ncouragement.

"The volume was one of 'Travel and Adventure,' and told of the
experiences of the writer even in the lion's mouth. It recounted
numerous hair-breadth escapes from the tender mercies of savage animals,
and described them with such thrilling detail that I soon became
conscious of those creepy sensations which are so well calculated to
make us take fright at the least unusual circumstance. I had just got to
a part at which a wounded lion had struck down his intrepid hunter and
was standing with one paw upon his breast roaring his defiance to the
four winds of heaven, when suddenly the coach pulled up with a
suddenness that threw me into the arms of my companion and somewhat
unceremoniously aroused him from his slumber. The next moment the coach
rolled back a few paces and the next plunged forward a few more.
Meanwhile, the shouts and cries of the outside passengers and the
rumbling and clambering on the roof of the coach made it clear that
something terrible had happened. Naturally nervous, and rendered doubly
so by the narrative I had been reading, I concluded that all Africa was
upon us and that either natives or wild animals would soon eat us up. My
companion was no less excited than I was, excitement that was in no way
lessened by his sense of responsibility for my welfare, and perceiving a
house close to the road but a few yards in the rear of the coach, he
hurried me out of the vehicle with more speed than ceremony, and in
another moment was almost dragging me towards the door. As we alighted,
our speed was suddenly accelerated by the unmistakable roar of some wild
beast which had apparently leapt out of the leaves of the book I had
been reading and was attempting to illustrate the narrative which had so
thrilled my imagination. There was no mistake about it now; some wild
beast had attacked the coach, and I was already, in thought, lying
prostrate beneath his feet. The next thing that I remember was awakening
in the presence of an eager and interested group gathered round a fire
in the waiting-room of a village post-house.

"Many versions of the story were current for years among the gossips of
the country-side, and they differed very materially in the details of
the narrative. One said it was a tiger which was being conveyed to the
gardens of the Zoological Society in London, another that it was a
performing bear which had suddenly gone mad and killed its keeper while
on its way to Salisbury Fair. O