rties, because I was afraid of
the end; now the end proved quite easy, and could be done in the pace;
so the beginning remains about a quarter tone out (in places); but I
have rather decided to let it stay so. The problem is always delicate;
it is the only thing that worries me in first person tales, which
otherwise (quo' Alan) "set better wi' my genius." There is a vast deal
of fact in the story, and some pretty good comedy. It is the first
realistic South Sea story; I mean with real South Sea character and
details of life. Everybody else who has tried, that I have seen, got
carried away by the romance, and ended in a kind of sugar candy sham
epic, and the whole effect was lost--there was no etching, no human
grin, consequently no conviction. Now I have got the smell and look of
the thing a good deal. You will know more about the South Seas after you
have read my little tale than if you had read a library. As to whether
any one else will read it, I have no guess. I am in an off time, but
there is just the possibility it might make a hit; for the yarn is good
and melodramatic, and there is quite a love affair--for me; and Mr.
Wiltshire (the narrator) is a huge lark, though I say it. But there is
always the exotic question, and everything, the life, the place, the
dialects--trader's talk, which is a strange conglomerate of literary
expressions and English and American slang, and Beach de Mar, or native
English,--the very trades and hopes and fears of the characters, are all
novel, and may be found unwelcome to that great, hulking, bullering
whale, the public.

Since I wrote, I have been likewise drawing up a document to send in to
the President; it has been dreadfully delayed, not by me, but to-day
they swear it will be sent in. A list of questions about the dynamite
report are herein laid before him, and considerations suggested why he
should answer.

_October 5th._--Ever since my last snatch I have been much chivied about
over the President business; his answer has come, and is an evasion
accompanied with schoolboy insolence, and we are going to try to answer
it. I drew my answer and took it down yesterday; but one of the
signatories wants another paragraph added, which I have not yet been
able to draw, and as to the wisdom of which I am not yet convinced.

_Next day, Oct. 7th the right day._--We are all in rather a muddled
state with our President affair. I do loathe politics, but at the same
time, I cannot stand b