50 THE EXPLORATION OF THE NIGER burning sky of the Sudan. I pray critics to be merciful to these intet'-tropical effusions.

THE TETHERED MULE.

With lean neck stretch'd toward the scattered grain, He scents his provender with dainty air, Casts one side glance at his companions there, And beats with twitching ear a glad refrain.

Gone all remembrance of the anguish'd strain 'Neath kicks and blows, and 'neath the scorching glare Of torrid skies above the hillside bare, And of the toil that ever comes again.

His banquet ended, calmly he digests, While o'er him sweeps a most divine repose : Faintly in dreams his memor>' suggests Long lost repasts, whereat his dark eye glows ; Thus, bathed in vague nostalgia, he rests. While through the bush the sunset tremor flows.

At last the sun sets, the sentinels are chosen and posted for the night, and we gather once more round our little table for supper, chatting now about our plans for the future, now about the past, telling stories which ere long will become so familiar that we could all repeat them by heart and give them each a number of its own. Then one after the other we retire to our camp-beds to enjoy such repose as the horrible mosquitoes, which are so clever in finding the tiniest holes in the nets, will allow, till the morning r/7 is sounded on the horn, and we begin another day, exactly like its predecessor.

Such was our life for twenty days, with slight variations, such as the crossing of rivers, the over-turning of carts through the breaking of axles or shafts, etc.

At Kita, however, a very unusual thing occurred : we were able to indulge in a bicycle race. Our own bicycle, which we had called Suzanne, met a rival. After all she was