Finally he said: "It seems so odd, so very odd, to hear something you know so well sound so strange." "It's a great compliment, though, isn't it, sir ?" asked the boy.
"Ye-es," said the poet slowly.

"Yes, yes," he added quickly.

"It is, my boy, a very great compliment." "Ah," he said, rousing himself, as a maid appeared, "that means luncheon, or rather, it means dinner, for we have dinner in the old New England fashion, in the middle of the day.

I am all alone to-day, and you must keep me company, will you?
Then afterward we'll go and take a walk, and I'll show you Cambridge.

It is such a beautiful old town, even more beautiful, I sometimes think, when the leaves are off the trees." [Illustration: Edward Bok's birthplace at Helder, Netherlands.