In This Way, Thinking
Of And Looking Only For The Birds, I Became Acquainted With Some Of
The People Individually,
And as I grew to know them better from year
to year I sometimes became interested in them too, and
In this and
three or four succeeding chapters I will describe those I knew best or
that interested me the most. Not only as I first knew or began to know
them in my seventh year, but in several instances I shall be able to
trace their lives and fortunes for some years further on.
When out riding I went oftenest in the direction of Los Alamos, which
was west of us, or as the gauchos would say, "on the side where the
sun sets." For just behind the plantation, enclosed in its rows of
tall old poplars, was that bird-haunted stream which was an
irresistible attraction. The sight of running water, too, was a never-
failing joy, also the odours which greeted me in that moist green
place - odours earthy, herby, fishy, flowery, and even birdy,
particularly that peculiar musky odour given out on hot days by large
flocks of the glossy ibis.
The person - owner or tenant, I forget which - who lived in the house
was an old woman named Dona Pascuala, whom I never saw without a cigar
in her mouth. Her hair was white, and her thousand-wrinkled face was
as brown as the cigar, and she had fun-loving eyes, a loud
authoritative voice and a masterful manner, and she was esteemed by
her neighbours as a wise and good woman.
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