velty of this life soon wore away, and I found myself the creature
of no romance, but plodding along a prosy road with very practical
people.

I carried my MSS. into Paternoster Row like anybody's book-keeper, and
accused the world of no particular ingratitude that it could not read my
name with my articles, and that it gave itself no concern to discover
me. Yet there was a private pleasure in the congeniality of my labor,
and in the consciousness that I could float upon my quill even in this
vast London sea. Once or twice my articles went across the Channel and
returned in foreign dress. I wonder if I shall ever again feel the
thrill of that first recognition of my offspring coming to my knee with
their strange French prattle.

I was not uniformly successful, but, if rejected, my MSS. were
courteously returned, with a note from the editor. As a sample I give
the following. The original is a lithographed fac-simile of the
handwriting of Mr. Dickens, printed in blue ink, the date and the title
of the manuscript being in another handwriting.

OFFICE OF "ALL THE YEAR ROUND."

A WEEKLY JOURNAL CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS.

NO. 26 WELLINGTON STREET, STRAND, LONDON, W. C.
_January 27, 1863._

Mr. Charles Dickens begs to thank the writer of the paper entitled
"A Battle Sunday" for having done him the favor to offer it as a
contribution to these pages. He much regrets, however, that it is
not suited to the requirements of "All the Year Round."

The manuscript will be returned, under cover, if applied for as
above.

The prices of miscellaneous articles in London are remunerative.
Twenty-four shillings a magazine page is the common valuation: but
specially interesting papers rate higher. Literature as a profession, in
England, is more certain and more progressive than with us. It is not
debased with the heavy leaven of journalism. Among the many serial
publications of London, ability, tact, and industry should always find a
liberal market. There is less of the vagrancy of letters,--Bohemianism,
Mohicanism, or what not,--in London than in either New York or Paris.

I think we have the cleverer fugitive writers in America, but those of
England seemed to me to have more self-respect and conscientiousness.
The soul of the scribe need never be in pledge if there are many
masters.

While a good writer in any department can find work a