Dinny relates his Adventure.
Dinny’s story was hardly believed when he walked into camp, but Chicory was there to corroborate his words, and the astonishment felt was intense.
“You—you shoot a rhinoceros, Dinny!” said his master.
“Shure and why not, yer hanner?” said Dinny. “Didn’t I borry the gun a’ purpose for that same? and didn’t the big baste stale my gyarments in the most ondacent way?”
“But how? Where? Where?” was asked by father and sons, in a breath.
“Shure an’ I’m the laste bit weary wid my exertions,” said Dinny, “and I’ll jist light me pipe and sit down and rest, and tell ye the while.”
All in the most deliberate way, Dinny proceeded to light his pipe and rest; and then, with Chicory sitting in front with his arms tightly embracing his knees, and his eyes and mouth open, Dinny related his adventure with the rhinoceros.
The late Sir Walter Scott in speaking of embellishing and exaggerating a story called it adding a cocked-hat and walking-stick.
Dinny put not merely a cocked-hat and walking-stick to his story, but embellished it with a crown, sceptre, and royal robes of the most gorgeous colours. It was wonderful what he had done; the furious conduct of the rhinoceros, the daring he had displayed, the precision with which he had sought out vital parts to aim at. A more thrilling narrative had never been told, and Chicory’s eyes grew rounder and his mouth wider open in his astonishment and admiration, the hero going up wonderfully in the boy’s esteem, especially as he read in Dinny’s looks the promise of endless snacks and tastes when he was hungry.
But all the same, Dinny’s flights of fancy grew a little too lofty for his other hearers.