A Thousand-Mile Walk 



parents could ever be clean. Dirt and dis 

 ease are dreadful enough when separate, but 

 combined are inconceivably horrible. The 

 neat cottage with a fragrant circumference of 

 thyme and honeysuckle is almost unknown 

 here. I have seen dirt on garments regularly 

 stratified, the various strata no doubt indi 

 cating different periods of life. Some of them, 

 perhaps, were annual layers, furnishing, like 

 those of trees, a means of determining the 

 age. Man and other civilized animals are the 

 only creatures that ever become dirty. 



Slept in the barrens at the side of a log. Suf 

 fered from cold and was drenched with dew. 

 What a comfort a companion would be in the 

 dark loneliness of such nights! Did not dare 

 to make a fire for fear of discovery by robber 

 negroes, who, I was warned, would kill a man 

 for a dollar or two. Had a long walk after night 

 fall, hoping to discover a house. Became very- 

 thirsty and often was compelled to drink from 

 slimy pools groped for in the grass, with the 

 fear of alligators before my eyes. 

 [ no] 



