"I think you'll be able to get them reasonable," said Tom.
"In which case," added Helen, "you'd better appoint Tom as business manager, mechanical department, and handyman."
"And you might as well name Helen as editor, reporter and first assistant to the handyman," grinned Tom.
"I've filled my positions easier than I expected," smiled Mrs. Blair. "As publisher, I'll stay at home and keep out of your way."
"Mother, we don't want you to do that," exclaimed Helen. "We want you to come down and help us whenever you have time."
"Lots of things. For instance, jot down all of the personal items you know about your friends and about all of the club meetings. That would be a great help to me. Sometimes in the evening maybe you'd even find time to write them up, for Tom and I are going to be frightfully busy between going to school and running the _Herald_."
"I'll tell the town," said Tom. "If you'd handle the society news, Mother, you could make it a great feature. The _Herald_ has never paid much attention to the social events in town. Guess Dad was too busy. But I think the women would appreciate having all of their parties written up. I could set up a nice head, 'Society News of Rolfe,' and we'd run a column or so every week on one of the inside pages."
"You're getting me all excited, Tom," said his mother. "Your father said I never would make a newspaper woman but if you and Helen will have a little patience with me, I'd really enjoy writing the social items."
"Have patience with you, Mother?" said Helen. "It's a case of whether you'll have patience with us."
"We're going to have to plan our time carefully," said Tom, "for we'll have to keep up in our school work. I've got it doped out like this. Superintendent Fowler says Helen and I can go half days and as long as we cover all of the class work, receive full credit. The first half of the week is going to be the busiest for me. I'll have to solicit my ads, set them up, do what job work I have time for and set up the stories Helen turns out for the paper. I could get in more time in the afternoon than in the morning so Helen had better plan on taking the mornings on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday away from school."
"It will work out better for her, too," went on Tom. "Many of the big news events happen over the week-end and she'll be on the job Monday morning. I'll have every afternoon and evening for my share of the work and for studying. Then we'll both take Thursday afternoon away from school and get the paper out. And on Friday, Mother, if you'll come down and stay at the office, we'll go to school all day. How does that sound?"