The Boy Soldier; Or, Garibaldi's Young Captain — page 214: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

208 THE BOY SOLDIER; OR, GARIBALDI’S YOUNG CAPTAIN. Nee eee OOOO oaoeeeeeeereeee_—_c ooo was by becoming entangled in the web, and after- wards poisoned by the tarantula’s sting. “Let boys speak as much as they please of being frightened by ‘little things,’ and smile at the idea of being stung by anything less than a rattle-snake. Let me tell them that small, black, silky, red-eyed, and crab-like as the little tarantula looks, it is still one, if not the most deadly little animal that either man or beast can possibly meet, for its venom is poisonous, and almost invariably kills within a few hours. “ As the sun becomes intolerably hot about noon on the prairies, we thought it wise to halt for a time, if merely to have a dish of coffee, for, my boy readers, there are but two meals recognised by prairie travellers, viz — Breakfast before sun-rise,and supper after sun-set, ‘‘Wood is extremely scarce on the plains, for a single tree is not sometimes met with for a whole week, therefore it is desirable, if possible, to collect a little by the way, if even it be twigs only, otherwise, you may often be without fire or light of any kind at night-fall, unless you are lucky enough to meet with dried buffalo dung. “Being near a gigantic cactus grove, we en- sconced ourselves in its grateful shade, and soon made a fire of green wood, in order to smoke off insects and flies from tormenting the cattle, a thing much. appreciated by the horses and oxen, for the latter shut their eyes amid the smoke of several fires, and comfortably dozed an hour away, un- molested by the troublesome gad-fly, horse-fly, and a thousand other annoyances known on_ the prairies, “From my limited knowledge, as a boy, I never imagined that the cactus arrived at such a growth ; but here was proof to the contrary, for we sat in a large grove of them, the trunks of none of which were less than four feet in diameter. “No water being near for miles, and our cattle requiring moistened food, we took our hunting knives and lopped off hundreds of the greenest cactus leaves we could find and threw them into the fire to burn off the numberless needle-like thorns upon them. “This done, we carefully opened the large, fat leaves (much like fishmorger’s open oysters), care- fully collecting the soft, white, juicy pulp within, and threw the rinds away. ‘Thanks to industry, we soon collected a large, white, mass of their juicy pulp and gave it to the cattle, who very soon and very greedily disposed of it. “ Indeed, they seemed to relish it so much, that several of the oxen walked to the greenest tree and began to help themselves, but with all their care and patience, they only succeeded in wounding their noses from the innumerable long, sharp thorns upon them, so contented themselves with chewing their cud, and dozing in the shade. “Towards evening we were slowly journeying along, and had but a few miles to reach the bank of a very broad river, when clouds of dust rising in the west drew our attention towards that quarter, “ What it was I could not imagine, “Opera glasses and telescopes were levelled in that direction for some time, and both horses and mules, with ears cocked, looked in the same direc- tion, likewise snorting and braying londly, ; IrmOw READY, THH BOY LIFE ON BOARD SAITLOR; ‘A MAN-OF-WAR, This will be found one of the most exciting and powerful tales of the day. The scene of the story is laid in Cornwall, and it abounds with the wild legends and strange adventures of the daring wreckers and smugglers that haunt the bays and inlets of that rocky coast. FOUR ENGRAVINGS, 12 AUG 7 IN A HANDSOME COLOURED BORDER, GIVEN AWAY WITH NUMBERS 1 and 2. ORDER BARLY. ONE. PENNY WEEKLY. GComicbooksrco