76 SEEKING ROMANTIC ADVENTURES. 



baking school. He assured me he had, and that by now his produc- 

 tions were unrivalled. His appearance certainly belied his optimism, 

 and I pointed this out to him. But he was proficient in excuses, 

 said he had lost my chits and had been out of a job for a long time. 



I sent him off under John's charge to bake a loaf while his 

 guardian looked on to make sure that he had no unfair assistance, 

 and as the result proved fairly satisfactory, I re-engaged him. 



I began with the head man, the director and guide of my com- 

 pany. I have come now to its tail — the toto — its apprentice boy, 

 not entered on your list of men. You have no knowledge of his 

 existence till some day, from somewhere, he bobs up before you, 

 just a toto. It may be you see him first — though this is unlikely — 

 wedged in among the legs of a dozen or fifteen men, in one of the 

 already dreadfully crowded third-class compartments of the train 

 that is carrying all your party to some wayside station. 



THE OVERWORKED TOTO. 



It may be he has so far escaped you entirely, as he surely has 

 the ticket collector, and your first sight of him is as, fagged out, 

 he totters along, carrying a much too heavy load for his little boy's 

 body, far behind the rearmost askari, on some long, hot marching 

 day. Thus it was I first came to know him. 



"Is he a little fellow following his father?" I asked. "Oh no, 

 he is just a toto." To my ignorance, of that my first safari, this 

 meant nothing at all. I was soon to learn. The boy on that occasion 

 was on the point of collapse, and fortunately I had determined to 

 walk myself at the rear of the column, as the way was long, water 

 distant, and the lava rock we were traversing terribly hard for all 

 our feet. 



The boy was not more than fourteen years old at most, and 

 had been ill or underfed, for he lacked the robustness of totos 

 generally. I halted the men and asked who claimed him, and how 

 he came to be carrying, as he was, a man's load, not less. 



Five or six big porters came up. Still I was mystified, and only 

 after some time did I learn that I was supposed to have no responsi- 

 bility for him at all. He was not on the "strength" of the safari. 



