IN THE FLAT-WOODS. \\ 



as a specimen, that I quite forgot my man- 

 ners till it was too late. One thing I learned : 

 that it is not prudent, in these days, to judge 

 a Southern man's blood, in either sense of 

 the word, by his dress or occupation. This 

 man had brought seven or eight miles a load 

 of wood that might possibly be worth sev- 

 enty-five cents (I questioned the owner of 

 what looked like just such a load afterward, 

 and found his asking price half a dollar), and 

 for clothing had on a pair of trousers and a 

 blue cotton shirt, the latter full of holes, 

 through which the skin was visible ; yet his 

 father was a and had "owned niggers." 



A still more picturesque figure in this pro- 

 cession of wood-carters was a boy of perhaps 

 ten or eleven. He rode his horse, and was 

 barefooted and barelegged; but he had a 

 cigarette in his mouth, and to each brown 

 heel was fastened an enormous spur. Who 

 was it that infected the world with the fool- 

 ish and disastrous notion that work and play 

 are two different things ? And was it Em- 

 erson, or some other wise man, who said that 

 a boy was the true philosopher ? 



When it came time to think of returning 

 to St. Augustine for dinner, I appreciated 



