Who was to write the first chapter?
A great deal depended on how it was done.

The style of the first chapter would give tone to the whole novel, and, so to speak, show the way for all the other chapters.
"I thought," said Harry, in his suspicious off-hand way, "if you took the even numbers and I took the odd, that might do." Might it?
That would mean he would write Chapter One.

I wanted to write Chapter One.

On the other hand, it would mean I should have Chapter twelve, with the execution in it, which would suit me very well.
I mentioned the fact, and could see that Harry had forgotten it, for he tried hard to back out of his arrangement.
"I think you'd do the first chapter best," said he.

"There's some scenery in it, you know, and you're more of a dab at that than I am." But my modesty preferred the even numbers, and our novel looked very like being water-logged before she had even been launched.
A compromise was, however, arrived at.