ut to meet his visitors. They have come to crown
the feast, and signalize the anniversary, by bringing their
congratulations to the proprietor, and the beautiful lady who presides
over his house. There is a great deal of awkwardness among the young
men, and tittering and blushing among the young women, with side play
of jest and coquetry, as they form themselves in a line, preparatory to
something formal, which presently appears.

Mr. Yates, the agent of the mill, who has consented to be the spokesman
of the occasion, stands in front, and faces Mr. Benedict and Mrs.
Dillingham.

"Mr. Benedict," says he, "this demonstration in your honor is not one
originated by myself, but, in some way, these good people who serve you
learned that you were to have a formal celebration of this anniversary,
and they have asked me to assist them in expressing the honor in which
they hold you, and the sympathy with which they enter into your
rejoicing. We all know your history. Many of those who now stand before
you, remember your wrongs and your misfortunes; and there is not one who
does not rejoice that you have received that which your own genius won
in the hands of another. There is not one who does not rejoice that the
evil influence of this house is departed, and that one now occupies it
who thoroughly respects and honors the manhood and womanhood that labor
in his service. We are glad to acknowledge you as our master, because we
know that we can regard you as our friend. Your predecessor despised
poverty--even the poverty into which he was born--and forgot, in the
first moment of his success, that he had ever been poor, while your own
bitter experiences have made you brotherly. On behalf of all those who
now stand before you, let me thank you for your sympathy, for your
practical efforts to give us a share in the results of your prosperity,
and for the purifying influences which go out from this dwelling into
all our humble homes. We give you our congratulations on this
anniversary, and hope for happy returns of the day, until, among the
inevitable changes of the future, we all yield our places to those who
are to succeed us."

Mr. Benedict's eyes are full of tears. He does not turn, however, to Mr.
Balfour, for help. The consciousness of power, and, more than this, the
consciousness of universal sympathy, give him self-possession and the
power of expression.

"Mr. Yates," says Mr. Benedict, "when you call me master, you give me