as fiercely as two game-cocks in the pit

I took a long weekend with my wife when no one else had a holiday.

We accepted the invitation to stay at the home of the shaman’s parents, sleeping under yak skins on the second floor with the rest of the family […]

The curse of the steam-boat is upon the lovely river; but some of the villas, imbedded in their own old trees—surrounded by turf the fairy queen might tread—girdled with every variety of flowery shrub—I do not quite say I could spend the whole day there, but I could have a luxurious breakfast—one ought to indulge in natural tastes of a morning.