"I slipped in and back to his desk, like I may if I want to, and there he sat. He had a big white sheet just like this before it is printed, spread out, and a pencil in his fingers, and about a dozen of his best men were crowding 'round with what they had for the paper to-day. I've told you how they do it, often, and when I edged up some of the men saw me. They knew I had a pass to him, so they stepped back just as he said: 'Well boys, who's got some _big stuff_ to fill the space of our departed scoop?' That 'departed' word means lost, gone, and it's what they say about people when they--they go for good. Then he looked up to see who would speak first, and noticed me. 'Oh there is the little villain who scooped our scoop, right now,' he said. 'Let's make him fill the space he's cut us out of.' I thought it was a joke, but I wasn't going to have all that bunch of the swellest smarties who work for him put it clear over me; I've kidded back with my paper men too long for that; so I stepped back and shot it at him, that what's printed there, and when I got to the end and invited the fellows to 'Whoop,' Lily, you could a-heard them a mile. I saw they was starting for me, so I just slung in a 'Thank you something awful, boss,' and ducked through and between, and cut for life; 'cause if they'd a-got me, I might a-been there yet. They are the _nicest_ men on earth, but they get a little keyed up sometimes, and a kid like me couldn't keep even. Now that's all there is to it, Lily, honest, cross my heart! I _didn't_ know they would put it there. I didn't know they thought it was _good_ enough. I wouldn't a-let them for the life of them, if I'd _known_ they was going to." "You jus' said it once, Mickey?" inquired Peaches. "Jus' once, Flowersy-girl, fast as I could rattle." "It's twice as long as mine ever are," she said. "I don't see how they 'membered." "Oh that!" cried Mickey. "Why honey, that's easy! Those fellows jump on to a thing like chained lightning, and they got a way of writing that is just a lot of little twists and curls, but one means a whole sentence--they call it 'shorthand'--and doing that way, they can set down talk as fast as anybody can speak, and there were a dozen of them there with pencils and paper in their fingers. That wasn't anything for them!" "Mickey, are you going to learn to write that way?" "Sure!" said Mickey. "Before I go to the _Herald_ to take my desk, and my 'signment,' I've got to know, and you ought to know too; 'cause I always have to bring what I write to you first, to see if you like it." "Yes, if the mean old things don't go an' steal my place again, when you don't know it," protested Peaches.