Big Poker Site hazard of new fortunes 87

the first number is a booming success already, and that its going to a hundred thousand before it stops. That unanimity and variety of censure in the morning papers, combined with the attractiveness of the thing itself, has cleared every stand in the city, and now if the favor of the country press doesnt turn the tide against us, our fortunes made." The Marches remained dumb. "Why, look here! Didnt I tell you those criticisms would be the making of us, when they first began to turn you blue this morning, March?" "He came home to lunch perfectly sick," said Mrs. Marcli; "and I wouldnt let him go back again." "Didnt I tell you so?" Fulkerson persisted. March could not remember that he had, or that he had been anything but incoherently and hysterically jocose over the papers, but he said, "Yes, yes--I think so." "I knew it from the start," said Fulkerson. "The only other person who took those criticisms in the right spirit was Mother Dryfoos--Ive just been bolstering up the Dryfoos family. She had them read to her by Mrs. Mandel, and she understood them to be all the most flattering prophecies of success. Well, I didnt read between the lines to that extent, quite; but I saw that they were going to help us, if there was anything in us, more than anything that could have been done. And there was something in us! I tell you, March, that seven-shooting self-cocking donkey of a Beaton has given us the greatest start! Hes caught on like a mouse. Hes made the thing awfully chic; its jimmy; theres lots of dog about it. Hes managed that process so that the illustrations look as expensive as first-class wood-cuts, and theyre cheaper than chromos. Hes put style into the whole thing." "Oh yes," said March, with eager meekness, "its Beaton thats done it." Fulkerson read jealousy of Beaton in Mrs. Marchs face. "Beaton has given us the start because his work appeals to the eye. Theres no denying that the pictures have sold this first number; but I expect the literature of this first number to sell the pictures of the second. Ive been reading it all over, nearly, since I found how the cat was jumping; I was anxious about it, and I tell you, old man, its good. Yes, sir! I was afraid maybe you had got it too good, with that Boston refinement of yours; but I reckon you havent. Ill risk it. I dont see how you got so much variety into so few things, and all of them palpitant, all of em on the keen jump with actuality." The mixture of American slang with the jargon of European criticism in Fulkersons talk made March smile, but his wife did not seem to notice it in her exultation. "That is just what I say," she broke in. "Its perfectly wonderful. I never was anxious about it a moment, except, as you say, Mr. Fulkerson, I was afraid it might be too good." They went on in an antiphony of praise till March said: "Really, I dont see whats left me but to strike for higher wages. I perceive that Im indispensable." "Why, old man, youre coming in on the divvy, you know," said Fulkerson. They both laughed, and when Fulkerson was gone, Mrs. March asked her husband what a divvy was. "Its a chicken before its hatched." "No! Truly?" He explained, and she began to spend the divvy. At Mrs. Leightons Fulkerson gave Alma all the honor of the success; he told her mother that the girls design for the cover had sold every number, and Mrs. Leighton believed him. "Well, Ah think Ah maght have some of the glory," Miss Woodburn pouted. "Where am Ah comin in?" "Youre coming in on the cover of the next number," said Fulkerson. "Were going to have your face there; Miss Leightons going to sketch it in." He said this reckless of the fact that he had already shown them the design of the second number, which was Beatons weird bit of gas-country landscape. "Ah dont see why you dont wrahte the fiction for your magazine, Mr. Fulkerson," said the girl. This served to remind Fulkerson of something. He turned to her father. "Ill tell you what, Colonel Woodburn, I want Mr. March to see some chapters of that book of yours. Ive been talking to him about it." "I do not think it would add to the popularity of your periodical, sir," said the Colonel, with a stately pleasure in being asked. "My views of a civilization

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