The Wild Animals Were Her Terror, And She Fancied
That Every Wood And Thicket Was Peopled With Elephants, Lions, And
Tigers, And That It Would Be Utterly Impossible To Take A Walk
Without Treading On Dangerous Snakes In The Grass.
Unfortunately,
she had my own book on South Africa to quote triumphantly in
confirmation of her vague notions of
Danger; and, in my anxiety to
remove these exaggerated impressions, I would fain have retracted my
own statements of the hair-breadth escapes I had made, in conflicts
with wild animals, respecting which the slightest insinuation of
doubt from another party would have excited my utmost indignation.
In truth, before I became familiarised with such danger, I had
myself entertained similar notions, and my only wonder, in reading
such narratives before leaving my own country, was how the
inhabitants of the country managed to attend to their ordinary
business in the midst of such accumulated dangers and annoyances.
Fortunately, these hair-breadth escapes are of rare occurrence;
but travellers and book-makers, like cooks, have to collect
high-flavoured dishes, from far and near, the better to please
the palates of their patrons. So it was with my South African
adventures; I threw myself in the way of danger from the love of
strong excitement, and I collected all my adventures together, and
related them in pure simplicity, without very particularly informing
the reader over what space of time or place my narrative extended,
or telling him that I could easily have kept out of harm's way had I
felt so inclined.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 256 of 670
Words from 69424 to 69684
of 181664
