Niger

Mungo leapt at the opportunity. It seemed that
all his life he had been waiting for this to happen, or
at least all the uneasy months since his return from
Bencoolen. ‘ I had a passionate desire to examine
into the productions of a country so little known,
and to become experimentally acquainted with the
modes of life and character of the natives.5 In this
arid phrase he disguises his excitement.
He was accepted by the Association and told to
prepare for a speedy departure to Africa. He went
home to Scotland and looked in at Fowlshiels. The
elder Parks heard him and bade him a shyly sar¬
donic godspeed. He walked into Selkirk to see
Anderson and noted how Ailie was now a woman,
though still so gay and hoydenish. But her eyes
widened with admiration when she heard of his
mission.
Then he bade them goodbye and went south,
through the English spring, to Portsmouth, through
a soft land burgeoning green and sweet under the
fall of rain. Lost and naked a year later in the
tropical jungles he was to take that picture from his
mind and look at it often and long.
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