A Large Shopkeeper Threatened To "Briser" My "Figure" For
Putting My Pipe Near His Pantaloons; But Seeing Me Finger My Dagger
Curiously, Though I Did Not Shift My Pipe, He Forgot To Remember His
Threat.
I had taken charge of a parcel for one M. P-, a student of
Coptic, and remitted it to him on board; of this little service the
only acknowledgment was a stare and a petulant inquiry why I had not
given it to him before.
And one of the Englishmen, half publicly, half
privily, as though communing with himself, condemned my organs of
vision because I happened to touch his elbow. He was a man in my own
service; I pardoned him in consideration of the compliment paid to my
disguise.
Two fellow-passengers were destined to play an important part in my
comedy of Cairo. Just after we had started, a little event afforded us
some amusement. On the bank appeared a short, crummy, pursy kind of
man, whose efforts to board the steamer were notably ridiculous. With
attention divided between the vessel and a carpet-bag carried by his
donkey boy, he ran along the sides of the canal, now stumbling into
hollows, then climbing heights, then standing shouting upon the
projections with the fierce sun upon his back, till everyone thought
his breath was completely gone. But no! game to the backbone, he would
have perished miserably rather than lose his fare: "patience and
perseverance," say the wise, "got a wife for his Reverence." At last he
was taken on board, and presently he lay down to sleep.
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