the trigger. The consequence of this act was that the
ball passed close over their heads. The report of the piece was
instantly followed by a roar of consternation, mingled with rage, from
the mother, and a shriek of terror from the baby, which again was
immediately followed by a burst of laughter from us, as we beheld the
little baby clasp its arms tightly round its mother, while she scampered
wildly away from us.

Mak looked at me in amazement.

"What for you be do dat, massa?"

"To prevent you from committing murder, you rascal," said I, laughing.
"Have you no feelings of natural pity or tenderness, that you could
coolly aim at such a loving pair as that?"

The guide seemed a little put out by this remark, and went on reloading
his gun without making reply. He had received enough of moral education
at the mission stations to appreciate to some extent the feelings by
which I was actuated; yet he had been so long accustomed and so early
inured to harsh, unfeeling deeds, that the only idea that probably
occurred to him on seeing this mother and her baby was, how near he
could get to them in order to make sure of his aim.

"Ah! Ralph," said Jack, as we resumed our march, "you're too
tender-hearted, my boy, for a hunter in Africa. There you've lost a
chance of getting a gorilla baby, which you have been desiring so much
the last few days, and which you might have stuck in a bottle of
spirits, and sent home to be held up to universal admiration in
Piccadilly, who knows."

"Ay, who knows?" echoed Peterkin. "I think it more probable, however,
that it would be held up to universal ridicule. Besides, you forget
that we have no spirits to preserve it in, except our own, which I admit
are pretty high--a good deal overproof, considering the circumstances in
which we are placed, and the unheard-of trials we have to endure. I'm
sure I don't know what ever induced me to come, as a Scotch cousin of
mine once said, `so far frae my ain fireside' to endure trials. I do
believe I've had more trials since I came to this outrageous land than
all the criminals of the last century in England put together have had."

"Peterkin," said I seriously, "trials are a decided benefit and blessing
to mankind--"

"Oh, of course," interrupted Peterkin; "but then, as you have often
retorted upon me that I am of the monkey kind, I think that I could get
on pretty well without them."

"My opinion is that they are good both for man and