I said it was cheap, and full of republican simplicity, and perfectly safe.

I said that, for a tranquil pleasure excursion, there was nothing equal to a raft.
Then the Secretary of the Navy asked me who I was; and when I told him I was connected with the government, he wanted to know in what capacity.

I said that, without remarking upon the singularity of such a question, coming, as it did, from a member of that same government, I would inform him that I was clerk of the Senate Committee on Conchology.

Then there was a fine storm! He finished by ordering me to leave the premises, and give my attention strictly to my own business in future.

My first impulse was to get him removed.