Far Away and Long Ago

Far Away and Long Ago

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Title: Far Away and Long Ago
Author: W. H. Hudson
Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6093] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on November 4,
2002]
Edition: 10

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FAR AWAY AND LONG AGO
A HISTORY OF MY EARLY LIFE
BY W. H. HUDSON
Author of "Idle Days In Patagonia," "The Purple Land," "A Crystal
Age," "Adventures Among Birds," Etc.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
EARLIEST MEMORIES
Preamble--The house where I was born--The singular ombu tree--A
tree without a name--The plain--The ghost of a murdered slave--Our
playmate, the old sheep-dog--A first riding-lesson--The cattle: an
evening scene--My mother--Captain Scott--The hermit and his awful
penance

CHAPTER II
MY NEW HOME
We quit our old home--A winter day journey--Aspect of the
country--Our new home--A prisoner in the barn--The plantation--A
paradise of rats-- An evening scene--The people of the house--A beggar
on horseback--Mr. Trigg our schoolmaster--His double
nature--Impersonates an old woman-- Reading Dickens--Mr. Trigg

degenerates--Once more a homeless wanderer on the great plain

CHAPTER III
DEATH OF AN OLD DOG
The old dog Caesar--His powerful personality--Last days and end--The
old dog's burial--The fact of death is brought home to me--A child's
mental anguish--My mother comforts me--Limitations of the child's
mind--Fear of death--Witnessing the slaughter of cattle--A man in the
moat--Margarita, the nursery-maid--Her beauty and lovableness--Her
death--I refuse to see her dead

CHAPTER IV
THE PLANTATION
Living with trees--Winter violets--The house is made habitable--Red
willow--Scizzor-tail and carrion-hawk--Lombardy poplars--Black
acacia --Other trees--The fosse or moat--Rats--A trial of strength with
an armadillo--Opossums living with a snake--Alfalfa field and
butterflies--Cane brake--Weeds and fennel--Peach trees in blossom--
Paroquets--Singing of a field finch--Concert-singing in birds--Old
John--Cow-birds' singing--Arrival of summer migrants

CHAPTER V
ASPECTS OF THE PLAIN
Appearance of a green level land--Cardoon and giant thistles--Villages
of the vizcacha, a large burrowing rodent--Groves and plantations seen
like islands on the wide level plains--Trees planted by the early
colonists--Decline of the colonists from an agricultural to a pastoral
people--Houses as part of the landscape--Flesh diet of the gauchos--
Summer change in the aspect of the plain--The water-like mirage--The
giant thistle and a "thistle year"--Fear of fires--An incident at a
fire--The pampero, or south-west wind, and the fall of the thistles
--Thistle-down and thistle-seed as food for animals--A great pampero
storm--Big hailstones--Damage caused by hail--Zango, an old horse,
killed--Zango and his master

CHAPTER VI
SOME BIRD ADVENTURES
Visit to a river on the pampas--A first long walk--Water-fowl--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

CHAPTER VII
MY FIRST VISIT TO BUENOS AYRES
Happiest time--First visit to the capital--Old and New Buenos Ayres--
Vivid impressions--Solitary walk--How I learnt to go alone--Lost--The
house we stayed at and the sea-like river--Rough and narrow streets--
Rows of posts--Carts and noise--A great church festival--Young men in
black and scarlet--River scenes--Washerwomen and their
language--Their word-fights with young fashionables--Night
watchmen--A young gentleman's pastime--A fishing dog--A fine
gentleman seen stoning little birds--A glimpse of Don Eusebio, the
Dictator's fool

CHAPTER VIII
THE TYRANT'S FALL AND WHAT FOLLOWED
The portraits in our drawing-room--The Dictator Rosas who was like
an Englishman--The strange face of his wife, Encarnacion--The traitor
Urquiza--The Minister of War, his peacocks and his son--Home again
from the city--The war deprives us of our playmate--Natalia, our
shepherd's wife--Her son, Medardo--The Alcalde, our grand old man--
Battle of Monte Caseros--The