Episode 8

One day he learned that Mr.Elkins was associated with the publishing house of Harper and Brothers.Edward had heard his father speak of Harper's Weekly and of the great part it had played in the Civil War;his father also brought home an occasional copy of Harper's Weekly and of Harper's Magazine.He had seen Harper's Young People; the name of Harper and Brothers was on some of his school-books; and he pictured in his mind how wonderful it must be for a man to be associated with publishers of periodicals that other people read, and books that other folks studied.The Sunday-school superintendent henceforth became a figure of importance in Edward's eyes; many a morning the boy hastened from home long before the hour for school, and seated himself on the steps of the Elkins house under the pretext of waiting for Mr.Elkins's son to go to school, but really for the secret purpose of seeing Mr.

Elkins set forth to engage in the momentous business of making books and periodicals.Edward would look after the superintendent's form until it was lost to view; then, with a sigh, he would go to school, forgetting all about the Elkins boy whom he had told the father he had come to call for!

One day Edward was introduced to a girl whose father, he learned, was editor of the New York Weekly.Edward could not quite place this periodical; he had never seen it, he had never heard of it.So he bought a copy, and while its contents seemed strange, and its air unfamiliar in comparison with the magazines he found in his home, still an editor was an editor.He was certainly well worth knowing.So he sought his newly made young lady friend, asked permission to call upon her, and to Edward's joy was introduced to her father.It was enough for Edward to look furtively at the editor upon his first call, and being encouraged to come again, he promptly did so the next evening.The daughter has long since passed away, and so it cannot hurt her feelings now to acknowledge that for years Edward paid court to…