[ MY FIRST LITERARY VENTURE. gS 



sustain, and from this time forth when he wants to commune with his' friends in 

 h — 1, he must select some other medium than the columns of this journal ! " 



The paper came out, and I never knew any little thing attract so much attention 

 as those playful trifles of mine. 



For once the Hannibal Journal was in demand — a novelty it had not experienced 

 before. The whole town was stirred. Higgins dropped in with a double-barrelled 

 shot-gun early in the forenoon. When he found that it was an infant (as he called 

 me) that had done him the damage, he simply pulled my ears and went away ; but 

 he threw up liis situation that night and left town for good. The tailor came with 

 his goose and a pair of shears; but he despised me too, and departed for the South 

 that night. The two lampooned citizens came with threats of libel, and went away 

 incensed at my insignificance. The country editor pranced in with a warwhoop 

 uext day, suffering for blood to drink ; but he ended by forgiving me cordially and 

 inviting me down to the drug store to wash away all animosity in a friendly bump- 

 er of " Fahnestock's Vermifuge." It was his little joke. My uncle was very angry 

 when he got back — unreasonably so, I thought, considering what an impetus I had 

 given the paper, and considering also that gratitude for his preservation ought to 

 have been uppermost in his mind, inasmuch as by his delay he had so wonderfully 

 escaped dissection, tomahawking, libel, and getting his head shot off. But he 

 softened when he looked at the accounts and saw that I had actually booked the 

 unparalleled number of thirty-three new subscribers, and had the vegetables to 

 show for it, cordwood, cabbage, beans, and unsalable turnips enough to run the 

 family for two years ! 



