Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 25 (Color Image)

0025	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. I.] EXPLORING FEVER.

subject, and a week or two afterwards we

again met at dinner, and again talked about

the same places. And then, after a few days,

on one Sunday afternoon, Mr. James walked

into my house and asked me if I would go a

journey with him. Nothing was said as to

where we should go ; but to go a journey any-

where was enough for me, and of course I said

Yes." I remember sitting that afternoon in

church at Simla and looking up the rows of

people, thinking how every man amongst them

would wish to be in my place, if he only knew

what I was going to do ; for at that time I

thought that everybody must necessarily want

to make a journey if he could only get the

chance, and that this must be the highest

object of a man's ambition.

Mr. James, it appeared, had originally in-

tended to travel with Mr. Carey, the well-

known explorer of Tibet, who was just then

starting on his travels. But there had been

difficulty about Mr. James's leave, and so he

had had to postpone his journey till the follow-

ing spring, and, being without a companion,

had asked me to join him wherever he might

go. This act of kindness is one for which

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