20 IN THE FLAT- WOODS. 



as it passes ; or a bird is singing ; or an 

 eagle is soaring far overhead, and must be 

 watched out of sight ; or a buzzard, with 

 upturned wings, floats suspiciously near the 

 wanderer, as if with sinister intent (buzzard 

 shadows are a regular feature of the flat- 

 wood landscape, just as cloud shadows are 

 in a mountainous country) ; or a snake lies 

 stretched out in the sun, a " whip snake," 

 perhaps, that frightens the unwary stroller 

 by the amazing swiftness with which it runs 

 away from him ; or some strange invisible 

 insect is making uncanny noises in the 

 underbrush. One of my recollections of 

 the railway woods at St. Augustine is of 

 a cricket, or locust, or something else, I 

 never saw it, that amused me often with 

 a formless rattling or drumming sound. I 

 could think of nothing but a boy's first les- 

 son upon the bones, the rhythm of the beats 

 was so comically mistimed and bungled. 



One fine morning, it was the 18th of 

 February, I had gone down the railroad 

 a little farther than usual, attracted by the 

 encouraging appearance of a swampy patch 

 of rather large deciduous trees. Some of 

 them, I remember, were red maples, already 



