Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World • Paragraph 1528
Stage 1 of 6

Read it through once

Every now and then in this big book one comes across that pathetic remark: “we tried to get him to sit down but he would not.” It tells the whole story. Some accident had awakened the suspicion in him that these smooth friends who had been petting and coddling him and making him feel so safe and so fortunate after his forlorn and lonely wanderings were the dreaded Thugs; and now their ghastly invitation to “sit and rest” had confirmed its truth. He knew there was no help for him, and that he was looking his last upon earthly things, but “he would not sit.” No, not that—it was too awful to think of!