"See what that wretched promise costs me," sighed Benito, as, at a
gesture from his sister, he replaced under his arm the gun which had
instinctively gone up to his shoulder.
"We ought to respect the seriemas," said Manoel, "for they are great
destroyers of the snakes."
"Just as we ought to respect the snakes," replied Benito, "because
they eat the noxious insects, and just as we ought the insects
because they live on smaller insects more offensive still. At that
rate we ought to respect everything."
But the instinct of the young sportsman was about to be put to a
still more rigorous trial. The woods became of a sudden full of game.
Swift stags and graceful roebucks scampered off beneath the bushes,
and a well-aimed bullet would assuredly have stopped them. Here and
there turkeys showed themselves with their milk and coffee-colored
plumage; and peccaries, a sort of wild pig highly appreciated by
lovers of venison, and agouties, which are the hares and rabbits of
Central America; and tatous belonging to the order of edentates, with
their scaly shells of patterns of mosaic.
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