, if indeed you have
any at all, will say that it is not possible. But I know better. Why,
what do you call hysterics? Ain't that laughing and crying at once--
sorrow and joy mixed? I don't believe you understand a word that I say.
You great puffing blockhead, what are you staring at?"

The frog, as before, refused to make any reply; so our friend lay for
some time chuckling and making faces at it. While thus engaged he
happened to look up, and to our surprise as well as alarm we observed
that he suddenly turned as pale as death.

To cock our rifles, and take a step forward so as to obtain a view in
the direction in which he was gazing with a fixed and horrified stare,
was our immediate impulse. The object that met our eyes on clearing the
bushes was indeed well calculated to strike terror into the stoutest
heart; for there, not three yards distant from the spot on which our
friend lay, and partially concealed by foliage, stood a large black
rhinoceros. It seemed to have just approached at that moment, and had
been suddenly arrested, if not surprised, by the vision of Peterkin and
the frog. There was something inexpressibly horrible in the sight of
the great block of a head, with its mischievous-looking eyes, ungainly
snout, and ponderous horn, in such close proximity to our friend. How
it had got so near without its heavy tread being heard I cannot tell,
unless it were that the noise of the turbulent brook had drowned the
sound.

But we had no time either for speculation or contemplation. Both Jack
and I instantly took aim--he at the shoulder, as he afterwards told me;
I at the monster's eye, into which, with, I am bound to confess, my
usual precipitancy, I discharged both barrels.

The report seemed to have the effect of arousing Peterkin out of his
state of fascination, for he sprang up and darted towards us. At the
same instant the wounded rhinoceros crossed the spot which he had left
with a terrific rush, and bursting through the bushes as if it had been
a great rock falling from a mountain cliff, went headlong into the
rivulet.

Without moving from the spot on which we stood, we recharged our pieces
with a degree of celerity that, I am persuaded, we never before
equalled. Peterkin at the same time caught up his rifle, which leaned
against a tree hard by, and only a few seconds elapsed after the fall of
the monster into the river ere we were upon its banks ready for another
shot.

The portion of