144 FLORIDA 



out saying to himself again and again, " I must 

 come this way on foot." A carriage is well 

 enough in its place, but really to see things a 

 man must be on his own legs. Immediately after 

 luncheon, therefore, with a merry company of 

 golfers (a flourishing sect in Florida), I took the 

 little one-horse street-car to the railway station, 

 and now, having crossed a narrow field and left 

 the golfers at their afternoon devotions, I am 

 in the Volusia road, in the noblest of hammock 

 woods. 



The first half-mile of the way I have walked 

 over more than once already, and having in mind 

 the shortness of the afternoon I quicken my steps. 

 The doing so is no hardship. For the last forty- 

 eight hours the wind has blown from the north ; 

 during the night the mercury settled to 38 ; 

 and though it is considerably warmer than that 

 now, a pretty brisk movement is still not uncom- 

 fortable. 



Here I pass a mournful sight an old orange 

 grove, of which nothing remains but the sandy 

 soil and a few blackened stumps. The " great 

 freeze " of six or seven years ago killed the trees 

 to the roots. Nearly opposite, to add to the for- 

 lornness of the impression, stands a deserted 

 house ; and not far along is another, that looks 

 only less unthrifty and disconsolate, with an old 



