The child went, and after a while returned and began to play again.
"Did you tell your mamma that Mr. and Mrs. Blank are here?" asked the father.
"Oh! yes."
"And what did she say?"
The little girl looked up, and after a moment's hesitation, exclaimed:
"She said—well, she said, 'O dear!'"
29. THE TOAST OF THE EVENING
[The comment upon this incident by the editor is not less amusing than the speech.]
It is not always a pleasant thing to be called upon suddenly to address a public meeting of any sort, as is amusingly illustrated by the following speech at the opening of a free hospital by one who was certainly not born an orator:
"Gentlemen—ahem—I—I—I rise to say—that is, I wish to propose a toast, which I think you'll all say—ahem—I think, at least, that this toast is, as you'll say, the toast of the occasion. Gentlemen, I belong to a good many of these things, and I say, gentlemen, that this hospital requires no patronage—at least, what I mean is, you don't want any recommendation. You've only got to be ill—got to be ill."