when agin you step on the soil of our beloved county, may step into
lovin' hands, outstretched to meet you and bid you welcome. Welcome
home--thrice welcome--agin I say, welcome!"

[Illustration: "Welcome home--thrice welcome!"]

Both of the orator's hands swung upward and outward, and he looked
intently at the ceiling. He seemed prepared to catch me as I leaped
from a second-story window. The pause as he stood there braced to
receive the body of the returning soldier as it hurtled at him, gave
Isaac Bolum an opportunity to be magnanimous. He clapped his hands and
cheered. In an instant his shrill cry was drowned in a burst of
applause full of spirit and heart, closing with a flourish of wails
from Cevery Pulsifer and the latest of the Kallabergers. Perry's arms
fell gracefully to his side and he inclined his head and half closed
his eyes in acknowledgment. Then turning to Isaac, measuring every
word, in a voice clear and cutting, his long forefinger shaking, he
cried: "From the bloody battlefields of Cuby, from her tropic camps
where you suffered and bled, you come home to us to-day. You have
fought in the cause of liberty. To your country you have give a
limb--you----"

Poor Bolum! Awakened from the gentle doze into which he had fallen the
instant Cevery Pulsifer relieved him of the duty of leading the
applause, he brought his chair down on all four legs, and slapped both
knees violently. Satisfied that they were still there, he looked up at
the orator.

"You have give a limb," repeated Perry, emphasizing the announcement by
shaking his finger at the old man.