16 AFRICAN CAMP FIRES. 



bow romance, sail away to where these wares have 

 a market. And the quiet men glide away to the 

 North. Their wares have been marketed. The 

 sleepy, fierce, passionate, sunny lands have taken 

 all they had to bring. And have given in ex- 

 change ? Indifference, ill-health, a profound 

 realization that the length of days are as nothing 

 at all ; a supreme agnosticism as to the ultimate 

 value of anything that a single man can do, a 

 sublime faith that it must be done, the power to 

 concentrate, patience illimitable ; contempt for 

 danger, disregard of death, the intention to live ; 

 a final, weary estimate of the fact that mere things 

 are as unimportant here as there, no matter how 

 quaintly or fantastically they are dressed or 

 named, and a corresponding emptiness of antici- 

 pation for the future these items are only a 

 random few of the price given by the ancient lands 

 for that which the northern races bring to them. 

 What other alchemical changes have been wrought 

 only these lean and weary men could know if 

 they dared look so far within themselves. And 

 even if they dared, they would not tell. 



