I cannot now remember when I first made his acquaintance, but I was
not quite six, though very near it, when I had my first view of his
house. In the chapter on "Some Early Bird Adventures," I have
described my first long walk on the plains, when two of my brothers
took me to a river some distance from home, where I was enchanted with
my first sight of that glorious waterfowl, the flamingo. Now, as we
stood on the brink of the flowing water, which had a width of about
two hundred yards at that spot when the river had overflowed its
banks, one of my elder brothers pointed to a long low house, thatched
with rushes, about three-quarters of a mile distant on the other side
of the stream, and informed me that it was the estancia house of Don
Evaristo Penalva, who was one of the principal landowners in that
part.
That was one of the images my mind received on that adventurous day
which have not faded--the long, low, mud built house, standing on the
wide, empty, treeless plain, with three ancient, half-dead, crooked
acacia trees growing close to it, and a little further away a corral
or cattle-enclosure and a sheep-fold. It was a poor, naked, dreary-
looking house without garden or shade, and I dare say a little English
boy six years old would have smiled, a little incredulous, to be told
that it was the residence of one of the principal land-owners in that
part.
Pages:
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213