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One night, about five or six weeks after our resolution to go to Africa on a hunting expedition wasformed, I put to myself the question, "Can it be possible that we are actually here, in the midst ofit?""Certainly, my boy, in the very thick of it," answered Peterkin, in a tone of voice which made Jacklaugh, while I started and exclaimed-"Why, Peterkin, how did you come to guess my thoughts?""Because, Ralph, you have got into a habit of thinking aloud, which may do very well as long as youhave no secrets to keep but it may prove inconvenient some day, so I warn you in time."Not feeling disposed at that time to enter into a bantering conversation with my volatile companion, I made no reply, but abandoned myself again to the pleasing fancies and feelings which were calledup by the singular scene in the midst of which I found myself.It seemed as if it were but yesterday when we drove about the crowded streets of London makingthe necessary purchases for our intended journey, and now, as I gazed around, every object that metmy eye seemed strange, and wild, and foreign, and romantic. We three were reclining round anenormous wood fire in the midst of a great forest, the trees and plants of which were quite new tome, and totally unlike those of my native land. Rich luxuriance of vegetation was the feature thatfilled my mind most. Tall palms surrounded us, throwing their broad leaves overhead and partiallyconcealing the starlit sky. Thick tough limbs of creeping plants and wild vines twisted and twinedround everything and over everything, giving to the woods an appearance of tangled impenetrability;but the beautiful leaves of some, and the delicate tendrils of others, half concealed the sturdy limbsof the trees, and threw over the whole a certain air of wild grace, as might a semi-transparent andbeautiful robe if thrown around the form of a savage.The effect of a strong fire in the woods at night is to give to surrounding space an appearance ofebony blackness, against which dark ground the gnarled stems and branches and pendent foliageappear as if traced out in light and lovely colours, which are suffused with a rich warm tone from theblaze