I Had An Invincible Dislike To These Dogs With Their Shiny
Blue-Black Naked Skins, Like The Bald Head Of An Old Negro, And Their
Long White Scattered Whiskers.
These white stiff hairs on their faces
and their dim blinking eyes gave them a certain resemblance to very
old ugly men with black blood in them, and made them all the more
repulsive.
The two daughters, both grown to womanhood, were named Marcelina and
Demetria; the first big, brown, jolly, and fat like her mother, the
other with better features, a pale olive skin, dark melancholy eyes,
and a gentle pensive voice and air which made her seem like one of a
different family and race. The daughters would serve mate to us, a
beverage which as a small boy I did not like, but there was no
chocolate or tea in that house for visitors, and in fruit-time I was
always glad to get away to the orchard. As at our own home the old
peach trees grew in the middle part of the plantation, the other parts
being planted with rows of Lombardy poplars and other large shade
trees. A tame ostrich, or rhea, was kept at the house, and as long as
we remained indoors or seated in the verandah he would hang about
close by, but would follow us as soon as we started off to the
orchard. He was like a pet dog and could not endure to be left alone
or in the uncongenial company of other domestic creatures - dogs, cats,
fowls, turkeys, and geese.
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