THE FLORIDA KEYS 53 



His fine, strong boat, the "Three Fannys," he 

 hauled into the water and got me aboard. Before 

 he could ship the oars she had drifted quite a dis- 

 tance to the leeward, such was the force of the 

 wind. It blew across from No Name Key, a full 

 mile away, and the sea was covered with white 

 caps. For a long time "Josef" made scarcely any 

 headway, gaining a little when the wind lulled 

 and dropping back when it blew harder. I en- 

 couraged him, but he said: "Dis nottin'; wait till 

 yo get in de channel, den she shake yo up." 



Sure enough, we did get shaken up when we got 

 to the channel. He expended all this splendid 

 strength in trying to drive the boat ahead as he 

 continually shouted to the sea and his skiff. 

 "Wat yo mean comin' heah dis away?" "Keep 

 off fum heah an' lemme 'lone." "Stan' up to her 

 ole gal an' doan' let her knock yo out. " Whenever 

 a big sea struck us he gave vent to a whoop that 

 could have been heard to No Name. 



Little by little he worked across the channel, 

 but when nearly across a heavy sea struck us and 

 knocked the port oar and rowlock out. The boat 

 fell off broadside to the sea and for a minute I was 

 sure we would capsize. I got the rowlock in place 



