Tales out of school

MALI BOWED RESPECTFULLY TO HIM.
FRANK R. STOCKTON
NEW EDITION.
NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS, 1916
Copyright 1875 BY SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG & CO. Copyright 1903 BY MARIAN E. STOCKTON
It is not generally considered proper to tell tales out of school, but I shall venture it in this book. And if any of the Arabs, or tigers, or Cabordmen, that I tell tales about, do not like it, they can come to me and find as much fault as they please. I shall be glad to hear what they have to say.
But I shall not tell all the tales myself. The lady who in “Round-about Rambles,” took you to Pompeii and many strange and interesting places, will tell you some of these stories.
TALES OUT OF SCHOOL.
He had shot many a buffalo. Indeed he sometimes thought that he had shot too many, for out on our Western prairies it was often impossible for him to use the meat, or even to take the skins of the animals that fell before his generally unerring rifle. And the Colonel was very much opposed to the useless slaughter of wild animals. If the buffaloes did any harm while alive or could be put to any use when dead it was all very well to shoot them. Otherwise, not.
And yet, whenever Colonel Myles saw a buffalo he could not help shooting at it, if he happened to have his gun with him.
So he made up his mind that he would go abroad and hunt animals that ought to be killed.
Now you understand how the Colonel happened to go to Africa.