CLV THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD. 175 



to afford much welcome protection from the 

 sun. Here it was good to find the sassafras 

 growing side by side with the persimmon, al- 

 though when, for old acquaintance' sake, I 

 put a leaf into my. mouth I was half glad to 

 fancy it a thought less savory than some I 

 had tasted in Yankeeland. I took a kind of 

 foolish satisfaction, too, in the obvious fact 

 that certain plants the sumach and the 

 Virginia creeper, to mention no others 

 were less at home here than a thousand miles 

 farther north. With the wild-cherry trees, I 

 was obliged to confess, the case was reversed. 

 I had seen larger ones in Massachusetts, per- 

 haps, but none that looked half so clean and 

 thrifty. In truth, their appearance was a 

 puzzle, rum-cherry trees as by all tokens they 

 undoubtedly were, till of a sudden it flashed 

 upon me that there were no caterpillars' nests 

 in them ! Then I ceased to wonder at their 

 odd look. It spoke well for my botanical 

 acumen that I had recognized them at all. 



Before I had been a week in Tallahassee 

 I found that, without forethought or plan, I 

 had dropped into the habit (and how pleas- 

 ant it is to think that some good habits can 

 be dropped into !) of making the St. Augus- 



