A Thousand-Mile Walh 
How imperishable are all the impressions 
that ever vibrate one’s life! We cannot forget 
anything. Memories may escape the action of 
will, may sleep a long time, but when stirred 
by the right influence, though that influence be 
light as a shadow, they flash into full stature 
and life with everything in place. For nineteen 
years my vision was bounded by forests, but 
to-day, emerging from a multitude of tropical 
plants, I beheld the Gulf of Mexico stretching 
away unbounded, except by the sky. What 
dreams and speculative matter for thought 
arose as I stood on the strand, gazing out on 
the burnished, treeless plain! 
But now at the seaside I was in difficulty. I 
had reached a point that I could not ford, and 
Cedar Keys had an empty harbor. Would I pro- 
ceed down the peninsula to Tampa and Key 
West, where I would be sure to find a vessel 
for Cuba, or would I wait here, like Crusoe, and 
pray for a ship. Full of these thoughts, I 
stepped into a little store which had a con- 
siderable trade in quinine and alligator and 
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