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. YTen we arose, we were at 
the national Capital, and strolled awhile amid young leaves 
and dowers in the j^arks. In the afternoon we were rolling 
through Virginia and North Carolina, gazing upon 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 East Coast Railway we had the train 
stopped at a little dag-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 Scaup Ducks which rose in docks 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 separates 
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 
