Soon He
Became Even More Important In An Unpleasant Way When It Was Discovered
That Rats Were Abundant Indoors As Well As Out.
The various noises
they made at night were terrifying; they would run over our beds and
sometimes we would wake up to find that one had got in between the
sheets and was trying frantically to get out.
Then we would yell, and
half the house would be roused and imagine some dreadful thing. But
when they found out the cause, they would only laugh at and rebuke us
for being such poor little cowards.
But what an astonishing place was this to which we had come! The great
house and many buildings and the people in it, the foss, the trees
that enchanted me, the dirt and disorder, vile rats and fleas and
pests of all sorts! The place had been for some years in the hands of
a Spanish or native family - indolent, careless, happy-go-lucky people.
The husband and wife were never in harmony or agreement about anything
for five minutes together, and by and by he would go away to the
capital "on business," which would keep him from home for weeks, and
even months, at a stretch. And she, with three light-headed, grown-up
daughters, would be left to run the establishment with half-a-dozen
hired men and women to assist her. I remember her well, as she stayed
on a few days in order to hand over the place to us - an excessively
fat, inactive woman, who sat most of the day in an easy-chair,
surrounded by her pets - lap-dogs, Amazon parrots, and several
shrieking parakeets.
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