HAMMOCK NIGHTS 207 
the wilderness, since it is not customary for the 
fer-de-lance to frequent the city and the town. 
But this would give rise to a footless argument, 
leading nowhere. For danger is everywhere—it 
lurks in every shadow and is hidden in the bright 
sunlight, it is the uninvited guest, the invisible 
pedestrian who walks beside you in the crowded 
street ceaselessly, without tiring. But even a 
fer-de-lance should rather add to the number of 
hammock devotees than diminish them; for the 
three feet or more of elevation is as good as so 
many miles between the two of you. And three 
miles from any serpent is sufficient. 
It may be that the very word danger is sub- 
jected to a different interpretation in each one of 
our mental dictionaries. It is elastic, compre- 
hensive. ‘To some it may include whatever is 
terrible, terrifying; to others it may symbolize 
a worthy antagonist, one who throws down the 
gauntlet and asks no questions, but who will make 
a good and fair fight wherein advantage is 
neither taken nor given. I suppose, to be bit- 
ten by vampires would be thought a danger by. 
many who have not graduated from the mattress 
of civilization to this cubiculum of the wilderness. 
This is due, in part, to an ignorance, which is 
