In his reply to the toast to his health he said: "Some of you began your business and professional life with me, and it will be pleasant to take so many of my old friends by the hand and to receive their kind wishes for a prosperous journey and safe return." Mr. Field thoroughly enjoyed the evening. General Horace Porter closed his speech with these words: "Now let me simply say that beyond the sentiment of friendship we all have a profound admiration for one who, at a period of life when most men, having surrounded themselves with the rich things of earth, in personal comfort, art, and literature, would be content to retire to some shady Arcadia and enjoy the rest to which they were so fully entitled, is bristling with all the activity of youth, seeking new worlds to conquer and projecting new enterprises. "I know I speak the sentiment of all in saying that the hearty leave-taking and hand-shaking will be surpassed by the cordial welcome extended to him when, after passing over many lands and many seas, he will gladden the hearts of his fellow-countrymen by once more setting foot upon his native shore." He left New York, as he proposed, at four o'clock on the morning of the 3d of November, and it will surprise no one who knew him to hear that he was in the South of France early in March and arrived in New York on May the 15th. "DEPARTMENT OF STATE, "WASHINGTON, D. C., _23d May, 1881_. "_My dear Mr. Field_,--Welcome, thou wanderer! We intend now to anchor you for some time in your native waters. "Your arrival is timely. You can be of great service to the country and to the administration, which counts you among its chief friends.... "Hastily and truly, "JAMES G. BLAINE." And on June 3d: "With reference to your kind invitation to visit you at Irvington on the Hudson about the 29th of June, I beg to say for myself that it is doubtful as to whether I shall be able to accompany the President upon his proposed visit to Williams College. Should I do so, however, it would give me the very greatest pleasure to accept of your hospitality. I have taken the liberty to transmit your letter to the President, and presume that he will write you directly with reference to his ability to become your guest." This entry was made in his diary on June 6th: "I have invited President Garfield to come to Irvington for a visit and then go to Williamstown for Commencement on July 6th." To quote again from his private papers: "Mr. and Mrs. Garfield, with several members of the Cabinet and their wives, were to come to us at Irvington, pass Sunday with us, and on Monday leave for Williamstown. It was as Mr. Garfield was leaving Washington, that he was shot in the Pennsylvania depot." In a letter he writes: