"My friends," he began in a nasal but penetrating voice, that carried
without effort to every hearer. "I am not a regularly ordained minister
of the gospel. I find, however, that there is none such among us, so I
have gathered you here together this morning to hear a few words
appropriate to the day. It has pleased Providence to call me to a public
position wherein my person has become well known to you all; but that is
an accident of the great profession to which I have been called, and I
bow my heart in humility with the least and most lowly. I am going to
tell you about myself this morning, not because I consider myself of
importance, but because it seems to me from my case a great lesson may
be drawn."
He paused to let his eye run over the concourse. Bob felt the gaze,
impersonal, impassive, scrutinizing, cold, rest on him the barest
appreciable flicker of a moment, and then pass on. He experienced a
faint shock, as though his defences had been tapped against.
"My father," went on the nasal voice, "came to this country in the
'sixties. It was a new country in the hands of a lazy people.
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