Page:The Story of the Treasure Seekers.djvu/82

58 thought of different ways&mdash;and we're going to try them all. Noël's way is poetry. I suppose great poets get paid?"

The lady laughed&mdash;she was awfully jolly&mdash;and said she was a sort of poet, too, and the long strips of paper were the proofs of her new book of stories. Because before a book is made into a real book with pages and a cover, they sometimes print it all on strips of paper, and the writer make marks on it with a pencil to show the printers what idiots they are not to understand what a writer means to have printed.

We told her all about digging for treasure, and what we meant to do. Then she asked to see Noël's poetry&mdash;and he said he didn't like&mdash;so she said, "Look here&mdash;if you'll show me yours I'll show you some of mine." So he agreed.

The jolly lady read Noël's poetry, and she said she liked it very much. And she thought a great deal of the picture of the Malabar. And then she said, "I write serious poetry like yours myself, too, but I have a piece here that I think you will like because it's about a boy." She gave it to us&mdash;and so I can copy it down, and I will, for it shows that some grown-up ladies are not so silly as others. I like