The zigzagging
of the great snipe and the lightning rapidity of the flight and
movements of the red-tailed hawk make the pastime a delightful
one. Another variety of the same amusement is the hunting of
a very small species of antelope with trained eagles; and it
certainly is a marvellous sight to see the great bird soar and
soar till he is nothing but a black speck in the sunlight, and
then suddenly come dashing down like a cannon-ball upon some
cowering buck that is hidden in a patch of grass from everything
but that piercing eye. Still finer is the spectacle when the
eagle takes the buck running.
On other days we would pay visits to the country seats at some
of the great lords' beautiful fortified places, and the villages
clustering beneath their walls. Here we saw vineyards and corn-fields
and well-kept park-like grounds, with such timber in them as
filled me with delight, for I do love a good tree. There it
stands so strong and sturdy, and yet so beautiful, a very type
of the best sort of man. How proudly it lifts its bare head
to the winter storms, and with what a full heart it rejoices
when the spring has come again! How grand its voice is, too,
when it talks with the wind: a thousand aeolian harps cannot
equal the beauty of the sighing of a great tree in leaf.
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