178 



THE LION KILLER. 



CHAPTER XI 



MY VOCATION. 



Had you, my reader, been born of parents moderately rich, 

 and in a position of honor and comfort, and found yourself 

 on the morrow poorer than the beggar to whom you had given 

 alms in the evening ; had you been sheltered by the .love of 

 father and mother, a love that knew no metes nor bounds, 

 and at one stroke of fate had found yourself an orphan, you 

 then would understand the position of the writer when he 

 commenced his career — a career beginning in feebleness and 

 timidity, that was to end in success, and to replace to his 

 relatives not only the lost fortune, but the protection of a 

 father who was the honor and support of the family. 



I confess with a feeling of honest pride, that this was the 

 spring of my life ; this is what has given me my profession of 

 arms and the name of The Lion Hunter. This was the origin 

 of my tastes, and from these causes I burned to measure my 

 strength with the strength of the most powerful of beasts, 

 and my courage with the king of the desert. I, poor elf that 

 I am, declared war against the greatest living thing, a war 

 that was fair and open, that gave an eye for an eye, and left 

 to the victor the life of the vanquished, with none in the 



