I flung it upon the floor with a curse and threw myself back on my bed with a groan.
In that desponding state I was found by my friend Panta, who was constant in his visits at all hours; and when in answer to his anxious inquiries I pointed to the pulpy mass on the mud floor, he turned it over with his foot, and then, bursting into a loud laugh, kicked it out, remarking that he had mistaken the object for some unknown reptile that had crawled in out of the rain.

He affected to be astonished that I should regret its loss.

It was all a true narrative, he exclaimed; if I wished to write a book for the stay-at-homes to read, I could easily invent a thousand lies far more entertaining than any real experiences.
He had come to me, he said, to propose something.

He had lived twenty years at that place, and had got accustomed to the climate, but it would not do for me to remain any longer if I wished to live.

I must go away at once to a different country--to the mountains, where it was open and dry.