"The war is a lesson to us to make little of little things," he thought,
securing the hat and wringing it out. "My feet are wet, but--how much
wetter they would be in the trenches, if feet can be wetter than wet
through," he mused with some exactitude. "Down, Blink, down!" For Blink
was plastering him with the water-marks of joy and anxiety. "Nothing
is quite so beautiful as the devotion of one's own dog," thought
Mr. Lavender, resuming the hat, and returning towards the shore. The
by-now-considerable throng were watching him with every mark of acute
enjoyment; and the moment appeared to Mr. Lavender auspicious for
addressing them. Without, therefore, emerging from the pond, which he
took for his, platform, he spoke as follows:
"Circumstances over which I have no control have given me the advantage
of your presence in numbers which do credit to the heart of the nation
to which we all belong. In the midst of the greatest war which ever
threatened the principle of Liberty, I rejoice to see so many people
able to follow the free and spontaneous impulses of their inmost beings.
For, while we must remember that our every hour is at the disposal of
our country, we must not forget the maxim of our fathers: 'Britons
never will be slaves.
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