Further Adventures of Quincy Adams Sawyer and Mason Corner Folks

When the applause had subsided, Governor Sawyer began to speak. "My Friends and Fellow Citizens: When I stood before the representatives chosen by the people, and an audience composed of the most eminent men and women in the State, and took the oath to support the constitution of my native State and that of my country, my heart was filled with what I deemed an honest pride. My fellow citizens had chosen me to fill the most exalted position in their power to bestow, and when the Secretary of the Commonwealth uttered the well known words which your toastmaster has just repeated God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts I felt in every fibre of my body that I would be true to my oath and to the people who had shown their confidence in me. "But the satisfaction I felt on that occasion was no greater than that which I experience to night. I came among you entirely unknown. I have heard that some wondered whether I was a city swell, what my business was, what led me to choose your town for a vacation, and how long that vacation was to be, especially as I came in the winter when country life is popularly, but erroneously, supposed to be dull. "By some I was welcomed, others I don't blame them refused to extend to me the hand of fellowship. But, I liked some of your people so well and one in particular" all eyes were turned towards his wife, who bore the scrutiny bravely "that I determined to stay and I did.