I Had Plenty Of Fat, And I Made Four Balls
Of About Half A Pound, Each Of Which Would Burn For Three Hours.
A piece
of a broken water-jar formed a lamp, several pieces of rag serving for
wicks.
So in solitude the still calm night passed away as I sat by her
side and watched. In the drawn and distorted features that lay before me
I could hardly trace the same face that for years had been my comfort
through all the difficulties and dangers of my path. Was she to die? Was
so terrible a sacrifice to be the result of my selfish exile?
Again the night passed away. Once more the march. Though weak and ill,
and for two nights without a moment's sleep, I felt no fatigue, but
mechanically followed by the side of the litter as though in a dream.
The same wild country diversified with marsh and forest. Again we
halted. The night came, and I sat by her side in a miserable hut, with
the feeble lamp flickering while she lay as in death. She had never
moved a muscle since she fell. My people slept. I was alone, and no
sound broke the stillness of the night. The ears ached at the utter
silence, till the sudden wild cry of a hyena made me shudder as the
horrible thought rushed through my brain, that, should she be buried in
this lonely spot, the hyena would . . . disturb her rest.
The morning was not far distant; it was past four o'clock.
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