CHARLOTTETOWN 67 From 1893 to 1906, Robert Harris was president of the Royal Canadian Academy. He painted portraits of many famous people, such as Sir John A. Macdonald , the Marquis of Aberdeen, Lord Strathcona , the Earl of Minto, Lady Minto , Sir William Osier . "Get up," said an unfriendly voice. "You're too heavy for me." I looked around hurriedly. No one was in sight. "Get up!" repeated the voice imperiously. Was it my imagination or did the chair shake itself after my removal? "Sorry to be so rude but there are only a few of us left now. All the others except three or four have new leather. We are just as we were when we were put in here first. Solid mahogany we are—and how we are sat upon! "I knew it! I knew it! I am going to be modernized like the rest of them. I know that that man coming in is going to put new leather on me." That man coming in had no intention of putting new leather or any other kind on the old chair. He was just a tourist as I was and anxious to hear all the historical details of the room. He had been born, he said, down East, and had come back for a visit. It is always that way. People seldom see their own country while they live in it. Then, when they go away they remember and regret. They come back and with other penitent tourists go around and see all that they should have seen years before. It is the same all over the world. Innumerable Londoners have never visited the British Museum . . . The o. i .—«