Can I make myself young again by shedding your life, or would there
be any profit in changing these rags I now wear for your garments,
which are also dusty and frayed? No, no, sir Englishman, this dress
of patience and suffering and exile, my covering by day and my bed by
night, must soon be changed for brighter garments than you are wearing."
This speech relieved me sensibly, and I smiled at the poor devil's
ambitious dream of wearing a soldier's greasy red jacket; for I supposed
that that was what his words meant. Still, his "shortest way" to
Montevideo continued to puzzle me considerably. For two or three hours
we had been riding nearly parallel to a range of hills, or _cuchilla,_
extending away on our left hand towards the south-east. But we were
gradually drawing nearer to it, and apparently going purposely out of our
way only to traverse a most lonely and difficult country. The few
_estancia_ houses we passed, perched on the highest points of the great
sweep of moor-like country on our right, appeared to be very far away.
Where we rode there were no habitations, not even a shepherd's hovel; the
dry, stony soil was thinly covered with a forest of dwarf thorn-trees,
and a scanty pasturage burnt to a rust-brown colour by the summer heats;
and out of this arid region rose the hills, their brown, woodless sides
looking strangely gaunt and desolate in the fierce noonday sun.
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