; a do-minion, sir, where man is bound to man in one vast bond of equal
love and truth. May you, sir, be worthy of your a-dopted country!«
    Martin thanked him, and took leave of Mr. Scadder; who had resumed his post
in the rocking-chair, immediately on the General's rising from it, and was once
more swinging away as if he had never been disturbed. Mark looked back several
times as they went down the road towards the National Hotel, but now his
blighted profile was towards them, and nothing but attentive thoughtfulness was
written on it. Strangely different to the other side! He was not a man much
given to laughing, and never laughed outright; but every line in the print of
the crow's foot, and every little wiry vein in that division of his head, was
wrinkled up into a grin! The compound figure of Death and the Lady at the top of
the old ballad was not divided with a greater nicety, and hadn't halves more
monstrously unlike each other, than the two profiles of Zephaniah Scadder.
    The General posted along at a great rate, for the clock was on the stroke of
twelve; and at that hour precisely, the Great Meeting of the Watertoast
Sympathisers was to be holden in the public room of the National Hotel. Being
very curious to witness the demonstration, and know what it was all about,
Martin kept close to the General: and, keeping closer than ever when they
entered the Hall, got by that means upon a little platform of tables at the
upper end: where an arm-chair was set for the General, and Mr. La Fayette
Kettle, as secretary, was making a great display of some foolscap documents.
Screamers, no doubt.
    »Well, sir!« he said, as he shook hands with Martin, »here is a spectacle
calc'lated to make the British Lion put his tail between his legs, and howl with
anguish, I expect!«
    Martin certainly thought it possible that the British Lion might have been
rather out of his element in that Ark: but he kept the idea to himself. The
General was then voted to the chair, on the motion of a pallid lad of the
Jefferson Brick school: who forthwith set in for a high-spiced speech, with a
good deal about hearths and homes in it, and unriveting the chains of Tyranny.
    Oh but it was a clincher for the British Lion, it was! The indignation of
the glowing young Columbian knew no bounds. If he
