+--------------------------------------------------------+ | Edam Mutual Improvement Society. | | _SEASON_ 18-- | | | | _Hon. President._--Rev. Mr. BURNHAM. | | _Hon. Vice-President._--Mr. N. DONNAN. | | _Hon. Sec. and Treasurer._--Mr. NATHANIEL CUTHBERTSON. | | DEBATE TO-NIGHT. | | | | _Subject._--"Is the Pen mightier than the Sword?" | | _Affirmative._--Mr. N. DONNAN. | | _Negative._--Mr. BURNHAM. | | -------------------- | | ALL ARE CORDIALLY INVITED. | | _Bring your Hymn-books._ | +--------------------------------------------------------+
Hugh John did not accept the invitation, perhaps because he had no hymn-book. He only waited outside to hear Mr. N. Donnan's opening sentence. It ran thus: "All ages of the world's history have borne testimony to the fact that peace is preferable to war, right to might, and the sweet still voice of Reason to the savage compulsions of brutal Force."
"Oh, hang!" ejaculated Hugh John, doubling his fist; "did you ever hear such rot? I wish I could jolly well fetch Nipper Donnan one on the nob!"
And he sauntered on till he came to the burying-ground of Edam's ancient abbey. He wandered aimlessly up the short avenue, stood at the gate a while, then kicked it open and went in. He clambered about among the graves, stumbling over the grassy mounds till he came to the tombs of his ancestors. At least they were not quite his ancestors, but the principle was the same. "There's nothing exclusive about me. I'll adopt them," said Hugh John to himself, as many another distinguished person had done before him. They were in fact the tombs of the Lorraines, the ancient possessors and original architects of the Castle of Windy Standard, which he had spilt his best blood to defend. Well, it was to attack. But no matter.
He sat down and looked at the defaced and battered tombs in silence. Mighty thoughts coursed through his brain. His heart was filled full to the brim with the sadness of mortality. Tears of hopeless resignation stood in his eyes. It was the end, the solemn end of all. Soon he, too, like them, would be lying low and quiet. He began to be conscious of a general fatal weakness of the system, a hollowness of the chest (or stomach), which showed that the end was near.