" When she wanted instruction,
she read "Nicholas Nickleby." When she wanted amusement, she read
"Nicholas Nickleby." When she had leisure, she read "Nicholas Nickleby."
When she was busy, she read "Nicholas Nickleby." When she was sick, she
read "Nicholas Nickleby," and when she got well, she read "Nicholas
Nickleby" over again. [Laughter.] We return with the same infrequent,
inconstant and uncertain fidelity to the memory of the Pilgrim Fathers.
If we seek the light persiflage and airy humor of the after-dinner
spirit, we find an inexhaustible fountain in the quaint customs and odd
conceits of the Pilgrim Fathers. If we seek the enkindling fire and the
moral elevation of high principle and profound conviction and resolute
courage, we find a never-ceasing inspiration in the unfaltering
earnestness and imperishable deeds of the Pilgrim Fathers. [Applause.]
After praying for all the rest of mankind, the good colored preacher
closed up with the invocation "And, finally, O Lord! bless the people of
the uninhabited portions of the globe." [Laughter.] We are sometimes as
comprehensive in our good-will as the colored brother; but to-night we
fix our thoughts upon that more limited portion of mankind which belongs
in nativity or ancestry to that more restricted part of the globe known
as New England.
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