ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 101 
perhaps. Or was he, as I could not help 
asking, some duly appointed officer of the 
day, — grand marshal, if you please, — 
with a commission to see all hands in be- 
fore retiring himself? He waited, at any 
rate, till the final stragglers had passed ; 
then he came down out of the air and fol- 
lowed them. I meant to watch the ingath- 
ering a second time, to see whether this fea- 
ture of it would be repeated, but I was 
never there at the right moment. One can- 
not do everything. 
Now, alas, Florida seems very far off. I 
am never likely to walk again under those 
New Smyrna live-oaks, nor to see again all 
that beauty of the Hillsborough. And yet, 
in a truer and better sense of the word, I 
do see it, and shall. What a heavenly light 
falls at this moment on the river and the 
island woods! Perhaps we must come back 
to Wordsworth, after all, — 
“The light that never was, on sea or land.” 
