`` Prime , is n't it ? '' asked the boy , as her eye went down the last paragraph of her portion . `` I think you and I could do as well as that if we tried , '' returned Jo , amused at his admiration of the trash . `` I should think I was a pretty lucky chap if I could . She makes a good living out of such stories , they say . '' and he pointed to the name of Mrs. S.L.A.N.G. Northbury , under the title of the tale . `` Do you know her ? '' asked Jo , with sudden interest . `` No , but I read all her pieces , and I know a fellow who works in the office where this paper is printed . '' `` Do you say she makes a good living out of stories like this ? '' and Jo looked more respectfully at the agitated group and thickly sprinkled exclamation points that adorned the page . `` Guess she does ! She knows just what folks like , and gets paid well for writing it . '' Here the lecture began , but Jo heard very little of it , for while Professor Sands was prosing away about Belzoni , Cheops , scarabei , and hieroglyphics , she was covertly taking down the address of the paper , and boldly resolving to try for the hundred-dollar prize offered in its columns for a sensational story . By the time the lecture ended and the audience awoke , she had built up a splendid fortune for herself -LRB- not the first founded on paper -RRB- , and was already deep in the concoction of her story , being unable to decide whether the duel should come before the elopement or after the murder . She said nothing of her plan at home , but fell to work next day , much to the disquiet of her mother , who always looked a little anxious when ` genius took to burning ' . Jo had never tried this style before , contenting herself with very mild romances for The Spread Eagle . Her experience and miscellaneous reading were of service now , for they gave her some idea of dramatic effect , and supplied plot , language , and costumes . Her story was as full of desperation and despair as her limited acquaintance with those uncomfortable emotions enabled her to make it , and having located it in Lisbon , she wound up with an earthquake , as a striking and appropriate denouement . The manuscript was privately dispatched , accompanied by a note , modestly saying that if the tale did n't get the prize , which the writer hardly dared expect , she would be very glad to receive any sum it might be considered worth .
Six weeks is a long time to wait , and a still longer time for a girl to keep a secret , but XXXXX did both , and was just beginning to give up all hope of ever seeing her manuscript again , when a letter arrived which almost took her breath away , for on opening it , a check for a hundred dollars fell into her lap .
Belzoni Cheops Eagle Jo Northbury Sands concoction elopement first hieroglyphics