CHAPTER XX. 



A BEAR IN DIFFICULTY. 



" Snout. Bottom ! thou art changed : what do I see on thee t 

 Bol. What do you see ? you see an ass-head of your own, do you ? " 



MlDSUMMEU-NIGHT'S DRKAM. 



One morning Mike and I left the Fort in our canoes, with 

 Scipio and Csesar, to look for some game on the islands that were 

 scattered along the beach in the many indentures of the bay to the 

 southward of the Fort. An hour or two of paddling brought us 

 where a low island was fringed with the tangled roots of the black 

 mangrove. This peculiar tree frequents the salt-water shores, and 

 springs up from a multitude of roots that raise the trunk of the 

 tree above the water. The pendent branches then droop until 

 they touch the water beneath, where, clasped by oysters and other 

 parasite shell-fish, they are anchored to the earth, and, taking root, 

 send up many shoots that thus ramify and interlace like miniature 

 banyan-trees. A large portion of the peninsula of Florida is 

 fringed by this hardy hedge of vegetation. Behind a border of 

 this kind we saw the towering forms of some gumbo-limbo-trees, 

 and the oval leaves of the sea-grape, and, finding an open place 

 wherein to conceal our boat, landed and commenced to hunt down 

 the island. 



It was early morning, and the dew was still on the grass, and 

 the mocking-bird had not yet finished his matinal song. 



" There 's a dog's track," I said to Mike, directing his attention 

 to some footprints fairly marked on the sand ; " there may be some 

 Indians camping here." 



"No," said Mike, following the tracks with his eye for a 

 moment ; " a wolf." 



 How do you tell ? " 



