He desired earnestly that I should follow the profession which he adorned, and indeed saw no other open for me any more than I did myself.

Of course he was right in a way, seeing that in the end I found none, unless big game hunting and Kaffir trading can be called a profession.

I don't know, I am sure.

Still, poor business as it may be, I say now when I am getting towards the end of life that I am glad I did not follow any other.

It has suited me; that was the insignificant hole in the world's affairs which I was destined to fit, whose only gifts were a remarkable art of straight shooting and the more common one of observation mixed with a little untrained philosophy.
So hot did our arguments become about this subject of the Church, for, as may be imagined, in the course of them I revealed some unorthodoxy, especially as regards the matter of our methods of Christianising Kaffirs, that I was extremely thankful when a diversion occurred which took me away from home.