He Himself Would Have Been Out Of His
Element In Such A Place, Shut Up In A Close Room Or
Painfully waddling
over the rough boulder-stones of the narrow streets on his bow legs.
Life for him was to
Be on the back of a piebald horse on the wide
green plain, looking after his beloved animals.
CHAPTER XII
THE HEAD OF A DECAYED HOUSE
The Estancia Canada Seca - Low lands and floods - Don Anastacio, a
gaucho exquisite - A greatly respected man - Poor relations - Don
Anastacio a pig-fancier - Narrow escape from a pig - Charm of the low
green lands - The flower called _macachina_ - A sweet-tasting bulb -
Beauty of the green flower-sprinkled turf - A haunt of the golden
plover - The _Bolas_ - My plover-hunting experience - Rebuked by a
gaucho - A green spot, our playground in summer and lake in winter - The
venomous toad-like Caratophrys - Vocal performance of the toad-like
creature - We make war on them - The great lake battle and its results.
In this chapter I wish to introduce the reader to the last but one of
the half a dozen of our nearest neighbours, selected as typical of the
smaller estancieros - a class of landowners and cattle-breeders then in
their decay and probably now fast vanishing. This was Don Anastacio
Buenavida, who was an original person too in his little way. He was
one of our very nearest neighbours, his estancia house being no more
than two short miles from us on the south side.
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