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children. They fight just to amuse themselves when they happen to have a sword or a gun. They would play just

as happily with a mechanical rabbit, a peg-top, or a doll

which says " Papa." So we must take some toys with us, such as crawling lizards, jumping frogs, musical boxes, even

a miniature organ which plays the quadrille a chahnt} as it consumes yards of perforated paper. And even now I have

not enumerated all the things we took.

Face to face with this very incoherent programme, suppose for carrying it out you have two naval officers, one

just come back from the Sudan, the other from China, and

you say to them, giving them the necessary funds, " Now

you go and settle things up." Well, you will soon see what they can do, but if they are up to their work they will go

straight away and secure the help of Leon Bolard, a com-

mercial agent who is a specialist in providing for exploring expeditions. And then these two will amuse themselves

like a couple of fools for a month at least ; that is what we did.

Long shall I remember these prowlings in furnishing

shops, where the owners were not always very civil, for we turned their premises upside down sometimes for mere

trifles. Some days we tramped for eighteen miles along

the pavements of Paris, measured by the pedometer.

Our most amusing experiences were when we went in search of bargains at sales. Slightly soiled stuffs and

remnants are first-rate treasure trove for explorers who are at all careful of the coffers of the State ; but how one

has to walk, and how one has to climb to fourth and fifth

storeys to realize these economies ! We once got about

1600 yards of velvet for nineteen sous, and we picked up knives with handles representing the Eiffel Tower, with others bearing political allusions to Panama, etc.

^ A popular French dance. — Trans.