88 Idle Days in Patagonia. 



cultivation. The greatest drawbacks and difficulties 

 encountered have this charm strongest in them, and 

 are robbed by it of half their power to discourage the 

 mind. 



The young enthusiast, hurrying about London to 

 speak his farewells and look after his outfit, will 

 perhaps laugh at this, for his delusion is still dear 

 to him. But I am not discouraging him ; I am, on 

 the contrary, telling him of a rill of pure water out 

 there where he is going, where, for many years to 

 come, he will refresh himself every day, and learn 

 to feel (if not to think and to say) that it is the 

 sweetest rill in existence. 



It is rough living with unsubdued, or only par- 

 tially subdued, Nature, but there is a wonderful 

 fascination in it. The patient, leaden-footed, but 

 always obedient drudge, who goes forth uncom- 

 plainingly, albeit often with a sullen face, about her 

 work, day after day, year after year ; who never 

 rebels, never murmurs against her bad task-master 

 Man, although sometimes the strength fails her so 

 that she cannot complete the appointed task this is 

 Nature at home in England. How strange to see this 

 stolid, immutable creature transformed beyond the 

 seas into a nighty, capricious thing, that will not be 

 wholly ruled by you, a beautiful wayward Undine, 

 delighting you with her originality, and most lovable 

 when she teases most ; a being of extremes, always 

 either in laughter or tears, a tyrant and a slave alter- 

 nately ; to-day shattering to pieces the work of yes- 

 terday ; now cheerfully doing more than is required 



