red the three village newspapers by writing them descriptive
letters. The parish rector and the dissenting preachers were waited upon
and presented with family tickets; while we placarded the town till it
was scarcely recognizable to the oldest inhabitant.

On the morning of the eventful day I arrived in the place. The best room
of the best inn had been engaged for me, and waiters in white aprons,
standing in rows, bowed me over the portal. The servant girls and
gossips had fugitive peeps at me through the cracks of my door, and I
felt for the first time all the oppressiveness of greatness. As I walked
on the quay where the crowds were strolling, looking out upon the misty
sea, at the donkeys on the beach, and at the fishing-smacks huddled
under the far-reaching pier, I saw my name in huge letters borne on the
banner of a bill-poster, and all the people stopping to read as they
wound in and out among them.

How few thought the thin, sallow young man, in wide breeches and
square-toed boots, who shambled by them so shamefacedly, to be the
veritable Mentor who had crossed the ocean for their benefit. Indeed,
the embarrassing responsibility I had assumed now appeared to me in all
its vividness.

My confidence sensibly declined; my sensitiveness amounted to
nervousness; I had half a mind to run away and leave the show entirely
to Hipp. But when I saw that child of the Mayflower stolidly, shrewdly
going about his business, working the wires like an old operator, making
the largest amount of thunder from so small a cloud, I was rebuked of my
faintheartedness. In truth, not the least of my misgivings was Hipp's
extraordinary zeal. He gave the townsmen to understand that I was a
prodigy of oratory, whose battle-sketches would harrow up their souls
and thrill them like a martial summons. It brought the blush to my face
to see him talking to knots of old men after the fashion of a town crier
at a puppet-booth, and I wondered whether I occupied a more reputable
rank, after all, than a strolling gymnast, giant, or dwarf.

As the twilight came on my position became ludicrously unenviable. The
lights in the town-hall were lit. I passed pallidly twice or thrice, and
would have given half my fortune if the whole thing had been over. But
the minutes went on; the interval diminished; I faced the crisis at last
and entered the arena.

There sat Hipp, taking money at the head of the stairs, with piles of
tickets before him; and as he r