Village books

Do you--does
each of you--accept this great trust? [Tumultuous assent.] Then all is
well. Transmit it to your children and to your children's children.
To-day your purity is beyond reproach--see to it that it shall remain so.
To-day there is not a person in your community who could be beguiled to
touch a penny not his own--see to it that you abide in this grace. ["We
will! we will!"] This is not the place to make comparisons between
ourselves and other communities--some of them ungracious towards us; they
have their ways, we have ours; let us be content. [Applause.] I am
done. Under my hand, my friends, rests a stranger's eloquent recognition
of what we are; through him the world will always henceforth know what we
are. We do not know who he is, but in your name I utter your gratitude,
and ask you to raise your voices in indorsement."
The house rose in a body and made the walls quake with the thunders of
its thankfulness for the space of a long minute. Then it sat down, and
Mr. Burgess took an envelope out of his pocket.


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