No doubt my canine steed was as much troubled as any one at the
accident. I seem to see the wise old fellow now, sitting in that
curious one-sided fashion he had acquired so as to rest his lame leg,
his mouth opened to a kind of immense smile, and his brown benevolent
eyes regarding us with just such an expression as one sees in a
faithful old negress nursing a flock of troublesome white children--so
proud and happy to be in charge of the little ones of a superior race!
All that I remember of my early life at this place comes between the
ages of three or four and five; a period which, to the eye of memory,
appears like a wide plain blurred over with a low-lying mist, with
here and there a group of trees, a house, a hill, or other large
object, standing out in the clear air with marvellous distinctness.
The picture that most often presents itself is of the cattle coming
home in the evening; the green quiet plain extending away from the
gate to the horizon; the western sky flushed with sunset hues, and the
herd of four or five hundred cattle trotting homewards with loud
lowings and bellowings, raising a great cloud of dust with their
hoofs, while behind gallop the herdsmen urging them on with wild
cries. Another picture is of my mother at the close of the day, when
we children, after our supper of bread and milk, join in a last grand
frolic on the green before the house.
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