Dear, dear! my heart does beat, for I am thinking that perhaps Poppy is right, and that all the copies of _The Joy-bells_ are bought up; that, of course, is on account of my story." Then Jasmine entered the house, and went into a little office where a red-haired boy was sitting on a high stool before a dirty-looking desk.

The boy had a facetious and rather unpleasant face, and was certainly not remarkable for good manners.
"I want to see the editor of _The Joy-bell_," asked Jasmine, in as firm a tone as she could command.
The red-haired boy raised his eyes from a huge ledger which he was pretending to occupy himself over, and said, "Can't see him," in a laconic tone, and dropped his eyes again.
"But why ?" asked Jasmine, somewhat indignantly.

"I have particular business with him; it is most necessary that I should see him.

Pray, let him know that I am here." "Very sorry," replied the boy, "but can't." "Why not ?" "'Cause he ain't in town." "Oh!" Poor Jasmine fell back a pace or two; then she resumed in a different tone-- "I am very much disappointed; there is a story of mine in _The Joy-bell_, and I wanted to speak to him about it.

It was very important, indeed," she added, in so sad a voice that the red-haired boy gazed at her in some astonishment.
"My word," he said, "then you do not know ?" "Don't know what ?" "Why, we has had a funeral here." "A funeral--oh, dear! oh, dear! is the editor of _The Joy-bell_ dead ?" Here the red-haired boy burst into a peal of irrepressible laughter.
"Dead! he ain't dead, but _The Joy-bell_ is; we had her funeral last week." Poor Jasmine staggered against the wall, and her pretty face became ghastly white.
"Oh, boy," she said, "do tell me about it; how can _The Joy-bell_ be dead, and have a funeral?
Oh, please, don't jest with me, for it's so important." The genuine distress in her tones touched at last some vulnerable point in the facetious office-boy's breast.
"I'm real sorry for you, miss," he said, "particular as you seems so cut up; but what I tell you is true, and you had better know it.