wish to be
suddenly shunned and forsaken by everybody as a madman.
    The next morning Sandy assembled the swine in the dining room and gave them
their breakfast, waiting upon them personally and manifesting in every way the
deep reverence which the natives of her island, ancient and modern, have always
felt for rank, let its outward casket and the mental and moral contents be what
they may. I could have eaten with the hogs if I had had birth approaching my
lofty official rank; but I hadn't, and so I accepted the unavoidable slight and
made no complaint. Sandy and I had our breakfast at the second table. The family
were not at home. I said:
    »How many are in the family, Sandy, and where do they keep themselves?«
    »Family?«
    »Yes.«
    »Which family, good my lord?«
    »Why, this family; your own family.«
    »Sooth to say, I understand you not. I have no family.«
    »No family? Why, Sandy, isn't this your home?«
    »Now how indeed might that be? I have no home.«
    »Well, then, whose house is this?«
    »Ah, wit you well I would tell you an I knew myself.«
    »Come - you don't even know these people? Then who invited us here?«
    »None invited us. We but came; that is all.«
    »Why, woman, this is a most extraordinary performance. The effrontery of it
is beyond admiration. We blandly march into a man's house, and cram it full of
the only really valuable nobility the sun has yet discovered in the earth, and
then it turns out that we don't even know the man's name. How did you ever
venture to take this extravagant liberty? I supposed, of course, it was your
home. What will the man say?«
    »What will he say? Forsooth what can he say but give thanks?«
    »Thanks for what?«
    Her face was filled with a puzzled surprise:
    »Verily thou troublest mine understanding with strange words. Do ye dream
that one of his estate is like to have the honor twice in his life to entertain
company such as we have brought to grace his house withal?«
    »Well, no - when you come to that. No, it's an even bet that this is the
first time he has had a treat like this.«
    »Then let him be thankful, and manifest the same by grateful