I threw down the _Atlantic_ for this reason: (Consider the history of its editors) Lowell[5] complained bitterly that he was never rewarded properly for the time and work he did; Fields was (in a way) one of its owners; it was sold out from under Howells, etc., etc.

I might (probably should) have been at the mercy completely of owners some day who would have dismissed me for a younger man.

Nearly all hired editors suffer this fate.

My good friends in Boston were sincere in thinking that my day of doom would never come; but they didn't offer me any guarantee--part ownership, for instance; and the years go swiftly.

I could afford, of my own volition, to leave the _Atlantic_.