2 WILD WINGS 



tion, to make me feel that any sort of weather was glorious. 

 Then April was ushered in with day after day of cold, dismal 

 rain. Not a bud had swelled ; hardly even a blade of grass 

 was green. 



Yet I was biding my time, and soon, as though by magic, 

 I found myself in a new world. On the eighth of April, with 

 tremendous downpour and shrieking blasts, this mockery of 

 a spring fairly outdid itself. Forswearing travel by sea, under 

 such circumstances, toward midnight a congenial friend and 

 I ensconced ourselves comfortably under the blankets of a 

 Pullman sleeper in Jersey City. When we arose, we were at 

 the national Capital, and strolled awhile amid young leaves 

 and flowers in the joarks. In the afternoon we were rolling 

 through Virginia and North Carolina, gazing ui:)on blossom- 

 ing peach-trees and bursting buds. Early next morning, as 

 I raised the curtain, I saw dense green foliage and summer 

 skies, in the environs of Savannah. Then came landscapes 

 gay with rustling palmettos, and we were in Florida. Winter 

 clothing was discarded, and we almost forgot the chilly North- 

 ern clime with its discomforts. 



Halfway down the Fast Coast Railway we had the train 

 stopped at a little flag-station, where our guide was waiting 

 for us. In a short time we were sailing across the tepid waters 

 of the Indian River, exulting in the mild, moist air, watching 

 the Scauj:) Ducks which rose in flocks before us and the sil- 

 very mullets leaping from the water in all directions. On the 

 other side, upon the narrow peninsula of land which se]:)arates 

 Indian " River " from the ocean, we found a little wharf up 

 a sort of lagoon, and back of it a pleasant house, shaded by 

 palms and live-oaks, where we made our headquarters. 

 Oranges and lemons hung from the trees around the doors. 

 Mockingbirds and Cardinals gave splendid vocal exhibitions 

 by day, as well as various other birds new to us, while at 



