146 A NATURE WOOING. 



obtain a piece of cotton string to tie my box and then 

 resume my outing. 



A pack of pickaninnies followed after me and 

 watched me searching for insects. I showed them 

 the snake and told them I would pay them for such 

 snakes as I do not have. The youngest of them 

 glanced askance at me and asked : "Mistah, what duz 

 you-all want 'em foh ?" "To make soup/ 7 I replied. 

 He turned to his older companions in open-eyed 

 amazement. He was speechless even. Snake soup 

 was to him an unthought-of , unheard-of delicacy. He 

 may to-night dream of a pot of hissing serpents, rais- 

 ing their heads at intervals above the top, glaring at 

 him and darting forth their tongues, while their bod- 

 ies and tails writhe and sizzle in the water beneath. 



A happy-go-lucky race, these Florida negroes; 

 content with shelter crude, with corn pone and sirup, 

 with a few clothes to cover their nakedness. Their 

 children are legion, the ties of marriage being but 

 loosely observed. For the most part illiterate, one 

 day, to them, is as another. "Sufficient unto the day 

 is the evil thereof," would doubtless be their motto 

 did they know its meaning. Free from ambition, 

 knowing little of the great world beyond and caring 

 less, they shuffle through life content with their lot ; 

 dwelling here 'neath the sunny skies and balmy airs 

 in a land which seemingly was formed for such as 

 they. 



