A storm of applause filled the hall when the Deacon concluded his remarks.  As he resumed his chair, Quincy handed him a tumbler of water that he had poured from a pitcher that stood upon a table near the piano.  This act of courtesy was seen and appreciated by the audience and a loud clapping of hands followed.  At the commencement of the Deacon’s speech, the Professor had left the platform, for it gave him an opportunity for an intended change of costume, for which time could be found at no other place on the programme.  It was a marvellous rig that he wore when he reappeared.  A pair of white duck pantaloons, stiffly starched, were strapped under a pair of substantial, well-greased, cowhide boots.  The waistcoat was of bright-red cloth with brass buttons.  The long-tailed blue broad-cloth coat was also supplied with big brass buttons.  He wore a high linen dickey and a necktie made of a small silk American flag.  On his head he had a cream-colored, woolly plug hat and carried in his hand a baton resembling a small barber’s pole, having alternate stripes of red, white, and blue with gilded ends.

[Illustration:  It was A marvellous rig that he wore when he reappeared.]

The appearance of this apparition of Uncle Sam was received with cries, cheers, and loud clapping of hands.  The Professor bowed repeatedly in response to this ovation, and it was a long time before he could make himself heard by the audience.  At last he said in a loud voice: 

“The audience will find the words of number three printed on the last page of the programme, and young and old are respectfully invited to jine in the chorus.”

A fluttering of programmes followed and this is what the audience found on the last page, “Hark! and Hear the Eagle Scream, a new and original American national air written, composed, and sung for the first time in public by Professor Obadiah Strout, author of last season’s great success, ‘Welcome to the Town Committee,’”

    I.

        They say our wheat’s by far the best;
        Our Injun corn will bear the test;
        Our butter, beef, and pork and cheese,
        The furriner’s appetite can please. 
        The beans and fishballs that we can
        Will keep alive an Englishman;
        While many things I can’t relate
        He must buy from us or emigrate.

    Chorus: 

        Raise your voices, swing the banners,
        Pound the drums and bang pianners;
        Blow the fife and shriek for freedom,
        ’Meriky is bound to lead ’em. 
        Emigrate! ye toiling millions! 
        Sile enuf for tens of billions! 
        Land of honey, buttermilk, cream;
        Hark! and hear the eagle scream.

    II.