Wild Life in the Land of the Giants: A Tale of Two Brothers

The amount of good advice vouchsafed to us before sailing, by dear aunt, was only equalled by the sum total of our own good resolves. There was nothing in the world we were not...

My brother and I jumped up into the dog-cart, I making Jill sit in front for safety's sake, he being the younger, and the roads being hilly in parts. Then up jumped our Jehu as...

It would be hard to say, perhaps, why the gallant old _Thunderbolt_ was laid up as a hulk. She looked a fine old wooden frigate, and had seen a lot of service in her time. But t...

"No," he answered--"at least I should say `yes, it is strange,' but then one must never marvel at anything that happens on the Pampas. If I'm any judge of the weather, however,...

We all went on that boat cruise--that is, auntie went, and Jill and I. Auntie appeared to take us with her but we were really taking her. That was fun.

He was indeed a noble savage, this Patagonian chief. His name was Jeeka; at least it sounded like that. Peter said "Jeeka" was near enough, and to give it a better ring we added...

Alone on the Pampas. Alone in the moonlight. Alone amidst scenery so black, so bare, so desolate, that looking back now through a long vista of years, as I sit by my cosy Englis...

On looking back through a long vista of years, and considering all the _pros_ and _cons_ of the case, and remembering that Jill and I were only boys, I do not think it any wonde...

The state of my mind at this moment must have been akin to that of a snake-charmed bird. I felt utterly, abjectly helpless. Had the apparition taken a knife out and proceeded to...

"Listen," said Castizo, one evening about a month after this, as we all sat round the fire in the log hut. "Listen, boys, listen all. That is the snow-wind. Winter is coming now...

These were only two out of a dozen questions we asked about two dozen people on the street. And greatly to our astonishment, no one could give us a definite answer. We thought a...

At sea, and homeward bound. Ah! that was what sent the joyful flush to our cheeks and the glad glitter to our eyes, whenever we chose to think of the fact, and try to realise it.

Peter Jeffries, now chief mate of the dear old _Salamander_, could no more help chaffing Jill and me, than a monkey can help pulling its mother's tail. And we used to tell him so.

I was in the saloon at the time, and everything seemed to fall together, as it were. It felt as if the ship's bottom were dashed _in_ and upwards, and when I struck a light--for...

"I never met 'em," he replied. "Must be some new tribe. All that ever I saw could be friendly enough when driving a good bargain, and scraping the butter all to their own side o...

So long had we lazed on the Pampas and on the borders of the Cordilleras, that summer had almost fled before we reached Castizo's mountain home. It is probably doing ourselves i...

Our first intimation we received that we were close on King Kaiso's country, we had this same evening from a lot of dogs that were ranging through the wood we were in. A wood, s...

Everybody loved auntie, for with all her strictness, and--to our young eyes her strange old-world ways, she was so good and so genuine. Goodness was no penance with auntie; it w...

Long before the sun had set, we had strengthened our bulwarks, and put our little citadel into as good a state of defence as possible, with the materials at our command.

This was to be a memorable day in the history of our adventures, for troubles began that we did not see the end of for many a long month afterwards.

Like many other poor folks, to the houses of whom Death comes when least expected, Nancy Gray was left without a penny in the world, and wee Mattie was doubly an orphan since Da...

On our arrival at Sandy Point (_Puenta Arenas_) we, that is Jill and I, had been billeted at a pretty little bungalow belonging to a Chilian, and next morning early Peter came t...

The grief of Jeeka and his wife Nadi for the death of their infant was positively painful to witness. Every one in the camp seemed also to partake in it. There was a kind of wak...

To rub shoulders with death always leaves a chilly feeling in my heart for a day or two. It is as though the King of Terrors had just encircled me for one brief moment in his ic...

Such is the exhilarating and toning power of the air on the Pampas, that though we had all lain down tired enough, we felt as fresh next morning as mountain trouts.

The name is far and away too long, and too tall for ordinary use. Twice only have I taken it to church with me, namely, on the day of my baptism, and on my wedding morn. On both...

Just after tea, and while Tom was telling some of his most fascinating stories, and we three children were listening with dilated eyes and bated breath, we were hailed by a boat...

We all felt "heartier," as Ritchie phrased it, after our dainty morsel of supper. The pork, of course, was new, and, sailor fashion, we dipped our biscuits in the sea, to give t...

We had expected it weeks ago. The birds and beasts in the forest had expected it too. The former had commenced to sing, the latter had grown unusually active; guanacos had been...

"Recuperative powers, Edward. That's the ship. And I didn't know I had any. Why, when I turned in last night I said to Jack there, `Jack,' says I, `I'm feeling ninety years of a...

My hands were badly burned, but I did not feel pain then. Such a gush of happiness had come over my heart when Jill spoke to me again, that I forgot everything else.