Page:Boys Life of Mark Twain.djvu/182

THE BOYS' LIFE OF MARK TWAIN Clemens said: "Oh, I'm a modest man; I don't want the whole Union office; call it a hundred dollars a column."

There was a general laugh. The bill was made out at that figure, and he took it to the office for payment.

"The cashier didn't faint," he wrote many years later, "but he came rather near it. He sent for the proprietors, and they only laughed in their jolly fashion, and said it was robbery, but 'no matter, pay it. It's all right.' The best men that ever owned a paper."