He had never spoken better in his life—never more earnestly, never more joyously. His magnificent reception had warmed his heart, and filled it to overflowing with gratitude and enthusiasm. He told briefly of his travels, and of the pleasure he found in his return home.
“This morning,” he said, “with my wife and son, I was looking over our baggage preparatory to meeting the customs officers. Happening to look out on the bay I saw your boat with its flags and bunting, its college mottoes, and its college colors, and its decks dark with people. I could not believe my eyes. I dared not speak of it to my wife and son.
“I stole away and went on deck to assure myself. Then I heard a great cry of ‘Sammy Lee!’ and I said to myself, ‘Sammy, it’s you they’re after—sure.’
“So I ran down, and called to Mrs. Lee and Charley. ‘Come,’ I said, ‘come on deck quick! Let the baggage go! let the custom-house officials go! let everything go! The boys are here to welcome us home.’
“Gentlemen, there were men on that vessel who are worth millions. There were high dignitaries of church and state on board. Yet I, poor as a church-mouse, not known beyond the circle of my own pupils,—I, for my own sake, for the sake of the dear ones who are with me, for the sake of the grand old college that I have the honor to represent, have commanded such a reception to-day as those men with their combined wealth, power, and influence couldn’t buy, force, or borrow for a single moment.
“I feel it to the bottom of my heart. I shall never forget it. I shall live this scene over in my mind every day so long as I remain on earth.”
There was a storm of applause. When it had subsided the professor continued:
“I went away from you two years ago, tired, hurt, and miserable; but I come back to you filled with new life. If there were any wounds still open when I entered New York Bay this morning your sovereign remedy of welcome has completely healed them; if there was one hard or bitter feeling still lingering in my breast when I stepped upon that pier an hour ago, the splendid courage, the manly confession, the magnificent self-sacrifice, of one among you has swept it from its hiding-place forever.”
Again the storm of cheers and applause burst forth. No one understood perfectly what it was all about, but every one felt that the allusion was to Parmenter.
“So I am come to you again,” the speaker continued, “with nothing but love and gratitude in my heart for all of you—with nothing but affection for the dear old college and all who are in it or of it, with the peace and quiet of serene old age stealing softly over me; with the only grief I have ever known, during all my life among you, lost and buried in the beautiful memories of the past. I thank you—thank you a thousand times; and God bless you always!”