Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1916-11-15
ACCEPTING ASSIGNMENTS:
BY SETON LEE.


ion the window seat. Her mother and
father and her aunt and uncle, who
had come in to spend the evening, sat
around the fireplace. jeans brother
Jack, who stood by the library table
-puffing cigarette, picked up the Eve
ming Argus and looked carelessly over
Its four pages.
Gee! A deaf and dumb and blind
man could get up more news than this
paper prints" was his sweeping crit
icism.
The thoughtless brother had given
Jean a suggestion which she thought
over all during the evening. The next
morning she astonished Mr.. Archibald
Edwards by appearing in his sanctum
and asking for a job as reporter on
the Argus.
"Why, Miss Cranky, nothing would
please me more If it were practicable,
or even possible" stammered the sur
prised editor.
"Now, Mr.. Edwards, first let me tell
YOU what practical and possible plan
I have" Jean was convincingly In
earnest, and she made charming pic
ture in a trim blue cheviot suit and
a Highland cap with bit Of plaid rib
bon dangling from it. Her dark eyes
flashed and her color deepened as she
unfolded her plan, which was to
arouse the social and civic spirit of
Marshton by persistent appeal
through the Argus. There was to be
a column headed, "It's Up to You," an
other headed, GLOW the Women Can
Help" and another, "Marshton's Many
Merits"
An hour later Mr.. Edwards was un-
able to tell whether It was the bonnie
smiles Of the applicant or the plausi-
bfiity of her plan that had induced
him to ''take her on"
The plan worked so well that few
weeks after Jean began her work on
that paper there were many evidences
that Marshton was beginning to shake
off its social and civic stagnation. In
the Argus Office rushing activity be-
came the daily program in all depart
ments.
On the same morning that the fore
mans wife telephoned the Office OF
her husbands illness with the grip
MIR. Edwards had violent seizure Of
lumbago. Jean faced the crisis brave
ly, but she realized the impossibi!ity
OF getting the paper out in any sort
of shape with the two mainstays Of
the machinery missing. She remem-
bered having heard Mr.. Edwards say
that his nephew, now reporter on q
city daily, had been a most promising
all-round newspaper worker when he
left the Argus Office few years be-
fore. Something had to be done. quick
~, and Jean decided to telegraph for
the nephew, for there wasn't an avail
able man In Marshton.
It was then ten o'clock and the first
edition should he out by one, so Jean
rolled up the sleeves Of her soft white
shirtwaist, and for the next three
hours futtered back and forth from
editorial desk to composing and print
ing rooms. 1t was l 80 when the first
edition was out.
She was turning the damp pages Of
q paper just off the press when the
Office door opened and a tall, broad
shouldered man entered the room. 1t
had evidently been more than few
years since thai man had been merely
promising boy, yet Jean rightly
guessed that he was Mr.. Edwards
nephew.
"Mr. Bert Edwards?" she asked, and
there was Slight twinkle in the mans
gray eyes as he inclined his head af-
frmatively.
'T am Miss CRANKY, special writer
on the Argus, but today I've been ed
itor and foreman as we'll. I'm going
ITO ask you to take hold Of the fore
, mans work at once 60 as to get the
home edition out promptly. When
that is done we can work together on
tomorrow's editorial page. I've got
ITO give the next two hours to some
special interview stuff
Thus coolly did Jean assume the
,generalship, and the tall man accepted
the assignment without letting her
see his amused smile as he turned
away. For the next two days, he did
.cheerfully and went about what
should be done. On the morning Of
the third day Mr.. Edwards returned
to the Office.
"Bert, my boy, it was like you to
help me out in PINCH" he said, in
greeting his nephew, "and Miss Gran
by, it was like you to know what to do
in an emergency. I'm glad you sent
Z for Bert. But how did your chief
happen to let you off, Bert?"
'Tm pretty much my chief, Uncle
George, and I had two capable young
fellows to leave at my desk"
A:aAt your desk? Why, what's your
position now?" asked his uncle.
GCity editor" said Bert quietly, with