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.
CONTENTS.
| Colonel Myles’ Adventures in Africa and India | [1] |
| A Sugar Camp | [31] |
| Silver Plating | [34] |
| Very Ancient Animals | [37] |
| Iturim and His Fortunes | [42] |
| Large Houses for Small Tenants | [54] |
| The Wonderful Adventures of Gutefundus | [61] |
| Some Big Guns | [70] |
| Tom Reynolds and Moriyama | [74] |
| Luminous Insects | [93] |
| Owls On a Frolic | [96] |
| Common and Uncommon Sponges | [98] |
| Maghar’s Leap | [101] |
| The Sea Cow | [120] |
| Two Extremes | [123] |
| A Snow Storm in the Tropics | [130] |
| How Three Men Went to the Moon | [140] |
| Tartar Horses and Horsemen | [153] |
| Two Happy Men | [156] |
| The Wonderful Ash Tree | [162] |
| Work and Water | [174] |
| The Land of the White Elephant | [178] |
| Curiosities of Vegetable Life | [183] |
| Bron and Kruge | [203] |
| The Mirage | [222] |
| Coral | [225] |
| The Great Eastern | [232] |
| Kangaroos | [238] |
| The Story of Polargno | [241] |
| Turtles and Their Eggs | [265] |
| A Few Volcanoes | [269] |
| The Absent-Minded Botanist | [273] |
| Something True About the Moon | [282] |
| A Voyage to the Lower Amazon | [287] |
| The Bedouin Arabs | [298] |
| Fool-hardy Carl Hofer and the Water Lady | [302] |
| Water and Milk from Plants | [311] |
| The Jolly Cabordmen | [317] |
TALES OUT OF SCHOOL.
COLONEL MYLES’ ADVENTURES IN AFRICA AND INDIA.
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.