Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/32

 THE VISITANT.

��A VISITANT ! Who could have expected such an event ? From calls we supposed ourselves plainly excused, and had not instructed a single billow to say, &quot; Not at home.&quot;

No sail breaks the smooth line of the horizon. No pilot-boat rides the wave. Yet here, indeed, comes a guest. His feet rest among the shrouds. A lone, del icate land-bird !

Long and weary was the way he must have come to pay us his respects. Five hundred miles would scarce ly bring us to the nearest point of Newfoundland, our next land-neighbor ; and, from the home-shore which last we saw, we are nearly thrice that distance.

If the welcome of a guest bears any proportion to the pains he takes, or the space he traverses to reach us, yon panting traveller should be kindly made at home. A bright little English girl ran with a nice cage, begging it might be installed therein as her pro tege ! This was probably her view of presenting the freedom of the city in a gold box.

Similar messengers came forth, some two centuries since, to greet our exploring ancestors, as they drew

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