for some
moments I stood trembling, hardly able to breathe; then recovering I
hastened after it, and stunned it with a blow from my chopper on its
round head.

"Poor sloth!" I said as I stood over it. "Poor old lazy-bones! Did Rima
ever find you fast asleep in a tree, hugging a branch as if you loved
it, and with her little hand pat your round, human-like head; and laugh
mockingly at the astonishment in your drowsy, waking eyes; and scold
you tenderly for wearing your nails so long, and for being so ugly?
Lazybones, your death is revenged! Oh, to be out of this wood--away from
this sacred place--to be anywhere where killing is not murder!"

Then it came into my mind that I was now in possession of the supply of
food which would enable me to quit the wood. A noble capture! As much to
me as if a stray, migratory mule had rambled into the wood and found me,
and I him. Now I would be my own mule, patient, and long-suffering, and
far-going, with naked feet hardened to hoofs, and a pack of provender on
my back to make me independent of the dry, bitter grass on the sunburnt
savannahs.

Part of that night and the next morning was spent in curing the flesh
over a smoky fire of green wood and in manufacturing a rough sack to
store it in, for I had resolved to set out on my journey. How safely to
convey Rima's treasured ashes was a subject of much thought and anxiety.
The clay vessel on which I had expended so much loving, sorrowful labour
had to be left, being too large and heavy to carry; eventually I put the
fragments into a light sack; and in order to avert suspicion from the
people I would meet on the way, above the ashes I packed a layer of
roots and bulbs. These I would say contained medicinal properties,
known to the white doctors, to whom I would sell them on my arrival at
a Christian settlement, and with the money buy myself clothes to start
life afresh.

On the morrow I would bid a last farewell to that forest of many
memories. And my journey would be eastwards, over a wild savage land of
mountains, rivers, and forests, where every dozen miles would be like a
hundred of Europe; but a land inhabited by tribes not unfriendly to the
stranger. And perhaps it would be my good fortune to meet with Indians
travelling east who would know the easiest routes; and from time to time
some compassionate voyager would let me share his wood-skin, and many
leagues would be got over without weariness, until some great river,
flowing