La Tapera, a native estancia--Don Gregorio Gandara--His grotesque
appearance and strange laugh--Gandara's wife and her habits and pets--
My dislike of hairless dogs--Gandara's daughters--A pet ostrich--In
the peach orchard--Gandara's herds of piebald brood mares--His
masterful temper--His own saddle-horses--Creating a sensation at
gaucho gatherings--The younger daughter's lovers--Her marriage at our
house--The priest and the wedding breakfast--Demetria forsaken by her
husband


CHAPTER XII
THE HEAD OF A DECAYED HOUSE

The Estancia Canada Seca--Low lands and floods--Don Anastacio, a
gaucho exquisite--A greatly respected man--Poor relations--Don
Anastacio a pig-fancier--Narrow escape from a pig--Charm of the low
green lands--The flower called _macachina_--A sweet-tasting bulb
--Beauty of the green flower-sprinkled turf--A haunt of the golden
plover--The _bolas_--My plover-hunting experience--Rebuked by a
gaucho--A green spot, our playground in summer and lake in winter--The
venomous toad-like _Ceratophrys_--Vocal performance of the toad-like
creature--We make war on them--The great lake battle and its results


CHAPTER XIII
A PATRIARCH OF THE PAMPAS

The grand old man of the plains--Don Evaristo Penalva, the Patriarch--
My first sight of his estancia house--Don Evaristo described--A