Page:Doom of the Great City - Hay - 1880.djvu/6

4 in Zealandia, we keep to our old-fashioned ways of combining business with pleasure. My great-granddaughter, little Laura, who, as you know, is my constant companion, acted as mistress of the ceremonies, and very well, I must say, did she perform her part. At dinner, after they had drunk my health and I had responded, it was little Laura who stood up and proposed the toast of “Our absent friends, all round Lake Taupo,”—which I need not say was drunk enthusiastically. But I will not go further into these details, for I have set myself to write about another and far different subject.

It was after they had all gone—some to catch the last train, and others to take one or other of the lake steamers, which all depart from Tapuaeharuru before sunset—that Laura came to me and, standing demurely before me with her hands crossed behind, made this pretty little speech, in which I dare say she had been carefully coached by her elders:—

“Dear Grandpapa,” she said, “your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, who love and revere you so much, earnestly and humbly implore you to tell them the story of the of your life.”

And then the dear little puss kissed me and ran away.

Well, of course I was a little shocked, for you know what my feelings have always been upon this subject; but I cannot say I was wholly unprepared for such a request. Hints have often reached me from many of you to the same effect, and particularly of late have I been admonished to break the silence I have so long imposed upon myself. I am one of the very few survivors now living, of the greatest calamity that perhaps this earth has ever witnessed, and there are doubtless many besides yourselves who would be glad to hear all I have