144 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



our party, and returned to Indian Key, where we arriyed 

 three hours before sunset 



The sailors and other individuals to whom my name and 

 pursuits had become known, carried our birds to the pilot's 

 house. His good wife had a room ready for me to draw in, 

 and my assistant might have been seen busily engaged in 

 skinning, while George Lehman was making a sketch of the 

 lovely isle. 



Time is ever precious to the student of nature. I placed 

 several birds in their natural attitudes, and began to outline 

 them. A dance had been prepared also, and no sooner was 

 the sun lost to our eye, than males and females, including 

 our captain and others from the vessel, were seen advancing 

 gaily towards the house in full apparel. The birds were 

 skinned, the sketch was on paper, and I told my young men 

 to amuse themselves. As to myself, I could not join in the 

 merriment, for, full of the remembrance of you, reader, and 

 of the patrons of my work both in America and in Europe, I 

 went on "grinding" — not on an organ, like the Lady of Bras 

 d'Or, but on paper, to the finishing, not merely of my out- 

 lines, but of my notes respecting the objects seen this day. 



The room adjoining that in which I worked, was soon filled. 

 Two miserable fiddlers screwed their screeching silken strings 

 — not an inch of catgut graced their instruments; and the 

 bouncing of brave lads and fair lasses shook the premises to 

 the foundation. One with a slip came down heavily on the 

 floor, and the burst of laughter that followed echoed over the 

 isle. Diluted claret was handed round to cool the ladies, 

 while a beverage of more potent energies warmed their part- 

 ners. After supper our captain returned to the Marion, and 

 I, with my young men, slept in light swinging hammocks, 

 under the eaves of the piazza. 



It was the end of April, when the nights were short and 

 the days therefore long. Anxious to turn every moment to 

 account, we were on board Mr. Thruston's boat at three next 



