On the 25th of May, the great holiday in this country, I went to an estancia to see some friends.  On my way back we had to cross a deep river.  The coachman drove across, but one wheel went into a big hole and the jerk sent me out on my head, where the wheel passed over my hair, missing my head by inches.  I was senseless.  A crowd of women came and began weeping—­they thought I was dead—­then I was taken in a procession to the chemist, who sent me to a hospital, where I found my collar bone broken.  I did nothing for three weeks.

This estancia is a splendid one for learners, because there is a little of everything.  Once I had a month with the threshing machine, sleeping out with the mosquitoes, and getting meat nearly raw for food; but a lot of money can be made from the harvest.

Then, after a few weeks’ holiday to England, we came back, and I went down south with my brother to sow alfalfa seed.  We had a caravan on wheels, and learned how to plough and sow.  We went to a camp race-meeting, where every estancia has its own tent, there is racing all day and dancing at night.

I often look back upon these jolly times.  Work was exacted with anything but kindness, but the life was simple and very healthy, and many pleasant reminiscences are talked over when it is my luck to join others around the camp fire before falling to sleep with nothing but a bullock’s head as a pillow and a “recado” as a blanket and the glorious, starry sky above one.

THE SOCIAL SIDE OF CAMP LIFE.

To an outsider, life in the camps or country might be considered very slow:  the distance between the estancias being so great, the ordinary form of social life is quite impossible; for instance, when one goes to pay a call on a neighbour, even a first call, it means going for the day, starting in the cool of the morning and returning in the evening, and so allowing the horses to have a rest.  Of course, if everyone had a motor-car, this might not be necessary; but as yet they are very few and far between.  This is no doubt owing to the bad roads; in most districts, after a few hours’ rain, the roads are flooded, and what is worse still, “pantanosa” (thick, sticky mud).

Most estancieros keep open house, and are only too pleased when people “drop in,” which they do at all times and for any meal, almost without a “by your leave.”  An estancia house has to be very elastic, and ready to provide, at a moment’s notice, board and lodging for unexpected guests.  This is quite the nicest way of entertaining one’s friends—­no fuss of preparation, and, more often than not, a very jolly evening of cards, music, or games.