on suburb. "As I look about this hall to-night," he began in a
doleful whine, "I see many empty seats." Here he stifled a sob. "Nor am
I surprised that a great many of our people should prefer to-night to
stay quietly at home--"

I had no clue to what he meant. I merely gathered that some particular
sorrow must have overwhelmed the town that day.

"To many it may seem hardly fitting that after the loss our town has
sustained we should come out here to listen to a humorous lecture,--",
"What's the trouble?" I whispered to a citizen sitting beside me on the
platform.

"Our oldest resident"--he whispered back--"he died this morning."

"How old?"

"Ninety-four," he whispered.

Meantime the chairman, with deep sobs in his voice, continued:

"We debated in our committee whether or not we should have the lecture.
Had it been a lecture of another character our position would have been
less difficult,--", By this time I began to feel like a criminal. "The
case would have been different had the lecture been one that contained
information, or that was inspired by some serious purpose, or that could
have been of any benefit. But this is not so. We understand that this
lecture which Mr. Leacock has already given, I believe, twenty or thirty
times in England,--"

Here he turned to me with a look of mild reproval while the silent
audience, deeply moved, all looked at me as at a man who went around
the country insulting the memory of the dead by giving a lecture thirty
times.

"We understand, though this we shall have an opportunity of testing for
ourselves presently, that Mr. Leacock's lecture is not of a character
which,--has not, so to speak, the kind of value, in short, is not a
lecture of that class."

Here he paused and choked back a sob.

"Had our poor friend been spared to us for another six years he would
have rounded out the century. But it was not to be. For two or three
years past he has noted that somehow his strength was failing, that, for
some reason or other, he was no longer what he had been. Last month
he began to droop. Last week he began to sink. Speech left him last
Tuesday. This morning he passed, and he has gone now, we trust, in
safety to where there are no lectures."

The audience were now nearly in tears.

The chairman made a visible effort towards firmness and control.

"But yet," he continued, "our committee felt that in another sense
it was our duty to go on with our arrangements. I think,