of them noticed him making entries in his note book--for this was
new country to him, and it was important that he should remember what he
saw--and not understanding what he was doing they jumped to the
conclusion that he was bewitching them in some mysterious way. This
report spread all over the village, and a crowd of about five hundred
savages collected, and threatened to kill the explorer at once unless he
destroyed the book. Stanley was, naturally, very unwilling to give up
all the notes which had cost him so much trouble and danger to collect,
but on the other hand it would be very much worse to lose his life.
Suddenly he had a bright idea. He happened to have with him a volume of
Shakespeare's plays: he thought that in all probability the savages
would not know one book from another, so he offered it to them instead
of his note-book. The natives were quite taken in. They accepted the
Shakespeare, and, amid much rejoicing, burnt it to ashes, thus breaking,
as they thought, the spell that Stanley had cast upon them.

[Illustration: "They burnt the Shakespeare, breaking the spell."]

[Illustration: "He deliberately lighted a cigar with a scrap of the
burning rope."]

THE CAPTAIN'S CIGAR.

The ship was on fire! The boats were lowered, and were quickly filled by
the terrified passengers and crew. Amid the general excitement, the
captain alone remained cool and collected, and when the time came for
him to follow the others, he did a very curious thing. Before descending
the ladder into the boat, he shouted to his sailors, 'Hold on for a
minute!' Then he drew a cigar from his pocket, and deliberately lighted
it with a scrap of the burning rope which lay close by. This done, he
went down steadily and slowly, and ordered his men to push off.

One of the passengers asked him afterwards, 'How could you stop at such
a moment to light a cigar?'

'Because,' replied the captain, 'it seemed to me that unless I did
something to divert the minds of the people in the boat, there would
probably be a panic. Then the boat would have been upset, for, as you
know, it was over-crowded. My seemingly strange act attracted your
attention. Watching me, you forgot your fright and your own danger for
the moment, and so we got off in safety.'

Apparent folly is sometimes wisdom in disguise.

E. D.

THE PUFF-ADDER.

The Puff-adder is the most common, as well as the most deadly, of
African snakes. It is generally about