"My boy, a reporter would starve on that kind of space work.
Why, after you put in the whole evening there, you might come
to the office only to learn that we didn't consider any of the
Board's doings worth space to tell about them."

"Will you let me attend a few of the meetings, and take my chances
on the amount of space I can get out of it?"

"Go ahead, Prescott, if you can afford to waste your time in that
fashion," replied Mr. Pollock, almost pityingly.

"Thank you. That's what I wanted," acknowledged Dick, and went
out very well contented.

When it lacked a few minutes of eight, that evening, all the members
of the Board of Education had arrived. It was the same Board
as in the year before. All the members had been re-elected at
the last city election, though some of them by small majorities.
Mr. Gadsby, one of the members who had won by only a slight margin
over his opponent, stood with his back to a radiator, warming
himself, when he saw the door open.

Mr. Gadsby nodded most genially to Mr. Cantwell, who entered.
The principal came straight over to this member, and they shook
hands cordially. Mr. Gadsby had been one of the members of the
Board who had been most anxious about having Cantwell appointed
principal; Cantwell was, in fact, a family connection of Mrs.
Gadsby's.