itation with
extreme politeness; and, from inability to express my joy in any other
way, winked to my friend Wiseacre, with whom I had become, by this time,
pretty familiar. He, being also invited, winked in return to me; and
having disposed of this piece of juvenile freemasonry to our
satisfaction, we assisted the crew in giving three hearty cheers, as the
little steamer darted from the side and proceeded to the shore.

The dinner, like all other public dinners, was as good and substantial
as a lavish expenditure of cash could make it; but really my
recollections of it are very indistinct. The ceaseless din of plates,
glasses, knives, forks, and tongues was tremendous; and this, together
with the novelty of the scene, the heat of the room, and excellence of
the viands, tended to render me oblivious of much that took place.
Almost all the faces present were strange to me. Who were, and who were
not, the gentlemen of the committee, was to me matter of the most
perfect indifference; and as no one took the trouble to address me in
particular, I confined myself to the interesting occupation of trying to
make sense of a conversation held by upwards of fifty pairs of lungs at
one and the same time. Nothing intelligible, however, was to be heard,
except when a sudden lull in the noise gave a bald-headed old gentleman
near the head of the table an opportunity of drinking the health of a
red-faced old gentleman near the foot, upon whom he bestowed an amount
of flattery perfectly bewildering; and after making the unfortunate
red-faced gentleman writhe for half an hour in a fever of modesty, sat
down amid thunders of applause. Whether the applause, by the way, was
intended for the speaker or the _speakee_, I do not know; but being
quite indifferent, I clapped my hands with the rest. The red-faced
gentleman, now purple with excitement, then rose, and during a solemn
silence delivered himself of a speech, to the effect that the day then
passing was certainly the happiest in his mortal career, that he could
not find words adequately to express the varied feelings which swelled
his throbbing bosom, and that he felt quite faint with the mighty load
of honour just thrown upon his delighted shoulders by his bald-headed
friend. The red-faced gentleman then sat down to the national air of
rat-tat-tat, played in full chorus with knives, forks, spoons,
nut-crackers, and knuckles on the polished surface of the mahogany
table.

We lef