132 FLORIDA 



" checkerback," a felicitous name, in common 

 use in Kentucky, it appears, and perhaps else- 

 where. I am happy to adopt it and pass it on. 



If there were words wherewith to describe the 

 indescribable, I should like to tell of a bluebird 

 that I saw a week ago about one of the vegetable 

 gardens out on the prairie. The blue of that 

 creature's back and wings is not to be imagined. 

 The bluest sky never matched it. I would wager 

 that he was Florida bom. No Northern bird ever 

 owned such a coat. In my recollection he will 

 stand as one of the sights of the coimtry, along 

 with the " banyan trees," the snaky green vanilla 

 vines, and the tropical jungle. 



These letters are of necessity written piece- 

 meal. In this hospitable Southern country, where 

 the weather and so many things beside are con- 

 tinually calling, " Come forth and enjoy us," one 

 cannot stay indoors very long at once. So it 

 happened that at the conclusion of the last parar 

 graph I put down my pencil and started out for 

 another few minutes among the live-oaks. As 

 I approached them I descried a man sitting upon 

 a heap of coal-ashes dumped along the railway. 

 He might have been Job himself, to look at him, 

 but at a second glance I perceived that he was 

 not actually sitting in the ashes, but on a board, 

 and instead of bewailing his afflictions or his 



