He seemed to enjoy it to the limit, too, for it made him appear so responsible and tickled his vanity.

He grinned at seeing his two young friends.
"I suppose now you've read my latest effusion, boys ?" Jim remarked, with an assumption of extreme modesty, which, however, hardly suited his usual bold demeanor.
Jim had all a reporter's "nerve," and could coolly face a raging subscriber who had dropped in to ask to have his subscription closed because of a certain offensive article in the last issue--yes, and likely as not Jim could soothe the ruffled feathers of the enraged man, show him how he had really been paid a compliment, and finally bow him out of the office with another year's subscription left in the shape of a dollar and a half in good money.
"We've fairly _devoured_ it, Jim," frankly admitted Thad.

"Why, I can repeat it off-hand right now, I've read it so often.

And Jim, I want to say that it's as clever a piece of work as I ever got hold of.

That terrible Texan stands out as clear as print.