CHAPTER TWO.
LIFE IN THE WILD WOODS.
One night, about five or six weeks after our resolution to go to Africaon a hunting expedition was formed, I put to myself the question, "Canit be possible that we are actually here, in the midst of it?"
"Certainly, my boy, in the very thick of it," answered Peterkin, in atone of voice which made Jack laugh, while I started and exclaimed--
"Why, Peterkin, how did you come to guess my thoughts?"
"Because, Ralph, you have got into a habit of thinking aloud, which maydo very well as long as you have no secrets to keep but it may proveinconvenient some day, so I warn you in time."
Not feeling disposed at that time to enter into a bantering conversationwith my volatile companion, I made no reply, but abandoned myself againto the pleasing fancies and feelings which were called up by thesingular scene in the midst of which I found myself.
It seemed as if it were but yesterday when we drove about the crowdedstreets of London making the necessary purchases for our intendedjourney, and now, as I gazed around, every object that met my eye seemedstrange, and wild, and foreign, and romantic. We three were reclininground an enormous wood fire in the midst of a great forest, the treesand plants of which were quite new to me, and totally unlike those of mynative land. Rich luxuriance of vegetation was the feature that filledmy mind most. Tall palms surrounded us, throwing their broad leavesoverhead and partially concealing the starlit sky. Thick tough limbs ofcreeping plants and wild vines twisted and twined round everything andover everything, giving to the woods an appearance of tangledimpenetrability; but the beautiful leaves of some, and the delicatetendrils of others, half concealed the sturdy limbs of the trees, andthrew over the whole a certain air of wild grace, as might asemi-transparent and beautiful robe if thrown around the form of asavage.
The effect of a strong fire in the woods at night is to give tosurrounding space an appearance of ebony blackness, against which darkground the gnarled stems and branches and pendent foliage appear as iftraced out in light and lovely colours, which are suffused with a richwarm tone from the blaze.
We were now in the wilds of Africa, although, as I have said, I found itdifficult to believe the fact. Jack and I wore loose brown shootingcoats and pantaloons; but we had made up our minds to give up waistcoatsand neckcloths, so that our scarlet flannel shirts with turned-downcollars gave to us quite a picturesque and brigand-like appearance as weencircled the blaze--Peterkin smoking vigorously, for he had acquiredthat bad and very absurd habit at sea. Jack smoked too, but he was notso inveterate as Peterkin.
Jack was essentially moderate in his nature. He did nothing violentlyor in a hurry; but this does not imply that he was slow or lazy. He wasleisurely in disposition, and circumstances seldom required him to beotherwise. When Peterkin or I had to lift heavy weights, we wereobliged to exert our utmost strength and agitate our whole frames; butJack was so powerful that a comparatively slight effort was all that hewas usually obliged to make. Again, when we two were in a hurry wewalked quickly, but Jack's long limbs enabled him to keep up with uswithout effort. Nevertheless there were times when he was called uponto act quickly and with energy. On those occasions he was as active asPeterkin himself, but his movements were tremendous. It was, I mayalmost say, awful to behold Jack when acting under powerful excitement.He was indeed a splendid fellow, and not by any means deserving of thename of gorilla, which Peterkin had bestowed on him.
But to continue my description of our costume. We all wore homespungrey trousers of strong material. Peterkin and Jack wore leggings inaddition, so that they seemed to have on what are now termedknickerbockers. Peterkin, however, had no coat. He preferred a stoutgrey flannel shirt hanging down to his knees and belted round his waistin the form of a tunic. Our tastes in headdress were varied. Jack worea pork-pie cap; Peterkin and I had wide-awakes. My facetious littlecompanion said that I had selected this species of hat because I wasalways more than half asleep! Being peculiar in everything, Peterkinwore his wide-awake in an unusual manner--namely, turned up at the back,down at the front, and curled very much up at the sides.
We were so filled with admiration of Jack's magnificent beard andmoustache, that Peterkin and I had resolved to cultivate ours while inAfrica; but I must say that, as I looked at Peterkin's face, theadditional hair was not at that time an improvement, and I believe thatmuch more could not have been said for myself. The effect on my littlecomrade was to cause the lower part of his otherwise good-looking faceto appear extremely dirty.
"I wonder," said Peterkin, after a long silence, "if we shall reach theniggers' village in time for the hunt to-morrow. I fear that we havespent too much time in this wild-goose chase."
"Wild-goose chase, Peterkin!" I exclaimed. "Do you call hunting thegorilla by such a term?"
"_Hunting_ the gorilla? no, certainly; but _looking_ for the gorilla ina part of the woods where no such beast was ever heard of since Adam wasa schoolboy--"
"Nay, Peterkin," interrupted Jack; "we are getting very near to thegorilla country, and you must make allowance for the enthusiasm of anaturalist."
"Ah! we shall see where the naturalist's enthusiasm will fly to when weactually do come face to face with the big puggy."
"Well," said I, apologetically, "I won't press you to go hunting again;I'll be content to follow."
"Press me, my dear Ralph!" exclaimed Peterkin hastily, fearing that hehad hurt my feelings; "why, man, I do but jest with you--you are sohorridly literal. I'm overjoyed to be pressed to go on the maddestwild-goose chase that ever was invented. My greatest delight would beto go gorilla-hunting down Fleet Street, if you were so disposed.--Butto be serious, Jack, do you think we shall be in time for theelephant-hunt to-morrow?"
"Ay, in capital time, if you don't knock up."
"What! _I_ knock up! I've a good mind to knock you down for suggestingsuch an egregious impossibility."
"That's an impossibility anyhow, Peterkin, because I'm down already,"said Jack, yawning lazily and stretching out his limbs in a morecomfortable and _degage_ manner.
Peterkin seemed to ponder as he smoked his pipe for some time insilence.
"Ralph," said he, looking up suddenly, "I don't feel a bit sleepy, andyet I'm tired enough."
"You are smoking too much, perhaps," I suggested.
"It's not that," cried Jack; "he has eaten too much supper."
"Base insinuation!" retorted Peterkin.
"Then it must be the monkey. That's it. Roast monkey does not agreewith you."
"Do you know, I shouldn't wonder if you were right; and it's a pity,too, for we shall have to live a good deal on such fare, I believe.However, I suppose we shall get used to it.--But I say, boys, isn't itjolly to be out here living like savages? I declare it seems to me likea dream or a romance.--Just look, Ralph, at the strange wild creepersthat are festooned overhead, and the great tropical leaves behind us,and the clear sky above, with the moon--ah! the moon; yes, that's onecomfort--the moon is unchanged. The same moon that smiles down upon usthrough a tangled mesh-work of palm-leaves and wild vines and monkeys'tails, is peeping down the chimney-pots of London and Edinburgh andDublin!"
"Why, Peterkin, you must have studied hard in early life to be so good ageographer."
"Rather," observed Peterkin.
"Yes; and look at the strange character of the tree-stems," said I,unwilling to allow the subject to drop. "See those huge palmettoeslike--like--"
"Overgrown cabbages," suggested Peterkin; and he continued, "Observe thequaint originality of form in the body and limbs of that bloated oldspider that is crawling up your leg, Ralph!"
I started involuntarily, for there is no creature of which I have agreater abhorrence than a spider.
"Where is it? oh! I see," and the next moment I secured my prize andplaced it with loathing, but interest, in my entomological box.
At that moment a hideous roar rang through the woods, seemingly closebehind us. We all started to
our feet, and seizing our rifles, whichlay beside us ready loaded, cocked them and drew close together roundthe fire.
"This won't do, lads," said Jack, after a few minutes' breathlesssuspense, during which the only sound we could hear was the beating ofour own hearts; "we have allowed the fire to get too low, and we'veforgotten to adopt our friend the trader's advice, and make two fires."
So saying, Jack laid down his rifle, and kicking the logs with his heavyboot, sent up such a cloud of bright sparks as must certainly havescared the wild animal, whatever it was, away; for we heard no more ofit that night.
"You're right, Jack," remarked Peterkin; "so let us get up a blaze asfast as we can, and I'll take the first watch, not being sleepy. Comealong."
In a few minutes we cut down with our axes a sufficient quantity of drywood to keep two large fires going all night; we then kindled our secondfire at a few yards distant from the first, and made our camp betweenthem. This precaution we took in order to scare away the wild animalswhose cries we heard occasionally during the night. Peterkin, havingproposed to take the first watch--for we had to watch by turns all thenight through--lighted his pipe and sat down before the cheerful firewith his back against the stem of a palm-tree, and his rifle lying closeto his hand, to be ready in case of a surprise. There were many nativeswandering about in that neighbourhood, some of whom might be ignorant ofour having arrived at their village on a peaceful errand. If theseshould have chanced to come upon us suddenly, there was no saying whatthey might do in their surprise and alarm, so it behoved us to be on ourguard.
Jack and I unrolled the light blankets that we carried strapped to ourshoulders through the day, and laying ourselves down side by side withour feet to the fire and our heads pillowed on a soft pile ofsweet-scented grass, we addressed ourselves to sleep. But sleep did notcome so soon as we expected. I have often noted with some surprise andmuch interest the curious phases of the phenomenon of sleep. When Ihave gone to bed excessively fatigued and expecting to fall asleepalmost at once, I have been surprised and annoyed to find that thelonger I wooed the drowsy god the longer he refused to come to me; andat last, when I have given up the attempt in despair, he has suddenlylaid his gentle hand upon my eyes and carried me into the land of Nod.Again, when I have been exceedingly anxious to keep awake, I have beenattacked by sleep with such irresistible energy that I have been utterlyunable to keep my eyelids open or my head erect, and have sat with myeyes blinking like those of an owl in the sunshine, and my head noddinglike that of a Chinese mandarin.
On this our first night in the African bush, at least our first night ona hunting expedition--we had been many nights in the woods on ourjourney to that spot--on this night, I say, Jack and I could by no meansget to sleep for a very long time after we lay down, but continued togaze up through the leafy screen overhead at the stars, which seemed towink at us, I almost fancied, jocosely. We did not speak to each other,but purposely kept silence. After a time, however, Jack groaned, andsaid softly--
"Ralph, are you asleep?"
"No," said I, yawning.
"I'm quite sure that Peterkin is," added Jack, raising his head andlooking across the fire at the half-recumbent form of our companion.
"Is he?" said Peterkin in a low tone. "Just about as sound as aweasel!"
"Jack," said I.
"Well?"
"I can't sleep a wink. Ye-a-ow! isn't it odd?"
"No more can I. Do you know, Ralph, I've been counting the red berriesin that tree above me for half an hour, in the hope that the monotony ofthe thing would send me off; but I was interrupted by a small monkey whohas been sitting up among the branches and making faces at me for fulltwenty minutes. There it is yet, I believe. Do you see it?"
"No; where?"
"Almost above your head."
I gazed upward intently for a few minutes, until I thought I saw themonkey, but it was very indistinct. Gradually, however, it became moredefined; then to my surprise it turned out to be the head of anelephant! I was not only amazed but startled at this.
"Get your rifle, Jack!" said I, in a low whisper.
Jack made some sort of reply, but his voice sounded hollow andindistinct. Then I looked up again, and saw that it was the head of ahippopotamus, not that of an elephant, which was looking down at me.Curiously enough, I felt little or no surprise at this, and when in thecourse of a few minutes I observed a pair of horns growing out of thecreature's eyes and a bushy tail standing erect on the apex of its head,I ceased to be astonished at the sight altogether, and regarded it asquite natural and commonplace. The object afterwards assumed theappearance of a lion with a crocodile's bail, and a serpent with amonkey's head, and lastly of a gorilla, without producing in me anyother feeling than that of profound indifference. Gradually the wholescene vanished, and I became totally oblivious.
This state of happy unconsciousness had scarcely lasted--it seemed tome--two minutes, when I was awakened by Peterkin laying his hand on myshoulder and saying--
"Now then, Ralph, it's time to rouse up."
"O Peterkin," said I, in a tone of remonstrance, "how could you be sounkind as to waken me when I had just got to sleep? Shabby fellow!"
"Just got to sleep, say you? You've been snoring like an apoplecticalderman for exactly two hours."
"You don't say so!" I exclaimed, getting into a sitting posture.
"Indeed you have. I'm sorry to rouse you, but time's up, and I'msleepy; so rub your eyes, man, and try to look a little less like anastonished owl if you can. I have just replenished both the fires, soyou can lean your back against that palm-tree and take it easy forthree-quarters of an hour or so. After that you'll have to heap on morewood."
I looked at Jack, who was now lying quite unconscious, breathing withthe slow, deep regularity of profound slumber, and with his mouth wideopen.
"What a chance for some waggish baboon to drop a nut or a berry in!"said Peterkin, winking at me with one eye as he lay down in the spotfrom which I had just risen.
He was very sleepy, poor fellow, and could hardly smile at his ownabsurd fancy. He was asleep almost instantly. In fact, I do notbelieve that he again opened the eye with which he had winked at me, butthat he merely shut the other and began to slumber forthwith.
I now began to feel quite interested in my responsible position asguardian of the camp. I examined my rifle to see that it was in orderand capped; then leaning against the palm-tree, which was, as it were,my sentry-box, I stood erect and rubbed my hands and took off my cap, sothat the pleasant night air might play about my temples, and moreeffectually banish drowsiness.
In order to accomplish this more thoroughly I walked round both firesand readjusted the logs, sending up showers of sparks as I did so. ThenI went to the edge of the circle of light, in the centre of which ourcamp lay, and peered into the gloom of the dark forest.
There was something inexpressibly delightful yet solemn in my feelingsas I gazed into that profound obscurity where the great tree-stems andthe wild gigantic foliage nearest to me appeared ghost-like andindistinct, and the deep solitudes of which were peopled, not only withthe strange fantastic forms of my excited fancy, but, as I knew fullwell, with real wild creatures, both huge and small, such as myimagination at that time had not fully conceived. I felt awed, almostoppressed, with the deep silence around, and, I must confess, lookedsomewhat nervously over my shoulder as I returned to the fire and satdown to keep watch at my post.