inquired Mr. Reefer with a shade more geniality in his tone . `` Oh , no ! I 've nothing to do with it , so you wo n't mind my being inexperienced , will you ? I do n't know just what I should ask you , so wo n't you please just tell me everything about the bill , and Mr. Harmer can cut out what does n't matter ? '' Mr. Reefer looked at Patty for a few moments with a face about as expressive as a graven image . Perhaps he was thinking about the bill , and perhaps he was thinking what a bright , vivid , plucky little girl this was with her waiting pencil and her air that strove to be businesslike , and only succeeded in being eager and hopeful and anxious . `` I 'm not used to being interviewed myself , '' he said slowly , `` so I do n't know very much about it . We 're both green hands together , I imagine . But I 'd like to help you out , so I do n't mind telling you what I think about this bill , and its bearing on certain important interests . '' Mr. Reefer proceeded to tell her , and Patty 's pencil flew as she scribbled down his terse , pithy sentences . She found herself asking questions too , and enjoying it . For the first time , Patty thought she might rather like politics if she understood them -- and they did not seem so hard to understand when a man like Mr. Reefer explained them . For half an hour he talked to her , and at the end of that time Patty was in full possession of his opinion on the famous railroad bill in all its aspects . `` There now , I 'm talked out , '' said Mr. Reefer . `` You can tell your news editor that you know as much about the railroad bill as Andrew Reefer knows . I hope you 'll succeed in pleasing him , and that your brother will get the position he wants . But he should n't have missed that train . You tell him that . Boys with important things to do must n't miss trains . Perhaps it 's just as well he did in this case though , but tell him not to let it happen again . ''
Patty went straight home , wrote up her interview in ship-shape form , and took it down XXXXX the Chronicle office .
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