Spradbrow, in retort, warned me of it.

Said he, "You would be played out of the sloop before you could round the cape." By others it was not thought probable that the premier of Natal would play cribbage off the Cape of Good Hope to win even the _Spray_.
It was a matter of no small pride to me in South Africa to find that American humor was never at a discount, and one of the best American stories I ever heard was told by the premier.

At Hotel Royal one day, dining with Colonel Saunderson, M.P., his son, and Lieutenant Tipping, I met Mr.Stanley.The great explorer was just from Pretoria, and had already as good as flayed President Kruger with his trenchant pen.

But that did not signify, for everybody has a whack at Oom Paul, and no one in the world seems to stand the joke better than he, not even the Sultan of Turkey himself.

The colonel introduced me to the explorer, and I hauled close to the wind, to go slow, for Mr.Stanley was a nautical man once himself,--on the Nyanza, I think,--and of course my desire was to appear in the best light before a man of his experience.