Out on the Pampas Book Review.

Title: Out on the Pampas.
Author: G. A. Henty.
Gene: Historical Fiction, Action/Adventure, Classic.
Plot: This book opens with a conversation between Mr. Frank Hardy and his wife Clara concerning their sons Charley {age fifteen} and Hubert {age fourteen} and what to do about a profession for them as they get older. Mr. Hardy spent several years as a young man roughing it in America and therefore it comes as no surprise to us or his wife that he suggests the family emigrate to the Argentine Republic; his wife, being a woman, is loath to go but after some discussion in private between the two it is decided that this would be the best course for both their two sons and their two daughters, Maud {age twelve} and Ethel {age eleven}. At breakfast shortly after this decision is made Mr. Hardy announces it to their children who react in rather amusing fashion, or at least the boys do as they promptly say how they can’t wait to join in an Indian fight, the girls are more subdued and quietly expression their willingness to work hard in their new home.
Calming the children {and Hubert’s intense excitement} Mr. Hardy runs through the list of preparatory work they’ve got to do before they can leave in eight to nine months’ time and most of this is directed at the boys who, we learn, are to cease studying Latin and take up Spanish instead while also learning carpentering, gardening, farming, riding and shooting while Mrs. Hardy tells the girls they are to give up piano and study Spanish, riding, housekeeping and cooking, later on they also learn to manage a dairy and a poultry yard. A year goes swiftly by in which the family becomes fluent at Spanish and gain new skills while the boys discover that they’re stronger than several schoolfellows one day from all the hard work they’ve been doing. The family sells most of their furniture and close up the house before taking a ship across the sea to South America {the children are seasick during the voyage unfortunately}.
Upon arriving they stay at an old friend of theirs who’d emigrated before Hubert had been born and, leaving Mrs. Hardy and her girls with Mr. Thompson and his family, Mr. Hardy and his sons travel ahead to the plot of land they intend to settle upon and meet with Mr. Percy who is a friend of Mr. Thompson’s and who has gone ahead and rounded up some hired hands, including an American named Seth who grows fond of the children before heading back to the States. Galloping ahead of the others Charley takes a tumble when his horse steps into an armadillo hole just as his father warns him to be careful, he is unharmed but gets a good lesson about what happens to people when they’re still self-confident.
Work on the young farm begins right away and when it’s fairly underway Mr. Hardy heads into town to get more wood and bring up the livestock, leaving his boys in charge in his absence and they, with the hired hands, set to work in making bricks with which they shall build the farmhouse and Charley has a narrow escape from being bitten by a very poisonous snake that Hubert kills just before their father comes back. Construction of the house is begun and swiftly got through after this and when it is finished Mr. Hardy leaves to bring his wife and daughters {who’ve learned how to manage a dairy in his absence} up while his boys build sturdy furniture to fill the house with, save for bedsteads as Mr. Hardy brings back iron bedsteads from town. The family comfortably settles down in their new home and begin to cultivate the land and raise poultry and livestock; the girls have charge of the former though are forced to bring in their brothers to reduce the number of skunks who’re messing around in the chicken coops while the boys and the hired hands have charge of the livestock. The boys also take care of the hunting though are joined in this by their sisters after their father teaches them to shoot and the girls get a fine dairy up and running.
Visits with their neighbors are recounted and we’re introduced to young Mr. Cooper, an Englishman, who lives practically next door with two other young Englishmen, all of who become great friends of the Hardy children, but also during this time preparations for a possible Indian attack are made and just in time too for two weeks later an actual attack takes place. The Indians swoop down and kill two hired hands before riding off with all the livestock. Mr. Hardy was visiting the neighbors but gets home not half an hour after this happens and rides out after the Indians with his sons in hopes of recovering their stolen property. They succeed in dramatic style that rather awes their neighbors and hired hands when they return with the livestock. A calm then follows in which the Hardy family works hard at their rapidly growing farm and take in a young friend from England who wants to learn the trade, all this time they’ve been in their new home for two years and the change in the children is very noticeable and dramatic. Another Indian attack is recounted in which Hubert barely escapes with his life while Maud and Ethel shoot two Indians hot on his tail, Charley gets the third and then the family defends their strongly fortified home from a full-blown attack. Three wounded Indians are found the next day and are nursed back to health, this act of kindness earns them those Indians’ friendship for the rest of their stay in South America.
Two more years pass with no Indian attacks and more new neighbors arriving; a trip home to England is planned for Mrs. Hardy and the girls and Mr. Hardy is surprised to learn that Mr. Cooper {soon to return to England himself} loves his seventeen year old daughter Maud who returns the affection. The planned trip and everything else is put on hold indefinitely shortly after Mr. Cooper leaves by a surprise attack upon a neighbor’s farm where Ethel is visiting and Ethel is captured by the Indians. A rescue party is promptly gathered together which, a day after setting out, has to fight off a fire intentionally set by the Indians to throw them off the trail but one of the Indians who they befriended leaves an arrow and a piece of Ethel’s dress behind, pointing them in the right direction and in fine style characteristic to Henty’s novels the girl is rescued and taken back home, the Indians never attack the settlers again after that. The Hardy women are then sent home to England and two years later Mr. Hardy joins them, leaving his twenty-something sons in charge of the thriving farm. A year or so later after all the grown-up Hardy children have married their respective spouses the farm is divided up and sold, the Hardy children all settle down in England and Mr. and Mrs. Hardy amuse their many grandchildren with tales “of how their fathers or mothers fought the Indians on the pampas of South America.”
Likes/Dislikes: This is a very good book and though it doesn’t tell of a major {or minor} historical battle as many of Mr. Henty’s other books do, it does give an accurate account of emigration in that time period. I should mention that blood is mentioned in the fights and two Indians are described as having their brains blow out by the furious Hardy boys when their father is temporally unconscious but beyond this nothing inappropriate is to be found in this book.
Rating: PG-12 and up mainly because of the higher reading level.
Date Report Written: January 29, 2010.