Gibbon has somewhere said, that one of the liveliest pleasures
which the pride of man can enjoy is to reappear in a more splendid
condition among those who have known him in his obscurity.
A case in point is a lawyer of prominence in one of the Western
States, who soon after his appointment to a seat in the Cabinet
revisited his early home. Meeting an acquaintance upon his arrival
at the railway station, the visitor, with emotions akin to those
described by Gibbon, ventured to inquire what his old neighbors
said when they heard of him being appointed to a place in the
Cabinet.
The unexpected reply was: "Oh, they didn't say nothin'; _they
just laughed!"_