are content to do so barefooted, and that with immense
labour. The recital of one experience will suffice.
Our party consisted of two, a Moor and the writer,
dressed alike, and “ a jolly lot we were.” One fine
evening we encamped in excellent spirits a
A Memorable coupie Qf hours outside Mequinez. It was so
h. ^dutnen CB
fine that we thought it needless to surround
our tent with a ditch, and after supper, being near our
journey’s end, went to sleep with our fine clothes set
out to make our entry in becoming style on the morrow.
But “ the best laid schemes o’ men and mice gang aft
agley,” and this is how it happened with us.
Some time after we had gone to sleep I awoke with
a presentiment that it was coming on to rain. Mindful
of the un-dug trench, I wakened my man, who,
Forewarned putting his head outside, declared that it was
not forearmed, r &
a beautiful night, and the ground dry, so we
foolishly turned and slept again.
In the middle of the night I dreamed that I was
sleeping in my tent, pitched in a Moorish room, quite
dry, while in the adjoining room the rain was pouring
in torrents which that famous sportsman “ Sarcelle” was
vainly attempting to stem, wading about with his trousers
rolled up to his knees. A s for me, I was floating
bravely on the stream on my mattress and waterproof
sheet, the edges of which I was holding up. Just then
my impromptu punt sprang a leak, and I felt cold water
at my back. In a moment I was awake, shouting at my
man to tell him that the ground was an inch or two
under water, and that our mattresses, spare clothes, and
all our belongings, were soaking wet.
Alas for pleasant prospects 1 We had hardly a dry
garment between us, and barely enough food
d Fine. for breakfast, for we had calculated on reach-
Situation.
. ing our destination the previous evening.
A WEARY TRUDGE 417
Mistaking the dull moon-light through the clouds for the
commencement of day-break, we rejoiced that our troubles
would soon be over, and dressed in the driest rig we
could find, disregarding appearances. Then, after consuming
our scanty rations, and swallowing doses of
quinine and spirits o'f camphor to prevent any possible
evil effects, we packed up a n d wakened a native to show
us the way to town. But this he refused to do before
actual day-break, for the few remaining miles were
through the haunts of highwaymen, so we dejectedly
sat on our sodden equipment, and dozed for the remaining
hours of night, awaking numbed and hungry to the
tune of a tropical downpour.
The first streak of dawn saw us start with encouraging
visions of food and shelter, and on we rode merrily
through the mud, for although under ordinary ^
circumstances a halt until a change of weather the Elements.
would have been advisable, our plight made
that out of the question, with succour so near at hand.
Presently a fresh storm burst, which the rising wind
drove almost straight in our faces, to the great discomfort
of men and beasts. From the moment when the
water had awakened us, we had been in constant laughter
at each other’s jokes, as a precaution against “ dumps,”
and now the only thing to keep our spirits up was to
sing, and sing we did right lustily— being some distance
apart,— each to his own time and tune, till both were
hoarse.
The road now became so atrocious that the poor
beasts had hard work to keep from falling. Our path
lay by the side of a stream winding in and ^
out between low rounded hills along the bases Trudge.
of which we rode. The soil was clayey and
fearfully slippery, worked up by the cattle into the consistency
of damp soft soap, and pathways there were not.
27