On the Pampas; Or, The Young Settlers

by G. A. Henty

  CHAPTER V

  THE SETTLER'S HOME.

  Just before commencing the house Mr. Hardy heard that a sale ofstock was to take place at an estancia about twenty miles to thewest of Rosario, in consequence of the death of its owner. Hetherefore took Lopez and the newly hired peons, and started. He waslikely to be away five days. The boys were to do what work theyjudged best in his absence. They determined to set aboutbrick-making. Fortunately, Hans was accustomed to the work and knewthe way that the natives of the country set about it; the American,Seth, knew nothing about it, but he was always willing to turn hishand to anything. First, a piece of ground was cleared of grass,and was leveled for the reception of the bricks when made; thensome planks were knocked together so as to form a rough table. Twobrick molds were made, these being larger than those used inEngland. A piece of ground was chosen near. The turf was taken off,the soil was dug up, and the peons drove the bullocks round andround upon it, trampling it into a thick mud, some water beingthrown in when necessary.

  As it was sufficiently trampled Terence carried it in a trough andemptied it on to the table close by, where Hans and Seth fashionedit in the molds, turning the bricks out on to a plank a foot wideand six feet long. When this was full the boys took each an end andcarried it off to the prepared ground, where they carefully removedthe bricks with two little slabs of wood, and placed them on theground to dry, returning with the empty plank to find, another onefilled for them. It was hard work for all, and from eleven untilthree the heat was too great to allow them to work at it; but theybegan with daylight, and taking a nap during the heat of the day,were ready to work on again as long as it was light.

  The bricks were, of course, to be dried by the sun, as fuel was tooscarce for them to think of burning them; but this was of littleconsequence, especially as they were to be used indoors, the heatof the sun being quite sufficient to make very fair bricks withoutthe use of fire.

  By the afternoon of the fifth day they had made a quantity ofbricks which would, they calculated, be ample for the constructionof the partition walls of their house.

  The boys had just deposited the last brick upon the drying ground,and were moving away, when Hubert cried, "Stop, Charley, don't movea step."

  Startled by the suddenness and sharpness of the cry, Charley stoodwithout moving, and was surprised to see his brother pick up one ofthe wet bricks in both hands, and dash it upon the groundimmediately in front of where they were walking.

  "I've killed him!" Hubert cried triumphantly; and Charley, lookingdown, saw a snake of about three feet long writhing in the grass,his head being completely driven into the ground under the force ofthe lump of wet clay. Two or three stamps of their heavy bootscompleted the work. And the men coming up to see what was thematter, Hans said that Charley, who would have trodden upon thereptile in another instant had not his brother called out, had hada very narrow escape, for that the snake was the _vivora de lacrux_, so called from a mark like a cross upon his head, andthat his bite was almost always mortal.

  It was a pretty snake, with bands of red, white, and black upon hisbody. Charley grew very pale at the thought of the narrow escape hehad had, and wrung his brother very hard by the hand; while Hubertwas half-inclined to cry at the thoughts of what might havehappened.

  The sun was just setting when they saw a crowd of objects in thedistance; and the boys at once saddled their horses and rode off,to meet their father and to assist to drive in the animals. Theyfound, upon reaching him, that he had bought a thousand sheep,fifty cattle, and twenty horses; three of these last beingremarkably well bred, and fast, and bought specially for their ownriding. Upon their arrival at the house the sheep were turned intothe enclosure, the horses were picketed, and the cattle left toroam at their will, as it was not thought probable that they wouldattempt to return to their distant homes, especially after twodays' fatiguing march.

  Mr. Hardy was very much pleased at the sight of the long rows ofbricks lying in front of the house, and gave great credit to allfor the amount of work which had been done during his few days'absence. The next morning he assigned to every one their share ofthe future work. Lopez and one of the peons went out with thehorses, cattle, and sheep. After a time it would not be necessaryto have two men employed for this work, as the cattle and horses,when they once became accustomed to their new home, would neverwander very far. Charley, Hubert, and Terence were to take threeyoke of oxen and the three plows, and to commence to get the landin order for cultivation; the ground selected as a beginning beingthat lying below the house near the river. Mr. Hardy, Hans, and thetwo peons were to work at the house, and Seth was to finish thewell, which, although begun, had been stopped during the press ofmore urgent work, and the water required had been fetched from thestream in a barrel placed in a bullock cart. The way in which adobeor mud houses are constructed is as follows: The mud is prepared asfor brick-making; but instead of being made into bricks, it is madeat once into the wall. The foundation having been dug out andleveled, two boards are placed on edge eighteen inches or two feetapart. These are kept in their places by two pieces of wood nailedacross them. The space between these boards is filled with mud, inwhich chopped hay and rushes have been mixed to bind it together.The boards are left for a day or two, while the builders proceedwith the other part of the wall. They are then taken off, and theheat of the sun soon dries the wall into a mass almost as hard as abrick. The boards are then put on again higher up, and the processrepeated until the walls have gained the desired height.

  In a fortnight's time the walls were finished, and the bullockcarts were dispatched to Rosario to fetch lime, as Mr. Hardy haddetermined to plaster the inside walls to keep in the dust, whichis otherwise continually coming off mud walls. By this time aconsiderable extent of land was plowed up, and this was now plantedwith maize, yam or sweet potato, and pumpkins: a small portion, asan experiment, was also planted with potato seeds, but the climateis almost too warm for the potato to thrive.

  Upon the return of the carts with the lime the partition walls werebuilt with the bricks. The walls finished, all hands went to workat the roof. This Mr. Hardy had intended to have had regularlythatched; but during his last visit to Rosario he had heard thatthe Indians frequently endeavored in their attacks to set fire tothe roofs, and he therefore determined to use tiles. The carts hadto make two journeys to Rosario to get sufficient tiles and lath.But at last all was finished; the walls were plastered inside andwhitewashed out; the floor was leveled, beaten down hard, andcovered with a mixture of clay and lime, which hardened into afirm, level floor.

  It was exactly two months from the date of their arrival at thefarm that the doors were hung and the finishing touch put to thehouse, and very pleased were they all as they gave three cheers fortheir new abode. The tower, they all agreed, was an especialfeature. It was built of adobe up to the height of the other walls,but the upper story had been built of bricks two thick and laid inmortar. The top had been embattled; and the boys laughed, and saidthe house looked exactly like a little dissenting chapel at home.

  It was a joyful day when a fire was first lighted in the kitchenchimney, which, with that in the sitting-room, was lined withbricks; and the whole party sat down to a dinner of mutton and wildfowl of three or four sorts.

  The same evening Mr. Hardy told the boys that he should start thenext day to bring up their mamma and the girls, who were allgetting very impatient indeed to be out upon the pampas. Heexplained to them that he should bring up iron bedsteads with bedding,but that he relied upon them to increase their stock oftables and benches, and to put up shelves, which would do untilregular cupboards and closets could be made. Mr. Hardy thought thathe should not be away much more than a week, as, by making a longride to Rosario the next day he should catch the boat, which leftthe following morning for Buenos Ayres; and as he had alreadywritten to Mr. Thompson saying when he should probably arrive,there would be no time lost. The next morning he started beforedaylight, the last words of the boys being: "Be sure, papa, tobr
ing the mosquito curtains for us all; they are getting worse andworse. We hardly closed an eye all last night."

  Hot as the weather now was, the boys worked incessantly at theircarpentering for the next week, and at the end had the satisfactionof seeing a large table for dining at in the sitting-room, and asmall one to act as a sideboard, two long benches, and two shortones. In their mother and sisters' rooms there were a table and twobenches, and a table and a long flap to serve as a dresser in thekitchen. They had also put up two long shelves in each of thebedrooms, and some nails on the doors for dresses. They were verytired at the end of the week, but they looked round with asatisfied look, for they knew they had done their best. The nextmorning they were to ride to Rosario to meet the party. The cartshad gone off under the charge of Terence that day.

  It was indeed a joyful meeting when Mr. and Mrs. Hardy and thegirls stepped off the steamer; but the first embrace was scarcelyover when the boys exclaimed simultaneously, "Why, girls, what isthe matter with your faces? I should not have known you."

  "Oh, it's those dreadful mosquitoes; there were millions on boardthe steamer last night. I really thought we should have been eatenup. Didn't you, mamma?"

  "Well, my dear, I thought that they would perhaps leave somethingof us till morning, but I felt almost inclined to go mad and jumpoverboard. It was a dreadful night. I do hope they are not so badhere, Frank."

  "No, Clara, they are nothing like so bad as they were last night;but still, as we are so close to the river, they will, no doubt, betroublesome, and I question whether the beds at the hotel havemosquito curtains; but if you take my advice, and all sleep withthe sheet over your heads, you will manage to do pretty well. It isbetter to be hot than to be bitten all over."

  In spite, however, of the expedient of the sheets, all the partypassed a bad night, and were quite ready to get up before daylightto start for their ride to Mr. Percy's estancia. They were all toride, with the exception of Sarah, who took her place in one of thebullock carts; and they would therefore reach the estancia beforethe heat of the day fairly set in. Terence having been told thatSarah was going to ride, had cut some boughs, with which he made asort of arbor over the cart to shade her from the sun--a generalmethod of the country, and at which Sarah was much gratified. Shehad at first felt rather anxious at the thought of going withouther mistress; but Terence assured her: "Sure, miss, and it'smeself, Terence Kelly, that will take care of ye; and no dangershall come near your pretty face at all, at all; ye'll be quite assafe as if ye were in the auld country. And as for the bastes, sureand it's the quietest bastes they are, and niver thought of runningaway since the day they were born."

  So Sarah took her place without uneasiness, and the others startedat a hand canter for Mr. Percy's estancia.

  While at Mr. Thompson's both Mrs. Hardy and the girls had riddenregularly every day, so that all were quite at their ease on theirhorses, and were able to talk away without ceasing of all that hadhappened since they parted. The only caution Mr. Hardy had to give,with a side look at Charley, was, "Look out for armadillo holes;because I have known fellows who were wonderful at sticking ontheir horses come to grief at them."

  At which Hubert laughed; and Charley said, "Oh, papa!" and coloredup and laughed, as was his way when his father joked him about hislittle weaknesses.

  They had not gone more than halfway before they met Mr. Percy, whohad ridden thus far to welcome his guests, for English ladies arevery scarce out on the pampas, and are honored accordingly. One ofthe first questions the girls asked after the first greetings wereover was, "Have you many mosquitoes at your estancia, Mr. Percy?"

  "Not many," Mr. Percy said; "I have no stream near, and it is onlynear water that they are so very bad."

  After waiting during the heat of the day at Mr. Percy's, the boysrode on home, as six guests were altogether beyond Mr. Percy'spower of accommodating.

  The next morning the boys were up long before daylight, and wentdown to the stream, where, as day broke, they managed to shoot aswan and five wild ducks, and with these they returned to thehouse. Then they swept the place with the greatest care, spread thetable, arranged the benches, set everything off to the bestadvantage, and then devoted their whole energies to cooking a veryexcellent breakfast, which they were sure the travelers would beready for upon their arrival. This was just ready, when, from thelookout on the tower, they saw the party approaching. The breakfastwas too important to be left, and they were therefore unable toride out to meet them. They were at the gate, however, as theyrode up.

  "Hurrah, hurrah!" they shouted, and the girls set up a cheer inreturn.

  The men ran up to take the horses, and in another minute the wholeparty were in their new home. The girls raced everywhere wild withdelight, ascended to the lookout, clapped their hands at the sightof the sheep and cattle, and could hardly be persuaded to taketheir things off and sit down to breakfast.

  Mrs. Hardy was less loud in her commendation of everything, but shewas greatly pleased with her new home, which was very much morefinished and comfortable than she had expected.

  "This is fun, mamma, isn't it?" Maud said. "It is just like apicnic. How we shall enjoy it, to be sure! May we set-to at onceafter breakfast, and wash up?"

  "Certainly, Maud; Sarah will not be here for another two hours, andit is as well that you should begin to make yourselves useful atonce. We shall all have to be upon our mettle, too. See how nicelythe boys have cooked the breakfast. These snatch-cock ducks areexcellent, and the mutton chops done to a turn. They will have agreat laugh at us, if we, the professed cooks, do not do at leastas well."

  "Ah, but look at the practice they have been having, mamma."

  "Yes, Maud," Hubert said; "and I can tell you it is only two orthree things we can do well. Ducks and geese done like this, andchops and steaks, are about the limits. If we tried anything else,we made an awful mess of it: as to puddings, we never attemptedthem; and shall be very glad of something in the way of bread, forwe are heartily sick of these flat, flabby cakes."

  "Why have you only whitewashed this high middle wall halfway up,Frank?"

  "In the first place, my dear, we fell short of whitewash; and, inthe next place, we are going to set to work at once to put a few lightrafters across, and to nail felt below them, and whitewash itso as to make a ceiling. It will make the rooms look less bare,and, what is much more important, it will make them a great dealcooler."

  "You get milk, I hope?"

  "Yes," Charley said; "two of the cows of the last lot papa boughtare accustomed to be milked, and Hubert and I have done it up tillnow; but we shall hand them over to you, and you girls will have tolearn."

  Maud and Ethel looked at each other triumphantly. "Perhaps we knowmore than you think," Ethel said.

  "Yes," Mrs. Hardy said; "the girls are going to be two very usefullittle women. I will tell you a secret. While you boys were at workof a morning, the girls, as you know, often walked over to Mr.Williams the farmer's, to learn as much as they could aboutpoultry, of which he kept a great many. Mrs. Williams saw howanxious they were to learn to be useful, so she offered to teachthem to milk, and to manage a dairy, and make butter and cheese.And they worked regularly, till Mrs. Williams told me she thoughtthat they could make butter as well as she could. It has been agreat secret, for the girls did not wish even their papa to know,so that it might be a surprise."

  "Very well done, little girls," Mr. Hardy said; "it is a surpriseindeed, and a most pleasant one. Mamma kept your secret capitally,and never as much as whispered a word to me about it."

  The boys too were delighted, for they had not tasted butter sincethey arrived, and they promised readily enough to make a roughchurn with the least possible delay.

  By ten o'clock the carts arrived with Sarah and the luggage, andthen there was work for the afternoon, putting up the bedsteads,and getting everything into order. The mosquito curtains werefitted to the beds, and all felt gratified at the thought that theyshould be able to set the little bloodsuckers at defian
ce. The nextday was Sunday, upon which, as usual, no work was to be done. Afterbreakfast the benches were brought in from the bedrooms, and themen assembling, Mr. Hardy read prayers, offering up a specialprayer for the blessing and protection of God upon their household.Afterward Mrs. Hardy and the girls were taken over the place, andshown the storehouse, and the men's tent, and the river, and thenewly planted field.

  "The ground is getting very much burned up, papa," Charley said."It was damp enough when we put in the crops, and they are gettingon capitally; but I fear that they were sown too late, and will beburned up."

  "Ah, but I have a plan to prevent that," Mr. Hardy said. "See ifyou can think what it is."

  Neither of the boys could imagine.

  "When I first described the place to you, I told you that there wasa main stream with a smaller one running into it, and that Ithought that this last would be very useful. I examined the groundvery carefully, and I found that the small stream runs for somedistance between two slight swells, which narrow in sharply to eachother just below the house. Now I find that a dam of not more thanfifty feet wide and eight feet high will make a sort of lake aquarter of a mile long, and averaging fifty yards wide. From thisthe water will flow over the whole flat by the river in front ofthe house and away to the left, and we shall be able to irrigate atleast three or four hundred acres of land. Upon these we shall beable to raise four or five crops a year; and one crop inparticular, the alfalfa, a sort of lucern for fattening the cattlein time of drought, when the grass is all parched up. At that timecattle ordinarily worth only fifteen dollars can be sold, if fat,for forty-five or fifty dollars. So you see, boys, there is a grandprospect before us."

  The boys entered enthusiastically into the scheme, and the partywent at once to inspect the spot which Mr. Hardy had fixed upon forthe dam. This, it was agreed, should be commenced the very nextday; and Mr. Hardy said that he had no doubt, if the earth wasproperly puddled, or stamped when wet, that it would keep the waterfrom coming through.

  In the afternoon Mrs. Hardy, Maud, and Ethel were taken a rideround the property, and were fortunate enough to see someostriches, to the great delight of the girls.

  At tea Mr. Hardy said: "There is one very important point connectedwith our place which has hitherto been unaccountably neglected. Doany of you know what it is?"

  The boys and their sisters looked at each other in great perplexity,and in vain endeavored to think of any important omission.

  "I mean," their father said at last, "the place has no name. Isuggest that we fix upon one at once. It is only marked in thegovernment plan as Lot 473. Now, what name shall it be?"

  Innumerable were the suggestions made, but none met with universalapprobation. At last Mrs. Hardy said: "I have heard in England of aplace called Mount Pleasant, though I confess I do not know whereit is. Now, what do you say to Mount Pleasant? It is a mount, andwe mean it to be a very pleasant place before we have done with it."

  The approval of the suggestion was general, and amid great applauseit was settled that the house and estate should hereafter go by thename of "Mount Pleasant."

  In the morning the boys were at work at two wheelbarrows, for whichMr. Hardy had brought out wheels and ironwork; and Mr. Hardy andthe men went down to the stream, and began to strip off the turfand to dig out a strip of land twenty-five feet wide along the linewhere the dam was to come. The earth was then wetted and puddled.When the barrows were completed they were brought into work; and inten days a dam was raised eight feet high, three feet wide at thetop, and twenty-five feet wide at the bottom. In the middle a spaceof two feet wide was left, through which the little stream atpresent ran. Two posts, with grooves in them, were driven in, oneupon either side of this; and thus the work was left for a fewdays, for the sun to bake its surface, while the men were cutting atrench for the water to run down to the ground to be irrigated.

  A small sluice was put at the entrance to this, to regulate thequantity of water to be allowed to flow, and all was now inreadiness to complete the final operation of closing up the dam. Aquantity of earth was first collected and puddled, and piled on thetop of the dam and on the slopes by its side, so as to be inreadiness, and Mrs. Hardy and the girls came down to watch theoperation.

  First a number of boards two feet long, and cut to fit the grooves,were slipped down into them, forming a solid wall, and then uponthe upper side of these the puddled earth was thrown down into thewater, Terence standing below in the stream and pounding down theearth with a rammer. The success was complete: in a couple ofhours' time the gap in the dam was filled up, and they had thesatisfaction of seeing the little stream overflowing its banks andwidening out above, while not a drop of water made its escape bythe old channel.

  While this work had been going on the boys had been engaged up atthe house. The first thing was to make a churn, then to put up somelarge closets and some more shelves, and the bullock carts had tobe sent to Rosario for a fresh supply of planks. This occupied themuntil the dam was finished. The girls had tried their firstexperiment at butter, and the result had been most satisfactory.The dinners, too, were pronounced to be an immense improvement uponthe old state of things.

  Soon after the dam was finished Hans, who had been too long a roverto settle down, expressed his desire to leave; and as Mr. Hardy haddetermined to lessen his establishment--as, now that the heavy workwas over, if was no longer necessary to keep so many hands--heoffered no objection to his leaving without the notice he hadagreed to give. Wages were high, and Mr. Hardy was desirous ofkeeping his remaining capital in hand, in case of his sheep andcattle being driven off by the Indians. One of the peons was alsodischarged, and there remained only Lopez, Seth, Terence, and twopeons.