However, when Mr. Merrick came out of the private room his usually cheery countenance wore a troubled expression.  Fogerty was invariably placid and inscrutable, so no explanation could be gleaned from his demeanor.

“Ready for town, my dears?” asked Uncle John.

“Yes; the surrey is waiting,” answered Louise.

“Then go along, and Fogerty and I will join you at the office presently.  I want to confer with the major and Arthur before—­before taking any steps to—­”

“What’s the news, Uncle?” demanded Patsy, impatiently.

“You shall know in good time.”

“Who is Thursday Smith?”

“By and by, dear.  Don’t bother me now.  But that reminds me; you are to say nothing to—­to—­Thursday about Mr. Fogerty’s arrival.  Treat him—­Thursday, you know—­just as you have always done, for the present, at least.  Whatever we determine on in regard to this man, during our conference, we must not forget that he has acted most gallantly since he came to Millville.  We really owe him a debt of gratitude.”

With this somewhat incomprehensible statement the girls were forced to content themselves.  Feeling quite helpless, they drove to the office and left the men to settle the fate of Thursday Smith.

The “pressman” was now the man-of-all-work about the modest but trim little publishing plant.  He attended to whatever job printing came in, made the etchings from Hetty’s drawings, cast the stereotypes, made up the forms and operated the press.  But aside from this mechanical work Smith took the telegraphic news received by Hetty, edited and condensed it and wrote the black-letter headings over the various items.  All this, with a general supervision over the girl compositors, kept the man busy from daybreak to midnight.

In spite of this, the Tribune was essentially a “girls’ paper,” since Thursday Smith was the only man employed on it—­not counting the “dummy” editor, Arthur Weldon, who did nothing but keep the books, and found this not an arduous task.  Hetty, at Miss Briggs’ desk, attended the telegraph instrument and long-distance telephone, receiving news over both wires, and still found time to draw her daily cartoons and additional humorous sketches which she “worked in” whenever the mood seized her.  The typesetting was done by the Dwyer sisters—­a colorless pair but quite reliable—­while the reportorial and editorial work was divided between Louise, Beth and Patsy, none of whom shirked a single duty.  Indeed, they had come to love this work dearly and were enthusiastic over the Tribune, which they fondly believed was being watched with envious admiration by all the journalistic world.

This belief was not wholly due to egotism.  Their “exchanges,” both city and country, had shown considerable interest in the “Millville Experiment,” as they called it, and only a few days before the leading journal of a good-sized city had commented at length on the “girls’ newspaper” and, after indulging in some humorous remarks, concluded quite seriously with the statement that “its evident sincerity, clean contents and typographical neatness render the Millville Daily Tribune worthy a better setting than the somnolent country village whose census is too low to be officially recorded.”