Then,
Remembering All I Had Been Told About The Ferocity Of These Pigs, It
Struck Me That I Had Had
An extremely narrow escape, since if I had
been thrown off the savage beast would have had me at her
Mercy and
would have certainly killed me in a couple of minutes; and as she was
probably mad with hunger and thirst in that lonely hot spot, with a
lot of young to feed, it would not have taken her long to devour me,
bones and boots included.
This set me thinking on the probable effect of my disappearance, of my
mother's terrible anxiety, and what they would think and do about it
They would know from the return of the pony that I had fallen
somewhere: they would have searched for me all over the surrounding
plain, especially in all the wilder, lonelier places where birds
breed; on lands where the cardoon thistle flourished most, and in the
vast beds of bulrushes in the marshes, but would not have found me.
And at length when the searching was all over, some gaucho riding by
that cattle-path through the thistles would catch sight of a piece of
cloth, a portion of a boy's garment, and the secret of my end would be
discovered.
I had never liked the red pigs, on account of the way they ploughed up
and disfigured the beautiful green sward with their iron-hard snouts,
also because of the powerful and disgusting smell they emitted, but
after this adventure with the sow the feeling was much stronger, and I
wondered more and more why that beautiful soul, Don Anastacio,
cherished an affection for such detestable beasts.
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