THE GOOSING 215 



I should have to look after the cramps. They were 

 very much disappointed at my refusal of this, which it 

 seemed they had made especially for me. I told them 

 I was not well, and then I mixed some Liebio- and 

 drank this most excellent concoction, following it up 

 with water nearly boiling, which made me feel better 

 at once. The goose they insisted I should keep to eat 

 in the morning. 



Also I gave Mekolka Liebig. Uano said Mekolka 

 was ill — ill in his chest — and coughed, with symptoms 

 that pointed, I thought, to incipient consumption. And 

 poor Mekolka, saying nothing, looked so wistfully at the 

 Liebig, which he doubtless imagined was most wonder- 

 ful medicine, that I could not choose but give him some, 

 for which he was most grateful. I mention this because 

 one does not always look for a capacity for fine and 

 enduring qualities such as gratitude in a poor half- 

 savage man. But from that moment Mekolka was 

 attached to me in a manner most affecting-. He began 

 to show it at once. For he fumbled round till he had 

 found an old sail, which he spread over the boat to keep 

 off the wind and rain. 



The little boat under which I lay was just the ordinary 

 'arnoh,' which these people make from drift-wood. I 

 think I have described it before. 



For a long time I could not get to sleep because of 

 the dogs. They were not our dogs — which were always 

 tied up at night — but tramps, belonging to the other 



