Uncle Jack (warming, and expanding his hands to the fire).--"As big as
the 'Times'!"

Mr. Caxton (uneasily).--"Jack, you alarm me!"

Uncle Jack.--"And make you write in it too,--a leader!"

Mr. Caxton, pushing back his chair, seizes the only weapon at his
command, and hurls at Uncle Jack a great sentence of Greek,--
". . . a quotation in Greek . . ." (1)

Uncle Jack (nothing daunted).--"Ay, and put as much Greek as you like
into it!"

Mr. Caxton (relieved and softening). "My dear Jack, you are a great man;
let us hear you!"

Then Uncle Jack began. Now, perhaps my readers may have remarked that
this illustrious speculator was really fortunate in his ideas. His
speculations in themselves always had something sound in the kernel,
considering how barren they were in the fruit; and this it was that made
him so dangerous. The idea Uncle Jack had now got hold of will, I am
convinced, make a man's fortune one of these days; and I relate it with
a sigh, in thinking how much has gone out of the family. Know, then, it
was nothing less than setting up a daily paper, on the plan of the
"Times," but devoted entirely to Art, Literature, and Science,--Mental
Progress, in short; I say on the plan of the "Times," for it was to
imitate the mighty machinery of that diurnal illuminator. It was to be
the Literary Salmoneus of the Political Jupiter, and rattle its thunder
over the bridge of knowledge. It was to have correspondents in all