I Remember A Good Deal Of That Long
Journey, Which Began At Sunrise And Ended Between The Lights Some Time
After Sunset; For It Was My Very First, And I Was Going Out Into The
Unknown.
I remember how, at the foot of the slope at the top of which
the old home stood, we plunged into the river, and there was more
noise and shouting and excitement until the straining animals brought
us safely out on the other side.
Gazing back, the low roof of the
house was lost to view before long, but the trees - the row of twenty-
five giant ombu-trees which gave the place its name - were visible,
blue in the distance, until we were many miles on our way.
The undulating country had been left behind; before us and on both
sides the land, far as one could see, was absolutely flat, everywhere
green with the winter grass, but flowerless at that season, and with
the gleam of water, over the whole expanse. It had been a season of
great rains, and much of the flat country had been turned into shallow
lakes. That was all there was to see, except the herds of cattle and
horses and an occasional horseman galloping over the plain, and the
sight at long distances of a grove or small plantation of trees,
marking the site of an estancia, or sheep and cattle farm, these
groves appearing like islands on the sea-like flat country. At length
this monotonous landscape faded and vanished quite away, and the
lowing of cattle and tremulous bleating of sheep died out of hearing,
so that the last leagues were a blank to me, and I only came back to
my senses when it was dark and they lifted me down, so stiff with cold
and drowsy that I could hardly stand on my feet.
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