Author's Note: I've made Billy about 8 years old here.

Mary Travis was deep into writing an article for the Clarion when the door to the newspaper office flew open, slamming against the wall hard enough to make the curtains move and the windows rattle.

"Ma!"

"Billy!" The noise had startled Mary enough to bring her to her feet, notes clutched to her chest as she glared at the door. "How many times have I told you – ? Oh! JD?" Her face paled.

On the threshold behind the youngster, the sheriff stood with hat in hand, looking a little embarrassed. "Sorry, Mrs. Travis. I guess Billy's just a little excited."

Mary gripped her papers tighter. "Why? What's happened?"

Trust a news reporter to expect the worst. At JD's smile of reassurance, Mary relaxed.

"Nothing bad, Ma. Only that I've got two holes in my trousers." Billy waited about two seconds to get the hoped for frown, then yelled, "The holes I put my feet through!" and shrieked with laughter.

"Oh, a joke." Mary smiled indulgently.

"Now listen to this," Billy said with excitement. "Guess! What's black and white and red all over?"

"I think I know the answer to that one," his mother teased. She picked up a recent issue of the Clarion. "Is it this?"

Billy scowled. "Yeah, that's it. It's a newspaper. Cause it's read all over. But you weren't supposed to know it."

"Oh, I'm sorry, honey." Realizing her error, Mary went around the desk to give Billy a one armed hug. He pulled away with a shrug. Mary straightened, a little embarrassed herself. Primly, she set the papers down and folded her hands before her. "Is there something I can do for you, JD? Has Billy been bothering you at the office?"

"Oh, no, ma'am. As a matter of fact – "

"I'm not bothering him," Billy interrupted. "Me and JD – "

"Sheriff Dunne and I," Mary corrected.

"Sheriff Dunne and I." Billy looked at JD, who gave him an encouraging nod. "We have something for the paper."

"Really?" Mary backed up to lean against the desk, arms crossed. "I'm interested."

"Why was 6 afraid of 7?" Billy blurted out. "Because 6, 7, 8! No, wait, that's not right, it's um – "

"7, 8, 9," JD said quietly.

"Oh! Yeah. 7 ate 9." Billy beamed at his mother.

Mary threw JD a confused look. "Your news item?"

"Oh, right." JD stepped up next to Billy. Raising his hands in the air, he sketched an invisible line. "Local Doughnut Maker Closes Shop."

"What?" Utterly baffled, Mary frowned. "What local doughnut maker?"

"Oh, uh, in Eagle Bend," JD said. "Um, heard about it this morning."

Mary was feeling a little rattled. Shaking her head a bit, she picked up a pencil. "Well, it's hardly 'local'," she said, "but I'm always looking for items of interest. This baker, what is his name?"

Billy and JD looked at each other and shrugged. "Mister...Baker?" Billy tried.

Mary looked from one to the other. "Do you know anything about this business? Why is the shop closing?"

"Yes, we do know that." JD assured. He and Billy looked at each other and grinned before JD delivered the punch line. "Because he got tired of the whole business." And Billy repeated with emphasis, "The hole business."

Mary suppressed a scowl. The visit had brought a welcome and somewhat amusing break to her day, but it was getting ridiculous. She was very busy and needed to cut it short. "So what is this about?" she asked brusquely.

"Oh, all good fun, I promise," JD said. "I was just sharing my new book, Laffs and Laffs, with Billy." From his coat pocket, JD produced a paperback for her inspection. The tan cover featured a crude drawing of hyenas rolling on the ground under the crooked title.

"It's spelled L-A-F-F-S," Billy giggled.

"Gloria Potter sold you this?" Mary said faintly. Briefly riffling the pages of the cheap book and seeing nothing lurid, she handed it back. "Now, really. What is this the purpose of this?"

Adjusting his posture, Billy copied his mother's business-like tone. "The Clarion is boring. It needs something in it so kids will want to read the paper, too."

Mary arched her eyebrows. "Boring?"

JD winced and laid a hand on the boy's shoulder. He had the feeling Mary might be getting to the end of her patience. "Maybe I should show her." He indicated the folded copy of the newspaper on the desk. "May I draw on that?"

"I suppose so." She handed the paper over, and JD spread it flat on the desk. With a pencil, he drew a sizable box around some text at the bottom of the page and captioned it "KID'S KORNER". Mary watched with interest. "A children's corner? I've seen newspapers that have them." She tipped her head critically at JD's handiwork. "I do think correct spelling is important."

"No, Ma." Snatching the pencil, Billy leaned in and drew bold circles around the K's. "See, you spell Korner with a K, to go with Kids." He stabbed the pencil at the paper, speaking faster and faster. "We'll put the jokes here, and other stuff, stories and poems that kids like. Maybe even run contests. Me and JD, I mean Sheriff Dunne and me, we'll do it. You won't have to help with anything, Ma – except the stories and the poems. Me and JD, Sheriff Dunne, we'll handle all the jokes."

He looked up with a triumphant grin. "What did one wall say to the other wall? Meet me at the corner! Get it?"

His mother laughed.

"So what do you think?" Billy's eyes were bright.

Mary gazed down on him with devotion. He was so eager. Her thoughts turned unexpectedly to a vision of the future. Billy, editor of the Children's Corner at this young age, would be exposed firsthand to newspaper publishing. He would grow up enthralled with news of the world, someday take over the business she and his father had built – the dream they followed to this town. Oh, my. Feeling herself getting misty eyed, Mary blinked the vision away. She smiled at her son. "Well, I will definitely put some thought into it."

"That sounds real good. Just let me know. Thanks for your time, Mrs. Travis." JD tugged at the boy's sleeve. "Your mother has work to do. I think we'd better go now."

Billy had seen the dreamy look on his mother's face. "She'll do it," he whispered loudly as he and JD went out the door.

Mary sat down, wiped the corner of one eye, and tapped a pencil on the desk. Smiling gently, she turned her attention back to work. Suddenly, the door slammed open again, and Mary's head came up with a start. Billy hollered, "And don't worry, Ma, we'll neverrun out of jokes. 'Cause JD says he's got a million!"

End

Author's Note: I fully acknowledge that the jokes in this little story are anachronistic (as far as I know, only the first one is from the 1800's). The fact is, an online search of jokes from that time period reveals that most of them are not very funny. So please forgive, because this was just for fun.