The morning on which I was scheduled to speak duly arrived and with it an increase in my confidence that I should do well with it: the confidence without which no orator yet--in school--ever did much. I stood out before the class, struck my pose--left foot at an angle from the right and slightly in front with the weight on the right foot to maintain balance--and attempted to recreate the atmosphere, the thrill, and the historic eloquence of the Virginia Convention where the oration had had its birth, before the innumerable army of school lads had passed it on from generation to generation. Applause greeted my effort and I sat down in a flush of happiness. However, the professor, after crediting me several points of excellence, brought up a criticism that plunged me into a sweat of guilty self-consciousness. He said, “Mr. Priddy, why is it that you aspirate your words so? I know you were born in England, but you have been in this country for some time now. There were several places in the oration where you placed ‘h’s’ where they should not have been placed, and where you left them off when they should have been retained!” It was the first time in my whole life that anybody had called my attention to that fault. I said, “Will you please give me samples, sir?” “Well,” replied the professor, consulting his tablet, “you said ‘w’ile’ instead of ‘while,’ and ‘_H_i’ instead of the pronoun ‘I.’ And ‘w’at’ instead of ‘what,’ and ‘Forbid it, _H_almighty God,’ and you declaimed that passage, ‘Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?’ became ‘_H_is life so dear _h_or peace so sweet _h_as to be bought _h_at the price of chains and slavery?’” I felt angry at myself, chagrined. There trooped into my guilt-smitten consciousness the innumerable times I must have put ‘h’s’ where they had not belonged and left them off where they should have been retained. “Nobody ever told me--about it before, sir!” I exclaimed. “This is just the place to get rid of the habit,” replied the professor. “I am here to help you. I think that when you get rid of that habit you will make a fair showing in public speech. Now that you are aware of it, you will be on your guard.” I made known my discovery at the waiter’s table at noon, and instantly my friends poured out for my consideration a whole museum of sentences I had originated in their hearing and over which they had secretly smiled. It seems I had said, “’Ave you got your ’at, Brock?” and “Will you ’ave another _H_egg, please?” and “Look _h_out for this ’ot water!” When the waiters saw that I took the criticism in good part and was eagerly anxious to rid my speech of that defect, they were instant and sometimes severe in their criticisms; with the result that in a very short while I gained the advantage over my “h’s” and somewhat tamed them.