AFRICAN CAMP FIRES 



an inebriate would find here a great rest for the 

 imagination. 



After we had gone to bed we noticed more pleas- 

 antly our cricket. He piped up, you may remember, 

 the night of the first great storm. That evening he 

 took up his abode in some fold or seam of our tent, 

 and there stayed throughout all the rest of the 

 journey. Every evening he tuned up cheerfully; 

 and we dropped to sleep to the sound of his homelike 

 piping. We grew very fond of him; as one does of 

 everything in this wild and changing country that 

 can represent a stable point of habitude. 



Nor must I forget one evening when all of a sudden 

 out of the darkness came a tremendous hollow 

 booming, like the beating of war drums or the 

 bellowing of some strange great beast. At length 

 we identified the performer as an unfamiliar kind 

 of frog! 



238 



