Although an immense deal of hard work was got through during the
four months which followed the completion of the house and the
arrival of Mrs. Hardy and her daughters, it must not be supposed
that it was not mingled with plenty of relaxation and amusement.
There were few days when one or other of the boys did not go out
with his gun for an hour either before sunrise or after sunset,
seldom failing to bring home a wild fowl or two of some kind or
other. And sometimes of an afternoon they would go out for a ride
with their sisters, and have a chase after an ostrich, or a run
after the gray foxes, which abounded, and were very destructive
among the young lambs. Once or twice during these rides the boys
brought a puma to bay; but as they always carried a ball in one of
their barrels, with these and their revolvers they soon dispatched
their unwelcome visitors.
They had contrived an apparatus with straps and a sort of little
pocket, in which the muzzle of the gun went, so that it hung from
the saddle down in front of their leg; the stock of the gun being
secured by a strap against the pommel of the saddle, at the other
side of which was their revolver holster. This was an inconvenient
way of carrying the gun in some respects, as the strap had to be
unfastened to get at it, and the chance of a shot thereby lost; but
they considered it preferable to the mode they had at first
adopted, of riding with their guns slung behind them.
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