22O Idle Days in Patagonia. 



give him a greater satisfaction than all his other 

 achievements in the field ? After it, all legitimate 

 sport would seem illegitimate, and whole hecatombs 

 of hares and pheasants, and even large animals, 

 fallen before his gun, would only stir in him a feel- 

 ing of disgust and self-contempt. He would pro- 

 bably hold his tongue about a combat of that brutal 

 kind, but all the same he would gladly remember 

 how in some strange, unaccountable way he sud- 

 denly became possessed of the daring, quickness, 

 and certitude necessary to hold his wily, desperate 

 foe in check, to escape its fangs and claws, and 

 finally to overcome it. Above all, he would re- 

 member the keen feeling of savage joy experienced 

 in the contest. This would make all ordinary sport 

 seem insipid; to kill a rat in some natural way 

 would seem better to him than to murder elephants 

 scientifically from a safe distance. The feeling 

 occasionally bursts out in the Story of My 

 Heart : " To shoot with a gun is nothing. . . . 

 Give me an iron mace that I may crush the savage 

 beast and hammer him down. A spear to thrust 

 him through with, so that I may feel the long blade 

 enter, and the push of the shaft." And more in the 

 same strain, shocking to some, perhaps, but show- 

 ing that gentle Richard Jefferies had in him some 

 of the elements of a fine barbarian. 



But it is in childhood and boyhood, when in- 

 stincts are nearest to the surface, and ready when 

 occasion serves to spring into activity. Inherited 

 second nature is weakest then; and habit has not 



