But in the voting the three young footmen
supported me nobly. _They_ wanted fireworks, and were not wasting
any money on lecturers: also there was a feeling in Kirris-vean that,
while a regatta could scarcely be held without boat-racing, the
prizes should be just sufficient to attract competitors and yet on a
scale provoking no one to grumble at the amount of subscribed money
lost to the village. A free public tea was suggested. I resisted
this largesse; and we compromised on 'No Charge for Bona-fide
Schoolchildren'--whatever that might mean--and 'Fourpence a head for
Adults.'

The weather prospects, as the moment drew near, filled us with
anxious forebodings, for the anti-cyclonic spell showed signs of
breaking, and the Sunday and Monday wore lowering faces. But Tuesday
dawned brilliantly; and when after a hasty breakfast I walked over to
Kirris-vean, I found Sir Felix waiting for me at the top of the hill
in his open landau, with a smile on his face, a rose in his
button-hole, and a white waistcoat that put all misgivings to shame.
'A perfect day!' he called out with a wave of the hand.

'A foxy one,' I suggested, and pointed out that the wind sat in a
doubtful quarter, that it was backing against the sun, that it was
light and might at any time die away and cheat us of our sailing
matches.

'Always the boats with you!' he rallied me; 'my dear sir, it is going
to be perfect. As the song says, "We've got the ships, we've got the
men, and we've got the money too." An entire success, you may take
my word for it!'

We descended the hill to find the village gay with bunting, the
competing boats lying ready off the pier, a sizeable crowd already
gathered, and the Committee awaiting us at the beach-head. Each
committee-man wore a favour of blue-and-white ribbon, and upon our
arrival every hat flew off to Sir Felix, while the band played
'See the Conquering Hero Comes!'

It was, not to put too fine a point on the description, an atrocious
band. It had come from afar, from one of the inland china-clay
villages, and in hiring it the Committee had been constant to its
principle that no more money than was necessary should be allowed to
go out of Kirris-vean. Report--malicious, I feel sure--reached me
later, that, at the first note of it, an aloe in Sir Felix's gardens,
a mile away--a plant noted for blossoming once only in a hundred
years-burst into profuse and instantaneous bloom. Sir Felix himself,
who abound