Here they were met by a
gentleman to whom Mr. Thompson had introduced Mr. Hardy, and with
whom he had stayed on his first visit to Rosario. He had brought
horses for themselves, and bullock carts for their luggage.
"What! are these your boys, Mr. Hardy? I had not expected to have
seen such big fellows. Why, they will be men in no time."
Charley and Hubert deserved Mr. Percy's commendation. They were now
sixteen and fifteen years old respectively, and were remarkably
strong, well-grown lads, looking at least a year older than they
really were. In a few minutes the luggage was packed in two bullock
carts, and they were on their way out to Mr. Percy's station, which
was about halfway to the camp of Mr. Hardy. The word camp in the
pampas means station or property; it is a corruption of the Spanish
word _campos_, literally plains or meadows.
Here they found that Mr. Percy had most satisfactorily performed
the commission with which Mr. Hardy had entrusted him. He had
bought a couple of the rough country bullock carts, three pair of
oxen accustomed to the yoke, half a dozen riding horses, two milch
cows, and a score of sheep and cattle to supply the larder. He had
hired four men--a stock-keeper named Lopez, who was called the
capitaz or head man, a tall, swarthy fellow, whose father was a
Spaniard, and his mother a native woman; two laborers, the one a
German, called Hans, who had been some time in the colony, the
other an Irishman, Terence Kelly, whose face the boys remembered at
once, as having come out in the same ship with themselves.
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