The last I saw of Greenport
was the poor little girl holding tight the hand her hero had shaken,
with her face all one sunbeam of joy.
I know just how she felt, for I have had the same experience. One
of the things I remember with a pleasure which the years have no
power to dim is my meeting with Cardinal Gibbons some years ago.
They had asked me to come to Baltimore to speak for the Fresh Air
Fund, and to my great delight I found that the Cardinal was to
preside. I had always admired him at a distance, but during the
fifteen minutes' talk we had before the lecture he won my heart
entirely. He asked me to forgive him if he had to go away before
I finished my speech, for he had had a very exhausting service the
day before, "and I am an old man, on the sunny side of sixty," he
added as if in apology.
"On the shady side, you mean," amended the Presbyterian clergyman
who was on the committee. The Cardinal shook his head, smiling.
"No, doctor! The sunny side--nearer heaven."
The meeting was of a kind to inspire even the dullest speaker.
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