56 IN LOWER FLORIDA WILDS 



I wore a tolerably whole suit of khaki, not too 

 clean, however, for I had lately gone through a 

 freshly burnt district and I was covered with 

 black marks. My coat and wool hat were torn 

 by "pull-and-haul-back" vines and my strong 

 leather shoes were literally cut to pieces on the 

 sharp rocks, so that I had been compelled to tie 

 them on to my lacerated feet with old pieces of 

 cloth. If anything else was lacking in my make- 

 up to prove that I was a genuine knight of the 

 road, the two-quart water can which I carried 

 completed the evidence. So I '"unted up a 

 hempty 'ouse" as the woman had suggested, put 

 up my bar, made a bed of grass, and as the weather 

 had moderated, I slept royally. The next after- 

 noon I flagged the train and arrived home after 

 dark, having been thirty-eight hours without 

 food. 



The waters of the key region are exceedingly 

 shallow, the bottom either being composed of 

 ragged rock or very soft, almost fathomless mud. 

 Navigation chiefly consists in getting aground 

 and getting afloat again. One never makes an 

 extended cruise among the keys without getting 

 "piled up" as it is called, often several times a 



