nd men are besieging a fortress whose equipment of provisions is
so-and-so; it is a military axiom that at the end of forty-five days the
fort will surrender. Now, young men, if any of you were in command of
such a fortress, how would you proceed?'

"Derby held up his hand in token that he had an answer for that
question. He said, 'I would march out, let the enemy in, and at the end
of forty-five days I would change places with him.'

"I tried hard, during that interview, to get General Grant to agree to
write his personal memoirs for publication, but he wouldn't listen to
the suggestion. His inborn diffidence made him shrink from voluntarily
coming before the public and placing himself under criticism as an
author. He had no confidence in his ability to write well; whereas we
all know now that he possessed an admirable literary gift and style. He
was also sure that the book would have no sale, and of course that would
be a humility too. I argued that the book would have an enormous sale,
and that out of my experience I could save him from making unwise
contracts with publishers, and would have the contract arranged in such
a way that they could not swindle him, but he said he had no necessity
for any addition to his income. Of course he could not foresee that he
was camping on a volcano; that as Ward's partner he was a ruined man
even then, and of course I had no suspicion that in four years from
that time I would become his publisher. He would not agree to write his
memoirs. He only said that some day he would make very full notes and
leave them behind him, and then if his children chose to make them into
a book they could do so. We came away then. He fulfilled his promise
entirely concerning Howells's father, who held his office until he
resigned of his own accord."

CXXXVI. "THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER"

During the summer absence alterations were made in the Hartford home,
with extensive decorations by Tiffany. The work was not completed when
the family returned. Clemens wrote to Charles Warren Stoddard, then
in the Sandwich Islands, that the place was full of carpenters and
decorators, whereas what they really needed was "an incendiary."

If the house would only burn down we would pack up the cubs and fly to
the isles of the blest, and shut ourselves up in the healing solitudes
of the crater of Haleakala and get a good rest, for the mails do not
intrude there, nor yet the telephone and the telegraph; and af