There was "Katterina"
(about fourteen) too old to make a pet of, but a gentle-charactered
girl, always willing to please and never out of temper, and even in the
big, hateful, beauty-destroying, high hob-nailed boots she could run up
the mountain soil and clamber like a monkey.
Then came, I believe, our
best favourite, the bright, large-eyed, sparkling child "Vathoo," who
was the real beauty of the family, about ten years old; she was full of
life and vigour, a perfect goat upon the mountains, with a most lovely
face that would have charmed Murillo as a subject, with an extreme
perfection of features, a bronzed complexion, but hardly the soft
expression required for a sacred picture; in fact Vathoo was a perfect
little gipsy beauty, with perhaps more devil than angel in her impulsive
character.
Then came the real gentle little face with gazelle-like eyes, "Baraksu,"
about eight years old: followed by a minimum shepherdess, "Athena," of
nearly five years old, who climbed the rocks, shouted, and threw stones
at her refractory flock, as though an experienced goatherd of forty. The
youngest was just able to stand; with a pair of the biggest black eyes,
and a natural instinct for gorging itself with unripe fruits and hard
nuts, which, added to its maternal sustenance that it was still
enjoying, proved the mill-like character of its infantine digestion. For
two months we thought this young Hercules was a promising boy, until by
an accident we discovered it was a "young lady" Linobambaki!
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