Far Away And Long Ago A History Of My Early Life By W. H. Hudson








































































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My parents had already experienced one great sadness on account of
Zango before his strange death. For years they had - Page 44
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My Parents Had Already Experienced One Great Sadness On Account Of Zango Before His Strange Death.

For years they had looked for a letter, a message, from the absent officer, and had often pictured his return and joy at finding alive still and embracing his beloved old friend again.

But he never returned, and no message came and no news could be heard of him, and it was at last concluded that he had lost his life in that distant part of the country, where there had been much fighting.

To return to the hailstones. The greatest destruction had fallen on the wild birds. Before the storm immense numbers of golden plover had appeared and were in large flocks on the plain. One of our native boys rode in and offered to get a sackful of plover for the table, and getting the sack he took me up on his horse behind him. A mile or so from home we came upon scores of dead plover lying together where they had been in close flocks, but my companion would not pick up a dead bird. There were others running about with one wing broken, and these he went after, leaving me to hold his horse, and catching them would wring their necks and drop them in the sack. When he had collected two or three dozen he remounted and we rode back.

Later that morning we heard of one human being, a boy of six, in one of our poor neighbours' houses, who had lost his life in a curious way. He was standing in the middle of the room, gazing out at the falling hail, when a hailstone, cutting through the thatched roof, struck him on the head and killed him instantly.

CHAPTER VI

SOME BIRD ADVENTURES

Visit to a river on the pampas - A first long walk - Waterfowl - My first sight of flamingoes - A great dove visitation - Strange tameness of the birds - Vain attempts at putting salt on their tails - An ethical question: When is a lie not a lie? - The carancho, a vulture-eagle - Our pair of caranchos - Their nest in a peach tree - I am ambitious to take their eggs - The birds' crimes - I am driven off by the birds - The nest pulled down.

Just before my riding days began in real earnest, when I was not yet quite confident enough to gallop off alone for miles to see the world for myself, I had my first long walk on the plain. One of my elder brothers invited me to accompany him to a water-course, one of the slow-flowing shallow marshy rivers of the pampas which was but two miles from home. The thought of the half-wild cattle we would meet terrified me, but he was anxious for my company that day and assured me that he could see no herd in that direction and he would be careful to give a wide berth to anything with horns we might come upon. Then I joyfully consented and we set out, three of us, to survey the wonders of a great stream of running water, where bulrushes grew and large wild birds, never seen by us at home, would be found.

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