to make any one exactly understand the situation. I am afraid that it would be impossible for me to leave the work I am now engaged on.… You remember, when they first insisted on making me king, I told you it was not easy to shake off responsibilities, once you had taken them up. These people have come to rely on me for a great number of things. We found them ignorant of much that white people enjoy. And we have, one might say, changed the current of their lives considerably. Now it is a very ticklish business, to change the lives of other people. And whether the changes we have made will be, in the end, for good or for bad, is our lookout."
He thought a moment then went on in a quieter, sadder voice:
"I would like to continue my voyages and my natural history work; and I would like to go back to Puddleby as much as any of you. This is March, and the crocuses will be showing in the lawn.… But that which I feared has come true: I cannot close my eyes to what might happen if I should leave these people and run away. They would probably go back to their old habits and customs: wars, superstitions, devil-worship and what not; and many of the new things we have taught them might be put to improper use and make their condition, then, worse by far than that in which we found them.
