Florida Swamps and Forests 
While thus engaged I was startled from these 
gatherings of melancholy by a rustling sound 
in the rushes behind me. Had my mind been 
in health, and my body not starved, I should 
only have turned calmly to the noise. But in 
this half-starved, unfriended condition I could 
have no healthy thought, and I at once believed 
that the sound came from an alligator. I fan- 
cied I could feel the stroke of his long notched 
tail, and could see his big jaws and rows of 
teeth, closing with a springy snap on me, as I 
had seen in pictures. 
Well, I don’t know the exact measure of my 
fright either in time or pain, but when I did 
come to a knowledge of the truth, my man- 
eating alligator became a tall white crane, hand- 
some as a minister from spirit land — “only 
that.” I was ashamed and tried to excuse my- 
self on account of Bonaventure anxiety and 
hunger. 
Florida is so watery and vine-tied that path- 
less wanderings are not easily possible in any 
direction. I started to cross the State by a gap 
[89I 
