186 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



CHAPTER XII. 



"what SHALL I EAT?" 



Well, to be honest and trne, as we always endeavor to 

 be, we can only answer to this query, " Whatever you can 

 get." And what that may be depends very much on cir- 

 cumstances : the depth of one's purse, the depth of one's 

 lakelet, the "newness" of the neighborhood, the vicinity 

 of a (comparatively) large town, and the transportation 

 facilities. With a well-filled purse one may easily obtain 

 a well-filled basket in the older-settled portions of the State, 

 and in fact in many of the very new ones also, if there 

 chances to be an enterprising, wide-awake merchant at 

 hand, and modern people to appreciate his modern goods ; 

 for here, as elsewhere, the demand creates the supply. 



And wherever this proves not to be the case it is sure 

 to be only a temporary inconvenience, and one which, 

 with a better hope for the near future, can be cheerfully 

 borne. Certainly no settlers of ordinary intelligence can 

 hope or expect to find in a new country, only partially 

 reclaimed from the wilderness, all the innumerable com- 

 forts and luxuries of the countries whence they come — 

 countries that have been for years upon years under the 

 sway of advanced civilization. There they have at hand 

 not only the productions of the soil of their own locality, 

 but the accumulated necessaries and comforts and luxuries 

 of all the countries of the world brought to their doors by 

 steamships and railroads. 



Take only the native fruits, the great orchards growing 

 all around them. Were they there, with their apples and 

 pears and peaches ready to be plucked and eaten when the 

 first tree was felled, the first home laid out, in that part 



