THE TRAVELS OF A HUNTING KNIFE. 



263 



them Kresh'yuns up where the sick Yanks 

 come from?" 



"No lad," I said, "you have them all 

 down here." 



"Well," he continued, "they pretty nigh 

 starved at first. Mam said they would a 

 starved if Pap hadn't a showed 'em where 

 and how to hsh and truck. They under- 

 stand the country better now, so Pap says, 

 and helps to fill it up like, though they is 

 a queer kind of settlers, and Mam says 

 there's shore no harm in them." 



About a year before the time of which 

 I am writing Dr. Tead and his Careshians 

 had emigrated from Chicago and other 

 headquarters in Michigan, gone down into 

 Florida and settled on the coast South of 

 Fort Myers. Their main settlement was 

 on the site of an old plantation 5 or 6 

 miles distant from the coast on Spring 

 creek. They held all property in common 

 and believed that perfection and all the at- 

 tributes of Deity were attainable in the 

 flesh. Dr. Tead, whom they called Master, 

 had taken abundant resources with him into 

 their new home. 



The tide was ebbing fast and we en- 

 countered a stiff current on entering the 

 creek. We stopped at the first oyster bed 

 and regularly filled up, after which we went 

 on to some fishing grounds where the 

 creek formed a series of deep holes. Herb 

 and I helped Willie catch a can full of 

 fiddler crabs for bait and leaving him to 

 fish started North on a strip of sand that 

 had once been the shore of the bay. 



The only life we saw was the ever present 

 turkey buzzard, the valued scavenger of the 

 South, and several pairs of Washington 

 eagles wheeling above the pine trees. The 

 morning proved a blank to us as far as 

 game was concerned, though we did start a 

 deer. On our return we made a detour 

 and came to a great pine tree with an 

 eagle's nest in its top. The nest, which was 

 built of sticks and rubbish, was larger than 

 a bushel basket and had a young eagle in 

 it. He was almost black in color and was 

 evidently still under his mother's care. We 

 sat down under the tree and ate our lunch, 

 meanwhile watching the eagle. I wanted 

 a specimen but knew that if I shot the 

 youngster he would fall back into the nest 

 wnere I could not get him. 



Presently one of the old eagles returned 

 and wheeled in great circles above the 

 giant pine, too far for a rifle bullet to be 

 certain. I wanted a .specimen, however, 

 and so just as the ivory bead of the 

 front sight cleared the body of the 

 eagle, I drew the trigger. For an instant 

 there was a great commotion, but 

 the bird, winded by the ball, had onlv lost 

 its balance. Just then came the thud of a 

 body striking the ground, and the carcass 



of a bluebill duck, neatly sheared of its 

 feathers so as not to obstruct the flight of 

 the eagle, lay within 3 rods of me. 



The eagle then plainly showed its anger 

 and excitement and flew in descending 

 spirals above the nest. I much wished to 

 see this prince of the air regain its lost 

 quarry, which I believe it was about to do, 

 but fearing that in its anger it might 

 strike the boy, I covered it with my rifle 

 and again drew the trigger. That time the 

 bullet found its billet. 



On returning to the boat we found 

 the flood tide just beginning to run into 

 the creek. Herb said we could drop down 

 to the oyster beds but would have to wait 

 there until the tide was high enough to 

 float the skiff over the bar. Willie had the 

 bottom of the boat covered with sheeps- 

 head, bass, catfish and jackfish, but like all 

 anglers he wanted just one more, so he 

 trolled in the deep holes as we passed 

 them. Getting snagged, he lost the Hamil- 

 ton spoon he was using. Herb grounded 

 the boat on a sand bar and asked me to 

 blaze a mangrove on the bank so he could 

 return to the place and get the spoon some- 

 time when the tide was out. After making 

 the blaze I did not fasten my hunting knife 

 to my belt as I should have done but thrust 

 it into my hip pocket. As I was about 

 to take my place in the boat Herb pointed 

 to a track in the sand and said: "That's 

 a Kresh'yun's track. There are some of 

 them below us on the creek." I asked him 

 how 7 he could tell their tracks from 

 others. 



He replied : "Easy enough. They are 

 the only Yanks around here. Just look at 

 that track, Doctor. See how that feller 

 punched his heels right down into the sand. 

 You'll never ketch Pap a-walkin' turkey 

 in the sand like that; it's too hard work. 

 He puts his weight on his toes and the ball 

 of his foot when he walks." 



Taking our places in the boat we were 

 soon as near the mouth of the creek as the 

 stage of the tide would permit. I had just 

 tied the skiff to a mangrove to prevent its 

 floating off up' the creek with the tide, 

 when Herb, who was standing on the bank, 

 yelled at me, forgetting his verbs as was 

 his wont when excited, "O ! Doctor, there 

 they'nns. There the Kresh'yuns. There 

 Doctor Tead." Looking down the creek I 

 saw some 15 or 20 men clad only in their 

 shirts, with spades in their hands and the 

 Florida sun reaching affectionately after 

 the calves of their legs. They were dig- 

 ging a ditch to straighten the channel of 

 the creek. Stepping into the slowly rising 

 tide, against which my Thompson boots 

 were proof, I walked up to the man whom 

 the laboring band of Careshians called 

 Master. 



