SQ HO^IE LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



occasionally 104°, and this too in the shelter and shade 

 of the interior of a large brick dwelling, where it should 

 have been cool if any where; we have seen the same 

 thing also in other parts of Pennsylvania, in New Jer- 

 sey, in New York, in Maryland, and with it all there was 

 a close, sultry ' ' feel " in the air that seemed to sap one's 

 life away and to make the very effort of breathing too 

 great for endurance. 



Even in the country, with open fields all around us and 

 a great river near by, we have experienced, night after 

 night, heat so intense, so close, that it seemed as if we 

 must suffocate; sleep, rest even, was impossible, and 

 while wandering over the house in the vain hope of 

 finding a "shadow of a breeze," Ave have noted our 

 neighbors wanderiug likewise in the dead of night about 

 their gardens, looking more like uneasy ghosts than 

 merely unhappy mortals, slowly melting away in the 

 vain search for a breeze. 



That is a search that no one need ever take in Florida ; 

 it is more of a problem how to get out of the breeze than 

 how to get into it ; it is always on the qui vive and never 

 waits to be hunted for ; it hunts for you in every crack 

 and corner. - 



It frequently happens that it is too cool to sit on the 

 porches in comfort when the thermometer actually marks 

 90° or 92°, and common sense tells you that you ought to 

 be feeling very warm, and would be excessively so with 

 the same temperature in any other State. 



It looks mysterious, does it not ? but it is true, nor is 

 the mystery very deeply hidden. 



In Florida during all the long summer the thermometer 

 and the breeze are perpetually warring wdth each other ; 

 they quarrel night and day, and have a lively time to- 

 gether, to the incalculable benefit of all living creatures. 



