Binding a number of copies in green cloth, he issued them himself; for Messrs. Osgood had made over to him the printed sheets and plates. At midsummer, he transferred the latter to a Philadelphia firm--afterwards Mr. David McKay--who immediately brought out an edition which sold in a single day.[632] Persecution had, as usual, assisted the cause, and for some months the sale continued brisk, bringing Whitman at the year's end royalties to the amount of nearly £300.[633] * * * * * The Osgood disaster was not the only menace to Whitman's slender income during these years. The plates of the original Boston edition of 1860 were still extant, having been bought at auction by a somewhat unscrupulous person, who, in spite of Whitman's protest, succeeded in putting a number of copies upon the market. This affair was already worrying Whitman when he lay ill at St. Louis, and it was not till just before the publication of Messrs. Osgood's edition that some sort of settlement with this Mr. Worthington was effected. The author seems to have accepted a nominal sum by way of royalty,[634] and was dissuaded from seeking the legal redress for which at first he had hoped. The surreptitious sale of this spurious edition was, however, continued till his death. * * * * * [Illustration: GLENDALE STORE, 1904: WHITMAN OCCUPIED ONE OF THE ROOMS LOOKING OUT OVER THE VERANDAH] Much of the winter of 1881 to 1882 had been spent at Glendale; and during the following autumn he was busy with the proofs of _Specimen Days and Collect_, a volume of about the same size as the _Leaves_, and similar in appearance, which embraced the bulk of his prose writings up to that time, including a selection from the early tales and sketches. The plan of separation adopted in the Centennial edition, in which the supplementary volume consisted of both prose and verse, was now abandoned, and the whole of Whitman's verse--with the exception of rejected passages which are numerous--was re-arranged and fitted together into the enlarged scheme of the _Leaves_. This new arrangement is not without interest. First comes the prefatory section intended to prepare the reader, and to indicate the character of the book--it belongs largely, in order of time, to the later, more explanatory period. There follows the original poem, now known as "The Song of Myself," with its assertion of the Divine and final Me--the inherent purpose and personality of the All--and its gospel of Self-Realisation. After this we have the poems of Sex--life's reproductive energy--by which self-assertion is carried out towards society; and then of comradeship and the social passion. These complete the first section of the book, and, as it were, bring the individual to his or her majority. Henceforward he is a man and citizen.