Meetings with King 



just conception ; it was a trait the 

 more in the character of a young au- 

 thor who afforded to have it in a mag- 

 nificent superfluity along with his 

 artistic gifts. It made him more pic- 

 turesque, though it could not make 

 him more pictorial than he was. 



Later, I found that it had rather 

 the first place in his self-estimate, and 

 he amused himself in meeting my 

 reproaches for not having done some- 

 thing more in literature with the an- 

 swer that he was writing a book which 

 just three people in the United States 

 would care to read. This reply may 

 have been first made by letter in re- 

 sponse to my editorial entreaties for 

 more papers like the Mountaineering 

 series, for the magazine having fallen 

 solely to me, I knew I could not do 

 better for it. Perhaps, however, it 

 may have been personally urged at 

 my second meeting with him, which 

 was at Washing-ton, where he was 



140 



