An amusing instance of this occurred on an occasion when Pollard was
sea-sick and could not read to J. P. at breakfast. I was hurriedly
summoned to take his place. I was dumbfounded, for I had never before
been called upon for this task, and Mr. Pulitzer had often held it up to
me as the last test of fitness, the charter of your graduation. I had
nothing whatever prepared of the kind which J. P. required at that time,
and I knew that upon the success of his breakfast might very well depend
the general complexion of his whole day.
In desperation I rushed into Pollard's cabin, and its unhappy occupant,
with a generosity which even seasickness could not chill, gave me a
bundle of Spectators, Athenaeums, and Literary Digests, with pencil
marks in the margins indicating exactly what he had intended to read in
the ordinary course of things. I breathed a sigh of relief and hastened
to the library, where I found J. P. very nervous and out of sorts after
a bad night.
He immediately began to deplore Pollard's absence, on the ground that it
was impossible for anyone to know what to read to him at breakfast
without years of experience and training. I said nothing, feeling secure
with Pollard's prepared "breakfast food," as we called it, in front of
me.
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