A Sportsman 215 



before. It was clear to my own consciousness that I 

 was better fitted to grace a cannibal barbecue than to 

 give entertainment to intelligent beings from whom 

 appetite had flown. 



Thinking of the advice given by one counsel to 

 another, in the absence of favorable evidence to 

 give a general denial of everything, I entered my pro- 

 test at the assurance of the Worthy Warden in desig- 

 nating me as a foreigner and qualified as such to 

 respond to the toast : Was I not at home among my 

 own race, speaking the same language and thrilled with 

 the same pride and enthusiasm which they all experi- 

 enced in this Jubilee year in the reigning of the most 

 amiable and lovable and wise sovereign that ever 

 graced a throne? 



Did not my heart swell with the emotions kindred 

 to their own in contemplation of their magnificent 

 army and navy, and the advance of civilization the 

 world over upon the approach of their unifying force 

 power ? 



Did I not find a sympathetic and hearty welcome 

 here, and a hospitable greeting which no one can so 

 fully experience and enjoy as he who returns after a 

 long absence to his old home? 



Time, with its unstaying hand, will take away those 

 living at the time of departure, but are not their de- 

 scendants of the same blood and thought and feeling? 

 and when I look around upon your faces here, and note 

 the kind expression of eye and countenance, I am 

 tempted to believe that you may accept me as one of 

 you, though I have been away for two centuries and a 

 half. 



It was long ago when my English ancestors 



