e finest speaker
in the country, has been commanded by a worshipful senate and most
honorable civic corporation of the Free City of Hamburg to appear
before the visiting king in full dress, and officiate as orator of the
day at a reception to be tendered his majesty by our city"--here mother
broke down completely, overwhelmed by grief and wept copiously into her
handkerchief.

"Oh, oh," I wailed, "do say it, mamma!"

"And--and your father has no coat!" she sobbed. "Poor man, he fears
disgrace and dreads the loss of preferment and of a royal decoration,
perhaps. He will have to feign sickness as an excuse for his absence;
but I hope he realizes now how degraded and unhappy I must feel with my
last year's gowns and made-over millinery--and your poor sister's
ancient bonnets, I dare not look at them any longer!"

"But papa has a coat," I said, "a royal Prince Albert!"

"True," answered mother, "but it has no swallow's tails!"

"A Prince Albert has no swallow-tails?" I gasped wonderingly; "but it
has great, long tails, surely!"

"Oh, now I see," an idea flashing through my mind; "it has cock-tails,
has it, mamma, and it can't swallow them, can it, mamma?"

"Oh my, oh my!" screamed mother, "you are the funniest little chap to
ask me questions. Go, ask pussy!"

Then I went into the back yard to interview my favorite playmate, our
big, black tomcat, and aroused him from his cat nap. But he blinked
sleepily only, saying nothing.

However, speech was not to be denied me in that manner, for I held the
combination which unlocks the portals of silence. I gave the handle a
double twist and he spat and spluttered: "Sh--sh--sht--t--t!"

As may be imagined, my father passed a sleepless night in the solitude
of his studio. He wrestled with a host of demons and made a good fight
of it; for finally in the small hours of morning he overcame the evil
spirit of worldly ambition and with true Christian humility, his soul
purified by vanquished temptation, resigned himself unreservedly, good
man that he was, to the mandate of a cruel fate. He began to write his
sermon for the Sabbath, and being spiritually chastened and
battle-sore, naturally his thoughts dwelt on melancholy topics.
Therefore, he took the text of his sermon from the Lamentations of
Jeremiah, chapter 3, v. I:

"I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of His wrath."

It may be stated here that on the next Sabbath, from "firstly" to
"seventhly" for two lo