well as bodies, which required
feeding in order to prevent starvation, and ensure healthy growth! On
the strength of this belief she fed her children out of that
old-fashioned, yet ever new, volume, the Bible, and the consequence was,
that the Miss Browns were among the most useful members of the church to
which they belonged, a great assistance to the clergymen and
missionaries who waited those regions, and a blessing to the poor of the
community. But we must dismiss the family without further remark, for
our story has little or nothing to do with any member of it except Tom
himself.

When he went to school in England, Tom carried his love for the lion
along with him. The mere word had a charm for him which he could not
account for. In childhood he had dreamed of lion-hunting; in riper
years he played at games of his own invention which had for their chief
point the slaying or capturing of lions. Zoological gardens and "wild
beast shows" had for him attractions which were quite irresistible. As
he advanced in years, Richard of the Lion-heart became his chief
historical hero; Androcles and the lion stirred up all the enthusiasm of
his nature. Indeed it might have been said that the lion-rampant was
stamped indelibly on his heart, while the British lion became to him the
most attractive myth on record.

When he went to college and studied medicine, his imagination was
sobered down a little; but when he had passed his examinations and was
capped, and was styled Dr Brown by his friends, and began to make
preparations for going back to the Cape, all his former enthusiasm about
lions returned with tenfold violence.

Tom's father intended that he should study medicine, not with a view to
practising it professionally, but because he held it to be very
desirable that every one travelling in the unhealthy regions of South
Africa should possess as much knowledge of medicine as possible.

One morning young Dr Brown received a letter from his father which ran
as follows:--

"MY DEAR TOM,--A capital opportunity of letting you see a little of
the country in which I hope you will ultimately make your fortune has
turned up just now. Two officers of the Cape Rifles have made up
their minds to go on a hunting excursion into the interior with a
trader named Hicks, and want a third man to join them. I knew you
would like to go on such an expedition, remembering your leaning in
that direction in days of old, so