OURSELVES, AND OTHERS 193 



side, and count many of its people as amongst 

 our dear friends, agree that we prefer to 

 meet our fellow-countrymen after they have 

 had time to be well aired, and have emerged 

 from that crude condition which may not 

 unfitly be described as * sending home for 

 our things.' After awhile even the English 

 man or woman discovers that in a pro- 

 gressive and civilized country * things ' can 

 actually be purchased well and cheaply. 

 Perhaps four to six years is the time to 

 allot to our countryman for purposes of 

 growth, at the close of which period, pro- 

 vided he is a hopeful member of any kind 

 of society which, alack ! is far from being 

 inevitably the case he settles down into a 

 citizenship, whether naturalized or otherwise, 

 with which both he and his neighbours have 

 reason to be satisfied. But the process 

 aforesaid is to the onlooker a rather tiresome 

 personally-conducted affair, doing more credit 

 to the individuality of the race than to its 

 intelligence. 



'Are you really English? I should never 

 have suspected it !' is an observation not 

 seldom made to the writer. 



