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 Liebig 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 T 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 ow dogs—which were always 
tied up at night—but tramps, belonging to the other 
