Florida Swamps and Forests 



While thus engaged I was startled from these 

 gatherings of melancholy by a rusthng sound 

 in the rushes behind me. Had my mind been 

 in health, and my body not starved, I should 

 only have turned calmly to the noise. But in 

 this half-starved, unfriended condition I could 

 have no healthy thought, and I at once believed 

 that the sound came from an alligator. I fan- 

 cied I could feel the stroke of his long notched 

 tail, and could see his big jaws and rows of 

 teeth, closing with a springy snap on me, as I 

 had seen in pictures. 



Well, I don't know the exact measure of my 

 fright either in time or pain, but when I did 

 come to a knowledge of the truth, my man- 

 eating alligator became a tall white crane, hand- 

 some as a minister from spirit land — "only 

 that." I was ashamed and tried to excuse my- 

 self on account of Bonaventure anxiety and 

 hunger. 



Florida is so watery and vine-tied that path- 

 less wanderings are not easily possible in any 

 direction. I started to cross the State by a gap 

 [89] 



