Far Away and Long Ago

William Henry Hudson
Far Away and Long Ago

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Far Away and Long Ago, by W. H.
Hudson (#4 in our series by W. H. Hudson)
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
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

Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, FAR
AWAY AND LONG AGO ***

Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.

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
Continue reading on your phone by scaning this QR Code

 / 124
Tip: The current page has been bookmarked automatically. If you wish to continue reading later, just open the Dertz Homepage, and click on the 'continue reading' link at the bottom of the page.