The Desert Home: The Adventures of a Lost Family in the Wilderness
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Reid Mayne. The Desert Home: The Adventures of a Lost Family in the Wilderness
Chapter One. The Great American Desert
Chapter Two. The White Peak
Chapter Three. The Valley Oasis
Chapter Four. The Strange Settlement
Chapter Five. Rolfe’s Early History
Chapter Six. The Virginia Plantation
Chapter Seven. The Caravan and its Fate
Chapter Eight. The Miner’s Story
Chapter Nine. Lost in the Desert
Chapter Ten. Adventure with an Armadillo
Chapter Eleven. A Very Lean Buffalo
Chapter Twelve. The Bighorns
Chapter Thirteen. The great Elk
Chapter Fourteen. Adventure with the Carcajou
Chapter Fifteen. A fruitless Search for a Trail
Chapter Sixteen. The Mysterious Flood
Chapter Seventeen. The Beavers and Wolverene
Chapter Eighteen. How to build a Log-Cabin
Chapter Nineteen. The Sagacious Squirrel
Chapter Twenty. A House built without a Nail
Chapter Twenty One. A Battue of “Black-Tails.”
Chapter Twenty Two. Catching a Tartar
Chapter Twenty Three. The Salt Spring
Chapter Twenty Four. The Battle of the Snakes
Chapter Twenty Five. The Sugar-Tree
Chapter Twenty Six. The Stump-Tree and the Bread-Pine
Chapter Twenty Seven. The Snow-Line
Chapter Twenty Eight. The Menagerie, Aviary, and Botanic Garden
Chapter Twenty Nine. Trapping the Beasts and Birds
Chapter Thirty. The Biters Bit
Chapter Thirty One. Battle of the Marten and Porcupine
Chapter Thirty Two. The cunning old “’Coon.”
Chapter Thirty Three. Little Mary and the Bee
Chapter Thirty Four. A Grand Bee-Hunt
Chapter Thirty Five. A Rival Honey-Robber
Chapter Thirty Six. The Battle of the Bucks
Chapter Thirty Seven. The Pit-Trap
Chapter Thirty Eight. The old “’Possum” and her Kittens
Chapter Thirty Nine. The Moccason Snake and the Orioles
Chapter Forty. The Battle of the Cougar and Peccaries
Chapter Forty One. Besieged in a Tree
Chapter Forty Two. An Adventure with Dusky Wolves
Chapter Forty Three. Taming the Great Elk
Chapter Forty Four. Catching the Wild Horses
Отрывок из книги
Some years ago, I was one of a party of “prairie merchants,” who crossed with a caravan from Saint Louis on the Mississippi, to Santa Fé in New Mexico. We followed the usual “Santa Fé trail.” Not disposing of all our goods in New Mexico, we kept on to the great town of Chihuahua, which lies farther to the south. There we settled our business, and were about to return to the United States the way we had come, when it was proposed (as we had now nothing to encumber us but our bags of money), that we should explore a new “trail” across the prairies. We all wished to find a better route than the Santa Fé road; and we expected that such an one lay between the town of El Paso – on the Del Norte River – and some point on the frontiers of Arkansas.
On arriving at El Paso, we sold our wagons, and purchased Mexican pack-mules – engaging, at the same time, a number of “arrieros,” or muleteers to manage them. We also purchased saddle-horses – the small tight horses of New Mexico, which are excellent for journeying in the Desert. We provided ourselves, moreover, with such articles of clothing and provisions as we might require upon our unknown route. Having got everything ready for the journey, we bade adieu to El Paso, and turned our faces eastward. There were in all twelve of us – traders, and a number of hunters, who had agreed to accompany us across the plains. There was a miner, too, who belonged to a copper mine near El Paso. There were also four Mexicans – the “arrieros” who had charge of our little train of pack-mules. Of coarse, we were all well armed, and mounted upon the best horses we could procure for money.
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During the meal our host with his family were present. We had seen them all on our arrival, for they had run forward to greet and welcome us; but we became puzzled as we listened to the conversation of the children. We heard with surprise that we were the first white men they had seen for a period of nearly ten years! They were all beautiful children – robust, and full of life and animation. There were two boys – Frank and Harry, – so their mother called them – and two girls. Of the girls one was of a very dark complexion – in fact, quite a brunette, and with a Spanish expression of face. The other was as fair as her sister was dark. The fair one was a beautiful little creature with flowing yellow hair and deep blue eyes, with long, dark lashes. Her name was Mary. That of the sister was Luisa. They were both very pretty, but very unlike each other; and, what was odd to me, they appeared to be about the same age and size. The boys were also of like size, though both much older than their sisters. They appeared to be seventeen or more, but I could not have guessed which was the elder. Harry, with his fair curling hair, and red manly face, bore a strong resemblance to his father; while the other was darker, and altogether more like the mother. She herself did not appear to be much over thirty-five years of age, and was still a beautiful and evidently a light-hearted woman.
Our host was a man of about forty – a tall, well formed man, with light ruddy complexion, and hair that had been fair and curling, but was now somewhat grey. He had neither beard nor whiskers; but, on the contrary, his chin bore evidence that he had freshly shaved himself that very day; and his whole appearance was that of a man who regularly attended to the duties of the toilet. There was also about him a gentlemanlike bearing; and his address and conversation soon convinced all of us that we were in the company of an educated man.
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