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 THE RANDALL FAMILY 3 1

Thereupon he laughed, and said he did not see where the difference lay, for whatever he undertook he considered it his duty to have properly performed. "Well," said I, "if you say so, I shall believe you, because you have been re- ported to me as a man of your word." So, as I really pre- ferred him to any other publisher and was pleased with his plain, straightforward way, I concluded to make my own contracts and to have the entire control of my work. Moreover, I was not willing that, if my book failed in his hands, he should owe his loss to any solicitation of mine. If this thought had not weighed with me, I think I could easily have induced him to contract with me for a term of years, as he seemed desirous to have me feel satisfied.

I do not know whether I have not erred in making this last proposition. But I am sure that I should not have felt willing to abandon my property in the plates. As my book is a good book, it seems to me that it ought after a while to make its way, especially if any one should review it justly, which I wish that some man like Mr. Ephraim Peabody would do in the "North American," if it were but a few pages. Yet, though I shall send him a copy, and though I feel sure that he will like it, I should not suggest to him the doing of such a thing, because it would put him under a very unpleasant restraint, unless he should first have read it and should have expressed him- self very favorably concerning it. As I have forbidden all puffing, intending that the book shall sink or swim accord- ing to its strength, I should not be surprised if it lay asleep for long ; for I well know that studious and thoughtful persons (and for such it is designed) are the very last to be hunting up and down the earth after new books. Indeed, I scarcely hear of a book myself, till it has been going the rounds for five years.

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