  The change was received with favor in the village, as Harry had, as editor pro tem. for two months, shown his competence for the position.  It gave him prominence also in town, and, though only nineteen, he already was classed with the minister, the doctor and the lawyer.  It helped him also with the weekly papers to which he contributed in Boston, and his pay was once more raised, while his sketches were more frequently printed.  Now this was all very pleasant, but it was not long before our hero found himself overburdened with work.

“What is the matter Harry?  You look pale,” said Ferguson, one morning.

“I have a bad headache, and am feeling out of sorts.”

“I don’t wonder at it.  You are working too hard.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“I do.  You do nearly as much as I, as a compositor.  Then you do all the editorial work, besides writing sketches for the Boston papers.”

“How can I get along with less?  The paper must be edited, and I shouldn’t like giving up writing for the Boston papers.”

“I’ll tell you what to do.  Take a boy and train him up as a printer.  After a while he will relieve you almost wholly, while, by the time he commands good wages, we shall be able to pay them.”

“It is a good idea, Ferguson.  Do you know of any boy that wants to learn printing?”

“Haven’t you got a younger brother?”

“The very thing,” said Harry, briskly.  “Father wrote to me last week that he should like to get something for ——.”

“Better write and offer him a place in the office.”

“I will.”

The letter was written at once.  An immediate answer was received, of a favorable nature.  The boy was glad to leave home, and the father was pleased to have him under the charge of his older brother.

After he had become editor, and part proprietor of the “Gazette,” Harry wrote to Oscar Vincent to announce his promotion.  Though Oscar had been in college now nearly two years, and they seldom met, the two were as warm friends as ever, and from time to time exchanged letters.

This was Oscar’s reply:—­

  “HARVARD COLLEGE, June 10.

“DEAR MR. EDITOR:  I suppose that’s the proper way to address you now.  I congratulate you with all my heart on your brilliant success and rapid advancement.  Here you are at nineteen, while I am only a rattle-brained sophomore.  I don’t mind being called that, by the way, for at least it credits me with the possession of brains.  Not that I am doing so very badly.  I am probably in the first third of the class, and that implies respectable scholarship here.