g--he was the _sixty-seventh_ man who entered the room. He was
greeted with a storm of applause! The poor fellow had missed his
way--read the street signs ill through his spectacles (very ill, in
fact, without them)--and had not dared to inquire. He entered the
room--finding the president and secretary holding to their chairs two
judges of the Supreme Court, who were also members _ex officio_, and
were begging leave to go away. On his entrance all was changed.
_Presto_, the by-laws were amended, and the Western property was given
away. Nobody stopped to converse with him. He voted, as I had charged
him to do, in every instance, with the minority. I won new laurels as
a man of sense, though a little unpunctual--and Dennis, _alias_
Ingham, returned to the parsonage, astonished to see with how little
wisdom the world is governed. He cut a few of my parishioners in the
street; but he had his glasses off, and I am known to be nearsighted.
Eventually he recognized them more readily than I.

I "set him again" at the exhibition of the New Coventry Academy; and
here he undertook a "speaking part"--as, in my boyish, worldly days, I
remember the bills used to say of Mlle. Celeste. We are all trustees
of the New Coventry Academy; and there has lately been "a good deal of
feeling" because the Sandemanian trustees did not regularly attend the
exhibitions. It has been intimated, indeed, that the Sandemanians are
leaning towards Free-Will, and that we have, therefore, neglected
these semi-annual exhibitions, while there is no doubt that Auchmuty
last year went to Commencement at Waterville. Now the head master at
New Coventry is a real good fellow, who knows a Sanskrit root when he
sees it, and often cracks etymologies with me--so that, in strictness,
I ought to go to their exhibitions. But think, reader, of sitting
through three long July days in that Academy chapel, following the
program from

Tuesday Morning. English Composition. Sunshine. Miss Jones,

round to

Trio on Three Pianos. Duel from opera of Midshipman Easy. Marryatt.

coming in at nine, Thursday evening! Think of this, reader, for men
who know the world is trying to go backward, and who would give their
lives if they could help it on! Well! The double had succeeded so well
at the Board, that I sent him to the Academy. (Shade of Plato,
pardon!) He arrived early on Tuesday, when, indeed, few but mothers
and clergymen are generally expected, and returned in the eve