it was the Valley of Humiliation at all, but fancied it the
Delectable Mountains. So, upon the first symptoms of placability,
I answered cordially,--

"Halicarnassus, it has been the ambition of my life to write
a book of travels. But to write a book of travels, one must
first have travelled."

"Not at all," he responded. "With an atlas and an encyclopaedia
one can travel around the world in his arm-chair."

"But one cannot have personal adventures," I said. "You can,
indeed, sit in your arm-chair and describe the crater of
Vesuvius; but you cannot tumble into the crater of Vesuvius
from your arm-chair."

"I have never heard that it was necessary to tumble in, in
order to have a good view of the mountain."

"But it s necessary to do it, if one would make a readable book."

"Then I should let the book slide,--rather than slide myself."

"If you would do me the honor to listen," I said, scornful of
his paltry attempt at wit, "you would see that the book is the
object of my travelling. I travel to write. I do not write
because I have travelled. I am not going to subordinate my
book to my adventures. My adventures are going to be arranged
beforehand with a view to my book."