in fact, without them,)—­and had not dared to inquire.  He entered the room,—­finding the president and secretary holding to their chairs two judges of the Supreme Court, who were also members ex officio, and were begging leave to go away.  On his entrance all was changed. Presto, the by-laws were amended, and the Western property was given away.  Nobody stopped to converse with him.  He voted, as I had charged him to do, in every instance, with the minority.  I won new laurels as a man of sense, though a little unpunctual,—­and Dennis, alias Ingham, returned to the parsonage, astonished to see with how little wisdom the world is governed.  He cut a few of my parishioners in the street; but he had his glasses off, and I am known to be near-sighted.  Eventually he recognized them more readily than I.

I “set him again” at the exhibition of the New Coventry Academy; and here he undertook a “speaking part,”—­as, in my boyish, worldly days, I remember the bills used to say of Mlle. Celeste.  We are all trustees of the New Coventry Academy; and there has lately been “a good deal of feeling” because the Sandemanian trustees did not regularly attend the exhibitions.  It has been intimated, indeed, that the Sandemanians are leaning towards Free-Will, and that we have, therefore, neglected these semi-annual exhibitions, while there is no doubt that Auchmuty last year went to Commencement at Waterville.  Now the head master at New Coventry is a real good fellow, who knows a Sanskrit root when he sees it, and often cracks etymologies with me,—­so that, in strictness, I ought to go to their exhibitions.  But think, reader, of sitting through three long July days in that Academy chapel, following the programme from

    TUESDAY MORNING. English Composition. 
    “SUNSHINE.”  Miss Jones.

round to

    Trio on Three Pianos.  Duel from the Opera
    of “Midshipman Easy.” Marryatt.

coming in at nine, Thursday evening!  Think of this, reader, for men who know the world is trying to go backward, and who would give their lives if they could help it on!  Well!  The double had succeeded so well at the Board, that I sent him to the Academy. (Shade of Plato, pardon!) He arrived early on Tuesday, when, indeed, few but mothers and clergymen are generally expected, and returned in the evening to us, covered with honors.  He had dined at the right hand of the chairman, and he spoke in high terms of the repast.  The chairman had expressed his interest in the French conversation.  “I am very glad you liked it,” said Dennis; and the poor chairman, abashed, supposed the accent had been wrong.  At the end of the day, the gentlemen present had been called upon for speeches,—­the Rev. Frederic Ingham first, as it happened; upon which Dennis had risen, and had said, “There has been so much said, and, on the whole, so well said, that I will not occupy the time.”  The girls were delighted, because Dr. Dabney, the year before,