Presently the chat took this shape:  “How insensibly the character of the people and of a government makes its impress upon a stranger, and gives him a sense of security or of insecurity without his taking deliberate thought upon the matter or asking anybody a question!  We have been in this land half a day; we have seen none but honest faces; we have noted the British flag flying, which means efficient government and good order; so without inquiry we plunge unarmed and with perfect confidence into this dismal place, which in almost any other country would swarm with thugs and garroters—­”

’Sh!  What was that?  Stealthy footsteps!  Low voices!  We gasp, we close up together, and wait.  A vague shape glides out of the dusk and confronts us.  A voice speaks—­demands money!

“A shilling, gentlemen, if you please, to help build the new Methodist church.”

Blessed sound!  Holy sound!  We contribute with thankful avidity to the new Methodist church, and are happy to think how lucky it was that those little colored Sunday-school scholars did not seize upon everything we had with violence, before we recovered from our momentary helpless condition.  By the light of cigars we write down the names of weightier philanthropists than ourselves on the contribution cards, and then pass on into the farther darkness, saying, What sort of a government do they call this, where they allow little black pious children, with contribution cards, to plunge out upon peaceable strangers in the dark and scare them to death?

We prowled on several hours, sometimes by the seaside, sometimes inland, and finally managed to get lost, which is a feat that requires talent in Bermuda.  I had on new shoes.  They were No. 7’s when I started, but were not more than 5’s now, and still diminishing.  I walked two hours in those shoes after that, before we reached home.  Doubtless I could have the reader’s sympathy for the asking.  Many people have never had the headache or the toothache, and I am one of those myself; but every body has worn tight shoes for two or three hours, and known the luxury of taking them off in a retired place and seeing his feet swell up and obscure the firmament.  Once when I was a callow, bashful cub, I took a plain, unsentimental country girl to a comedy one night.  I had known her a day; she seemed divine; I wore my new boots.  At the end of the first half-hour she said, “Why do you fidget so with your feet?” I said, “Did I?” Then I put my attention there and kept still.  At the end of another half-hour she said, “Why do you say, ‘Yes, oh yes!’ and ’Ha, ha, oh, certainly! very true!’ to everything I say, when half the time those are entirely irrelevant answers?” I blushed, and explained that I had been a little absent-minded.  At the end of another half-hour she said, “Please, why do you grin so steadfastly at vacancy, and yet look so sad?” I explained that I always did that when I was reflecting.