.

Never was a thing better managed; never was a clearer case of the
risking of the life of a man to save another's.

'Umkopo, you're a brick,' said I heartily, 'you saved my life, lad, and
I'm grateful!' I gave him my hand, and Umkopo took it laughing, though
he did not seem to know what to do with it or to understand what I had
said.

Soon after this, Umkopo left the camp in anger, as I have told you, and
I did not see him again for a year or two. One of these evenings I will
tell you about our next meeting, which was at a critical moment of my
life.

* * * * *

Carlyle says, 'Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure
there is one rascal less in the world.'

THE RIDDLE OF THE YEAR.

A certain father has twice six sons; these sons have thirty daughters
a-piece, partly coloured, having one cheek white and the other black,
who never see each other's face, nor live above twenty-four hours.

This riddle, which is a very easy one to guess, is said to be by
Cleobulus, one of the seven wise men of Greece, who lived about five
hundred and seventy years before the birth of Christ.

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

True Tales of the Year 1806.

V.--A PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION.

'Now greeting, hooting, and abuse
To each man's party prove of use,
And mud and stones and waving hats
And broken heads and long-dead cats
Are offerings made to help the cause
Of Order, Government, and Laws.'

_The Election Day._

People living under the quiet rule of the present-day election laws can
have but little idea of the bribery and turmoil and licence of every
sort that always accompanied a parliamentary election a hundred years
ago.

To begin with, every possible stratagem was resorted to to prevent the
electors from coming to the poll; those electors, for instance, who had
to travel by sea to record their votes, not infrequently found
themselves landed--by a heavily-bribed captain--at some port in Norway
or Holland, or anywhere, so long as it was far enough off to prevent the
elector from making his way back in time for the election.

Those were the days of heavy drinking, many men of all ranks looking
upon drunkenness as no disgrace, and it was no uncommon event for a body
of electors to be 'treated' to such an extent that they were not in a
state to know what happened to them, and they would then be locked up
and kept out of the way in a cellar or out-house til