Ariela caught the gleam of promise in his words.  Swiftly her hand went to her bosom.  Freely as an alighting dove the bill fluttered to the Justice’s table.  Her sallow cheek coloured as she stood hand in hand with Ransie and listened to the reuniting words.

Ransie helped her into the cart, and climbed in beside her.  The little red bull turned once more, and they set out, hand-clasped, for the mountains.

Justice-of-the-peace Benaja Widdup sat in his door and took off his shoes.  Once again he fingered the bill tucked down in his vest pocket.  Once again he smoked his elder-stem pipe.  Once again the speckled hen swaggered down the main street of the “settlement,” cackling foolishly.

XIII

A SACRIFICE HIT

The editor of the Hearthstone Magazine has his own ideas about the selection of manuscript for his publication.  His theory is no secret; in fact, he will expound it to you willingly sitting at his mahogany desk, smiling benignantly and tapping his knee gently with his gold-rimmed eye-glasses.

“The Hearthstone,” he will say, “does not employ a staff of readers.  We obtain opinions of the manuscripts submitted to us directly from types of the various classes of our readers.”

That is the editor’s theory; and this is the way he carries it out: 

When a batch of MSS. is received the editor stuffs every one of his pockets full of them and distributes them as he goes about during the day.  The office employees, the hall porter, the janitor, the elevator man, messenger boys, the waiters at the cafe where the editor has luncheon, the man at the news-stand where he buys his evening paper, the grocer and milkman, the guard on the 5.30 uptown elevated train, the ticket-chopper at Sixty ——­th street, the cook and maid at his home—­these are the readers who pass upon MSS. sent in to the Hearthstone Magazine.  If his pockets are not entirely emptied by the time he reaches the bosom of his family the remaining ones are handed over to his wife to read after the baby goes to sleep.  A few days later the editor gathers in the MSS. during his regular rounds and considers the verdict of his assorted readers.

This system of making up a magazine has been very successful; and the circulation, paced by the advertising rates, is making a wonderful record of speed.

The Hearthstone Company also publishes books, and its imprint is to be found on several successful works—­all recommended, says the editor, by the Hearthstone’s army of volunteer readers.  Now and then (according to talkative members of the editorial staff) the Hearthstone has allowed manuscripts to slip through its fingers on the advice of its heterogeneous readers, that afterward proved to be famous sellers when brought out by other houses.