manner of things to criticise,
condemn, and sneer at, if you 're satisfied to describe a people by a
few peculiarities which are not pleasin' to you, go ahead and abuse us;
but if you 'll accept honest hospitality, though offered in a way that's
new and strange to you,--if you 'll believe in true worth and genuine
loyalty of character, even though its possessor talk somewhat through
the nose,--then, sir, I say, there ain't no fear that America will
disappoint you, or that you 'll be ill-treated by Americans." With this
speech he turned away to look after his baggage and get ready to go
ashore.

CHAPTER XLI. QUACKINBOSS AT HOME

Though Quackinboss understood thoroughly well that it devolved upon him
to do the honors of his country to the "Britisher," he felt that, in
honest fairness, the stranger ought to be free to form his impressions,
without the bias that would ensue from personal attentions, while he
also believed that American institutions and habits stood in need of no
peculiar favor towards them to assert their own superiority.

"Don't be on the look-out, sir, for Eu-ropean graces," he would say, "in
this country, for the men that have most of 'em ain't our best people;
and don't mistake the eagerness with which everybody will press you to
admire America for any slight towards the old country. We all like her,
sir; and we'd like her better if she wasn't so fond of saying she's
ashamed of us."

These were the sort of warnings and counsels he would drop as he guided
Layton about through the city, pointing out whatever he deemed most
worthy of curiosity, or whatever he conceived might illustrate the
national character. It was chiefly on the wealth of the people, their
untiring industry, and the energy with which they applied themselves to
money-getting, that he laid stress; and he did this with a degree of
insistence that betrayed an uneasy consciousness of how little sympathy
such traits meet with from the passing traveller.

"Mayhap, sir, you 'd rather see 'em loafing?" said he one day in a
moment of impatience, as Layton half confessed that he 'd like to
meet some of the men of leisure. "Well, you 'll have to look 'em up
elsewhere, I expect. I 'll have to take you a run down South for that
sort of cattle,--and that's what I mean to do. Before you go before our
people, sir, as a lecturer, you 'll have to study 'em a little, that's
a fact! When you come to know 'em, you 'll see that it's a folk won't be