The Judge’s ’Gator. 
The doctor, the judge and Joe were loung¬ 
ing about the camp-fire after a hard day spent 
in riding in a rickety wagon over heavy sand 
roads filled with bone-racking roots, to an. 
abandoned logging camp on the creek, thence 
by bateau down the crooked stream into Lake 
Fithlacoochee and along the low, swampy shore 
to a strip of high hammock land, where they 
had landed and made camp. The fire had died 
down to a bed of coals, and conversation had 
been at a standstill for some time, when Joe 
sat up and reached for a 'light for his pipe. As 
he settled back into a comfortable position, a 
deep rumbling sound rolled over the lake. 
“Reckon that’s a regular old grandaddy 
’gator,” said Joe. as the sound died away. 
“This lake used to be full of them old fellows, 
but they’s might scarce these days; but maybe 
we’ll get him to-morrow night. He's across 
the lake, over by the mud flats. 
“I didn’t know an alligator made a racket like 
that,” remarked the doctor, as he sat up. drew 
nearer the dying camp-fire and peered into the 
darkness. “Let’s have some more wood on the 
fire, Joe. And say, do alligators ever prowl 
about on land in the night?” 
“Never come across many crawlin’ about on 
land in the night time,” replied Joe, as he got 
up and replenished the fire. The heat forced 
the doctor and the judge to move back, and as 
they spread their blankets and stretched out 
with feet to the fire, the doctor said he believed 
rdligators were rank cowards, and that more 
than half one read about them was moonshine. 
“They’ll fight all right when they have to.” 
said Joe, “but they’s like most wild varmints— 
they don’t like a man, and will get away from 
him if they can. They got a lot of curiosity, 
though,” continued Joe. “One moonlight night 
I was campin’ where we are now, and after 
supper I went down to where the bateau was 
tied to see if it was all right for the night. It 
was some dark under the cypresses, but just 
beyond the stern of the boat it was as light as 
day, and I see a big ’gator swimmin’ back and 
forth. I had cleaned some fish in the bateau 
before dark and throwed the heads overboard, 
and I reckon he’d found them. I picked up a 
few small chunks and got into the bateau easy 
like and tossed one out toward him. He swam 
up to it and nosed it, then backed off a bit. I 
tossed out two or three more chunks and tolled 
him up to within a few feet of me, then I let 
out a yell and beat on the side of the boat, and. 
sir, if there was ever a skeered ’gator it was 
him. The water was so shaller he couldn’t 
dive, but he come mighty near gettin’ up on 
top of it and runnin’ out of sight. Made as 
much fuss as a flock of blue-petes gettin’ out 
of the water.” 
As Joe refilled his pipe the judge asked him 
if he had ever had any exciting times on his 
alligator hunts. As Joe seemed to be in a 
*-eminiscent mood, the judge thought it a good 
time to draw him out, for this was the first 
time he or the doctor had ever been on a 
'gator hunt. Joe drew on his pipe till it was 
burning well, then settling back on his blanket, 
said: 
“One night I went ’gator huntin’ on this lake 
with a Yankee feller what didn’t know no more 
’bout shootin’ ’gators ’an I did ’bout shootin 
elephants. But he wasn t skeered of em, and 
1 reckon if I'd told him to wait till I d put him 
up close enough to sock the iron into one, in¬ 
stead of shootin’ him, he’d a-done it,” and Joe 
chuckled at the recollection of that hunt. 
“Before we left camp,” he resumed, “I lit 
the bullseye and fastened it on; my partner s 
head, and give him the iron and told him to 
make the end of the rope fast to his seat when 
we got into the bateau. We didn’t have no 
luck on this side, and went across to the mud 
flats, and pretty soon we shined one. I put the 
bateau up close enough for my partner to get 
j. good shot, and he cut loose with the shot¬ 
gun and the ’gator flopped over. Paddling up 
alongside, I told him to sock the iron into him, 
and he done it; but that old ’gator was only 
stunned, and when he felt the iron he come 
to and churned up the water. I backed the 
bateau off, but as soon as the rope tightened 
up the ’gator made a lunge that like to have 
jerked the bateau out from under us. The 
bullseye went overboard, taking my partner s hat 
along for company. There we was, a good 
piece from shore, hooked to a gator as long 
as the bateau, and no light. The ’gator got 
tangled up in the rope and began to roll, and 
every time he flopped over he wound the rope 
around him. When he had rolled up on the 
rope till he was only a few feet from the bateau, 
and was beatin’ the water with his tail and 
wettin’ us all up, I yelled at my partner to cut 
the rope, for it was tied fast to the seat he was 
sittin’ on. He hollered back he didn’t have no 
knife and couldn’t find the hatchet. I got out 
my knife and scrambled up to his end of the 
bateau on all fours, for I wasn t takin no 
chances on that ’gator givin’ a sudden yank on 
the rope and throwin’ me overboard. And T 
didn’t get that rope cut none too soon, let me 
tell you, for with another turn or two that old 
cuss would a been aboard, and we’d a had to 
take to the water, for there weren’t room 
aboard for us two and him. I was sure glad 
to get shed of that ’gator. 
“After we got straightened out a bit and lit 
cur pipes we pulled back to camp and turned 
in, but before we went to sleep that Yankee 
said if I hadn’t been so all-fired anxious to get 
loose from that ’gator he’d a found the hatchet 
and cut his head off for makin’ him lose his 
hat and the bullseye, and wettin’ us all up,” 
concluded Joe, as he knocked the ashes out of 
his pipe and announced that it was time to 
turn in if they were going to get up early and 
catch a few fish for breakfast. 
The next morning the judge was awake be¬ 
fore his companions, and slipping out of the 
tent without disturbing them, went down to the 
edge of the lake, over which hung a vapor that 
shifted about under the freshening breeze, and 
t. rift in the white pall disclosed a fleeting 
glimpse of a large alligator. Presently a big 
blue heron came winging slowly along close in 
shore and lighted nearby. Next came a snow- 
white egret that perched on a snag near the 
heron and began preening its beautiful plumage. 
The judge’s quiet enjoyment of the scene was 
interrupted by the doctor, who stood by the dead 
coals rubbing his eyes and wanting to know 
what he meant by standing down there instead 
of starting a fire and putting on the coffee-pot 
so they could have a hot cup before going out 
to catch their breakfast. 
Joe hustled about and in a few minutes had 
a fire going and. the coffee on, and soon they 
were in the bateau with Joe at the oars. A 
short row brought them to a grass-fringed 
point, where Joe said they were to catch their 
breakfast. The doctor used a phantom minnow 
and the judge a small spoon, and by the time 
they had worked around the point they had 
taken four trout, averaging about pounds 
each. The fish seemed to have a preference for 
the phantom, as the doctor took three to the 
judge’s one, but he was in nowise disheartened, 
and said he would even things up when it came 
to killing alligators. 
Returning to camp, breakfast was soon in 
course of preparation, and the smell of frying 
fish and bacon, mingled with the odor of boil¬ 
ing coffee, caused the doctor to fidget about 
the fire like a small boy, getting in Joe’s way, 
and all but turning the coffee-pot over in an 
endeavor to pry the top off with a stick to see 
if it was boiling just right. Joe was a good 
camp-fire cook, and the meal was thoroughly 
enjoyed. 
Later in the day they took the bateau and 
rowed up to the head of the lake, where a small 
creek flowed in through a group of cypress 
trees. The water was shallow in the mouth of 
the creek, and the bottom white sand. It 
looked so inviting in the shade of the over¬ 
hanging trees, with here and there a ragged 
patch of sunshine sifting through the treetops 
and gleaming on the sandy bottom, that it 
was voted an ideal spot for a bath, and in a 
few minutes they were splashing about and re¬ 
calling the times, in years gone by, when they 
had played hookey and gone in the old “swim- 
min’ hole.” 
On the way back to camp they stopped long 
enough in a large bonnet patch to catch a 
string of bream for supper, and after that meal 
preparations were begun for the alligator hunt. 
The doctor, who scorned the idea of using a 
shotgun for anything except wing shooting,, 
said he would bag his ’gator with his rifle. The 
judge admitted it might not be so sportsman¬ 
like to kill a ’gator at fifteen yards with a 
scatter gun loaded with buckshot, but said that 
if Joe was going to put him alongside a big 
’gator in the dark, he wanted to kill it dead. 
Banking the camp-fire, they went down to 
the bateau, where Joe lit the bullseye and ad¬ 
justed it on the doctor’s head, for he was to 
