Chapter 22

BOYHOOD'S END

The book--The Saladero, or killing-grounds, and their smell--Walls built of bullocks' skulls--A pestilential city--River water and Aljibe water--Days of lassitude--Novel scenes--Home again--Typhus--My first day out--Birthday reflections--What I asked of life--A boy's mind--A brother's resolution--End of our thousand and one nights--A reading spell--My boyhood ends in disaster