20 IDLE DAYS IN PATAGONIA 



dragon-fly would starve if they tried to capture, 

 or even regarded, more than one at a time. 



I caught nothing, and found out nothing ; never- 

 theless, these days of enforced idleness were not 

 unhappy. And after leaving my room, hobbling 

 round with the aid of a stout stick, and sitting in 

 houses, I consorted with men and women, and 

 listened day by day to the story of their small un- 

 avian affairs, until it began to interest me. But 

 not too keenly. I could always quit them without 

 regret to lie on the green sward, to gaze up into 

 the trees or the blue sky, and speculate on all im- 

 aginable things. The result was that when no 

 longer any excuse for inaction existed use had 

 bred a habit in me the habit of indolence, which 

 was quite common among the people of Patagonia, 

 and appeared to suit the genial climate ; and this 

 habit and temper of mind I retained, with occa- 

 sional slight relapses, during the whole period of 

 my stay. 



Our waking life is sometimes like a dream, 

 which proceeds logically enough until the stimulus 

 of some new sensation, from without or within, 

 throws it into temporary confusion, or suspends 

 its action ; after which it goes on again, but with 

 fresh characters, passions, and motives, and a 

 changed argument. 



After feasting on cherries, and resting at the 

 estancia, or farm, where we first touched the shore, 

 we went on to the small town of El Carmen, which 



