_ himself, therefore he is a happy man. To be eager in
pursuit, is to be in a great degree happy, even when the pursuit is a
trifling one; if it be a great and good one, the result must be greater
happiness; if the pursuit has reference to things beyond this life, and
ultimate success is hoped for in the next, it seems to me that _lasting_
as well as _highest_ happiness may thus be attained. Love of self,
Charlie, is _not_ a bad motive, as some folk would falsely teach us.
The Almighty put love of self within us. It is only when love of self
is a superlative affection that it is sinful, because idolatrous. When
it is said that `love is the fulfilling of the law,' it is not love to
God merely that is meant, I think, but love to Him supremely, and to all
created things as well, self included, because if you can conceive of
this passion being our motive power, and fairly balanced in our
breasts--God and all created beings and things occupying their right
relative positions,--self, although dethroned, would not be ignored.
Depend on it, Charlie, there is something wrong _here_."

The young Dutchman smote himself heavily on his broad chest, and looked
at his friend for a reply.

What that reply was we need not pause to say. These two young men ever
since their first acquaintance had regarded each other with feelings
akin to those of David and Jonathan, but they had not up to this time
opened to each other those inner chambers of the soul, where the secret
springs of life keep working continually in the dark, whether we regard
them or not--working oftentimes harshly for want of the oil of human
intercourse and sympathy. The floodgates were now opened, and the two
friends began to discourse on things pertaining to the soul and the
Saviour and the world to come, whereby they found that their
appreciation and enjoyment of the good things even of this life was
increased considerably. Subsequently they discovered the explanation of
this increased power of enjoyment, in that Word which throws light on
all things, where it is written that "godliness is profitable for the
life that now is, as well as that which is to come."

CHAPTER TWENTY.

TREATS OF THE DELIGHTS, DANGERS, AND DISTRESSES OF THE WILDERNESS.

"Afar in the desert,"--far beyond the frontier settlements of the
colony, far from the influences of civilisation, in the home of the wild
beast and the savage, the explorers now ride under the blaze of the
noonti