The Novels of Charles Lever Volume 13 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1898 Excerpt: ... MEANS AND MEDITATIONS was the second evening after my lion adventure, and I was stretched in my hammock in a low, half-torpid state, not a limb nor a joint in all my body that had not its own peculiar pain; while a sharp wound in my neck, and another still deeper one in the fleshy part of my shoulder, had just begun that process called 'union'--one which, I am bound to say, however satisfactory in result, is often very painful in its progress. The slightest change of position gave me intolerable anguish; as I lay, with closed eyes and crossed hands, not a bad resemblance of those stone saints one sees upon old tombstones. My faculties were clear and acute, so that, having abundant leisure for the occupation, I had nothing better to do than take a brief retrospect of my late life. Such reviews are rarely satisfactory, or rather, one rarely thinks of making them when, the 'score of the past' is in our favour. Up to this moment it was clear I had gained little but experience; I had started light, and I had acquired nothing, save a somewhat worse opinion of the world and a greater degree of confidence in myself. I had but one way of balancing my account with Fortune, which was by asking myself, 'Would I undo the past, if in my power? Would I wish once more to be back in my " father's mud edifice," now digging a drain, now drawing an indictment--a kind of pastoral pettifogger, with one foot in a potato furrow and the other in petty sessions?' I stoutly said 'No ' a thousand times ' No ' to this question. I could not ask myself as to my preference for a university career, for my college life had concluded abruptly, in spite of me; but still, during my town experiences, I saw enough to leave me no regrets at having quitted the muses. The life of a skip, ' as the T...