"Going to Africa! To get rich! Oh, Allah!" cried out Amina, in accents
of unfeigned surprise, mixed with emotion. "And thou art going with
him--thou, a child? Art thou going to get rich too?"

"I am to accompany my father and kinsmen, not to get rich, but to see
the world, and learn how to be a man, to shoot lions, and leopards,
zebras, and elephants, with my new English gun."

"Cease thy prating, child; thy tongue runs at a fearful rate. Thou
shoot lions and leopards! Thou! Why thou art but a baby, but lately
weaned! Thou and thy father must be dreaming!" said Amina sharply, and
with an attempt at a sneer.

It was a brave attempt on the part of a nearly heart-broken woman, who
would fain suppress the cry of anguish that struggled to her lips, but
as she said the last words, one glance at Selim's face showed to her
that such tactics, would never answer. The eaglet had been taught that
wings were made to fly with. The boy had been rudely laughed at, and
his latent manliness aroused, by the son of the American consul, who had
sneered at him. Selim had found that a head was on his shoulders which
teemed with daring thoughts; that he had arms to his shoulders, and legs
to his body, made on purpose, as it were, to execute such thoughts as
the head conceived. With the culmination of such knowledge fled
unregretfully the pleasant days of the harem, the memories of his romps
with the girls, days upon days of effeminate life.

Achilles was found out by the sight which he obtained of some war
weapons. Selim had found out that he was a boy by a sneer. Charming as
was his mother's company, happy as he had been with his feminine
playmates, proud as he had been of his golden tassels and embroidery,
fond as he had been of being loved and embraced as an entertaining young
friend by little girls of his own age--all these experiences became
inane and stupid compared to the overpowering consciousness he felt that
he was a boy, and might in time become a strong man. A man! perish all
other thoughts and memories, feelings, and reminiscences save those
which tend to lead him to the goal of manhood, which he has set himself
to reach by a journey to Africa, to the land of cannibals and lions,
leopards and elephants, to the land of adventure, undying fable, and
song.

"Mother," said Selim, removing his turban and _fez_, as if his
head-dress compressed the grand thought which filled his brain, "my
childhood is passed. I