O'F

THE'

ty of California
3rn Regional
iry Facility

ROBERT ERNEST COWAN

rma VOLUME

IS DEDICATED,

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CO WITH FEELIKOS OF THE PROFOtTNDEST RESPECT AND VENERATION.

CD

i TO THE

fe

BIG BEAR OF THE WAKASSARE RIVER,
oc

AND THE
FRIENDS WHO WKBE IN AT HIS DEATH.

PREFACE.

THE larger portion of the Sketches contained in this
volume were contributions made by the Author to " The
Spirit of the Times," a few years ago, under the title
of " Camp-Fire Stories," and as some of them have
been floating about in other papers, this statement
seems necessary, lest the reader may regard these
"twice-told tales" as lacking in originality.

Nothing more is claimed for this volume than that it
contains pleasant reminiscences of hunting life and
adventure in the peninsula of Florida, and counterparts
of tales, some of them remembered, some of them
fancied, that frontier hunters tell when assembled at
night around their camp-fires.

The Author does not ask that each story shall be
regarded as having occurred literally as written ; but he
believes the spirit of the tales, the description of natural
scenery, and the fragments of Indian history to be cor-
rect, and he has carefully striven not to offend the keen
observation and long experience of his hunting comrades
at the South whose eyes will scrutinize these pages, by
any allusion to natural history which is not exactly true.
If the book will recall the Author pleasantly to their
minds, or awaken the remembrance of grand old sports
and merry camp-fires in the States of the South, its
object is attained.

v

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTORY, ....................................... ... .^,§

THE CAMP FIRE, ........................................ 20

A BEAR IN THE CAMP, ................................... 40

THI DANGERS OF FIRE-HUNTING ............................ 51

THE PLANTATION HOUSE OF " FAR AWAY," ................. 61

THE PANTHER'S CUB, .................................... 75

THE DEER HUNT, ........................................ 86

THE FIRESIDE AT FAR Aw AT, ............................ 106

THI STILL HUNT, ........................................ 119

THE FLORIDA POCAHONTAS, ............................... 143

THE FLORIDA POCAHONTAS, CONTINUED, ..................... 159

THE BATTUE ON BONDA KEY, ............................. 1Y5

THE HISTORY OF AN OLD FRIEND, ......................... 195

THI DROWNED LANDS, ............................. . 208

Till CONTENTS.

PACK

THI SKIN OF THE TIGER-CAT, 239

SUPPER, , 245

HOME AGAIN, 265

THE BURIAL, 285

INDIAN HISTORY, 295

A BEAR IN ifnrFicuLTY, 303

HOW WE CONQUERED HALLECK TUSTENUGGEE, 311

THE " PAINTER " IN THE PIG PEN, 827

POKE RECEIVES A CUR'OSITY AND TELLS A YARN, 341

WOODLAND CHORUSES, 354

LIFE IN THE LIGHT-HOUSE 866

TRACKING THE ENEMY, /...... 872

SMOKING OUT THE ENEMY, 382

BESIEGING THE LIGHT-HOUSE, 898

MIKE AND TIGER TAIL PLAY CHESS, 404

THE SURRENDER AT DISCRETION, 416

WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

CHAPTER I.

INTEODUCTOBY.

" 0 flourish, hidden deep in fern,

Old oak I love thec well,
A thousand thanks for what I learn,
And what remains to tell."

TENNYSON.

A GOODLY creation is a tree I Its mast-like trunk,
supporting a thousand branches that weave and inter-
weave, fretting the blue air with their tracery ;
lithe to the wind, stubborn to the storm, the pillars
bend but do not break, in the long-drawn leafy
aisles of God's cathedral. Its roots, far-reaching, with
tiny fibres probe the earth for moisture, and send the
life-blood through the arteries to the fragrant blossoms
and the topmost leaves that " clap their little hands in
glee with one continuous sound." To its shadow not only
the beasts of the field come for shelter, but millions of
insects seek a home under the rough folds of its bark, or
•weave their cradles in its rocking boughs. On its

1* 9

10 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

branches the birds build their nests, and in its hollows the
squirrel and the hooting owl conceal their young, and the
wild bee stores its sweets, while both day and night the
buds breathe their perfume, and the wind, the rustling
leaves, and its feathered guests, chant an anthem of
praise.

If it be a pleasant thing to see one plant thus munifi-
cently endowed, how does it delight the heart to look
down the forest, where trees of every hue and form stand
in countless numbers, and their shade, with its perpetual
twilight, makes a new climate, where new flora gem the
sheltered earth, where parasite plants and vines festoon
the trees with corridors, gay with flowers, or purple with
clustered fruit, where the moss takes the place of grass,
and the last year's leaves fill the hollows — where the
wild bird and timid game make their home, and gambol
in the unrestrained indulgence of natural instincts ! To
this scene add the brook cluttered with stones and filled
with leaves, the open river tenanted with aquatic birds,
and making vistas in the woods, and, lastly, the deep
blue of the sea, fringed with the white of the breakers,
and complaining of its limits, and you will have the view
that is to be met in nearly every sea-coast forest in
the land. But in the woods of the far southern States,
and more particularly in the Florida peninsula, Nature
develops new beauties, and excites further thoughts of
praise to its Creator.

There simmer first unfauld her robes,
And there they langest tarry,

TTTBKEY HUNTING. 11

bringing in her train the fragrance of the earth, with the
colors of the sky, decking her tallest trees with flowers
proportioned to their grandeur. There the lakes and
rivers are broad and deep, and teem with curious animal
life. There the birds of the air are painted with crimson,
and sing in dialects consonant with the voluptuous clime.
There the great queen lily rides the lagoon, where
drooping moss from the live oaks so curtain its retreat
that no eye ever sees it but the wild bird's, and there the
earth is so prolific of her fruits that there is abundance
for all the crowded forest. No single life is forgotten,
and the minute insect that feeds on the pollen of the
tiger lily, lives as abundantly as the alligator that takes
his toll from the whole animal creation.

Thus from year to year have the seasons come and
gone ; animal and vegetable life has reached its limit of
years, has fallen and decayed, and wealth that would have
enriched a nation has only formed the subsoil for another
age, nor eye of man has seen, nor pen of man has told,
the wonders of that inner forest that was barred by
nature and the Seminole from the civilized world.

Under such a wood, near where the Stinhatehee River
empties its dark waters into the Gulf of Mexico, at Dead-
man's Bay, the grey light came to my eyes as I lay
wrapped in my blanket, by the smoldering camp-fire, a
few years ago. Hunters and negroes were all still buried
in dreams, and the weary hounds lay stretched around
indiscriminately among the sleepers. No tent was raised,
for the elements required none, though a screen of

12 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

boughs had been built as a break-wind, and to keep the
reflected heat near the fire. Here and there were scat-
tered accoutrements, or the relics of the last night's
meal, feathers of birds, skins of beasts, antlers of deer.
The serried leaf of the palmetto fringed us around like a
hedge, and above us the tassels of the pine trees just
began to be discernible against the morning sky. Once
in a while a bird twittered in the trees, now and then a
sound like dropping rain was heard, where some animal
shook the dew-laden branches. All else was still, save
the quiet murmur of the sea on the beach, some little
distance off. Its low roar lulled me ; I shut my eyes to
the coming dawn, and turned over in my blanket. How
pleasant is that second sleep at the grey twilight !

I know not how long I slept ; but when I awoke the
negroes had rekindled the fire, and a pleasant fragrance
of cooking meats mingled with the pine scent of the
forest. I started to my feet, and taking my gun, saun-
tered down the bank of the river, partly for a walk, and
partly to search for game. The air was clear and cool,
and all nature seemed to be coming forth to salute the
day. Tl^Pquail whistled in the distance, the grey and
fox squirrels leaped from bough to bough, or half
descending the great trunks of the oak trees, challenged
with pert gestures the passers-by. Long trains of cor-
morants sailed overhead to their feeding grounds, and
with measured beat the ibis and heron were slowly pass-
ing seaward. I saw the ducks feeding on the margins
of the river, and the various tribes of woodpeckers, jays,

TURKEY HUNTING. 13

and hawks, flitting among the trees ; but none of these
excited my attention : they were rather the constant
sights that one sees without regarding. At length the
gobble of a turkey came faintly on the air. I have
heard that sound often before, and trust to hear it many
tunes hereafter, but I can never listen to its first clear
note without a flutter of delight, that I verily believe is
greater far than that of its sweetheart, as she listens
from the jungle to this the loud love-call of her mate.
It apparently does not strike the ear, but the heart, and
then tingles outward through every nerve. There may
be something in this of early association, but it is one of
the pleasantest that a man has in this world, and which
so often makes him rich when he has never a sou. I
stopped short and listened for a repetition of the sound,
to tell from what direction it came, and also for any
answer that might come back, as by directing my course
toward the latter I could intercept the cock when he
should take his course. The hundred little beings that
talked around me in their various tongues were all
speaking. The forest that I thought so still, was no\v%
when attentively listening, full of life. How distinctly
now came the booming of the sea, and the distant tap of
the ivory-billed woodpecker ! Yet I could hear no cluck
of hen, or responsive gobble of the younger cocks of the
brood. Again the call was repeated. First a low
chuckle, and then the rich guttural vowels poured out
in a hurried volume. It domineers over every other
sound by reason of its peculiarity. There is no manner

14 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

of representing it in language, though the negroes have
a song that ends in a turkey chorus, which might be
written thus : Chug-u-logga, chug-u-logga, chug-u-logga-
chug. In the liquid negro patois it is not dissimilar.
Having taken the bearings of the turkey by his sound,
and mentally estimated his distance, I ran on ahead, dur-
ing a time equal to the interval between his calls, and
then stopped and listened. In a moment the call
resounded through the woods near me. I walked care-
fully forward, sheltering myself behind clumps of alders
and trunks of trees, and having gone what I thought was
a sufficient distance, waited and watched attentively.
Again the note sounded, but it seemed in the air. I cast
my eye upward, and there, perched on the dead and top-
most boughs of a tall sycamore, from whence he could
overlook the surrounding forest, stood my friend. His
erect and slender form was drawn up to its full height,
his little head turned quickly to the right and the left as
he surveyed the forest below him, lit up by the same
early sun that was burnishing his own glossy breast. I
could imagine the view he was eying, and it must have
been the conscious pride of a chieftain viewing his native
heaths and hills that drew his form to such stately pro-
portions. From where he sat he overlooked river and
lake, broad lagoon and open ocean, and hundreds of low
lying islands ; he saw savannahs covered with reeds and
osiers, and shady with tapering canes, where bred the
orab, and trailed the snail and centiped ; he heard the
pattering rain of pecan and of beech-nuts on the upland,

TURKEY HUNTING. 15

and saw the pawpaw bear its luscious fruit ; shady glens
and pools of water invited to repose, and in fancy's eye
his lazy h-arem lay beneath those trees, shuffling with
their wings the clear white sand of the hummocks that
bounded the sea. All this he saw, and then swelling his
throat, he sent forth his clear alarm, herald of the morn,
and gathering cry of his clan.

I understood his feeling, and yet raising my rifle I
took ami at him (strange contrariety of man) and fired.
A half-uttered gobble was suppressed, and spreading his
wings he sailed away in a slanting direction. " Missed,"
I ejaculated, as I saw him skating along like a hawk.
Just then, without an indication, he rolled over in the
air and came crashing through the boughs of the pine
trees to the earth.

I ran to my prize. His heavy beard and long spurs
showed him to be an old gobbler, probably one of those
lonely birds that, expatriating themselves from their
flocks, wander about in self-doomed celibacy. Throwing
my game over my shoulders, I returned to camp and to
breakfast, well contented with my success.

If the reader is desirous of knowing what is a wild
turkey, by turning to Audubon's, Wilson's, or Bona-
parte's Ornithology, he will discover it to be of the
gallinaceous order, with conical papilla on the forehead,
neck corrugated, beset with cavernous caruncles, frontal
caruncle blue and red, and with scutellate toes, scabrous
above and papillae beneath, etc. After pondering on

s description he may suspect that his ideas on the

16 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

subject may be rather confused, he may doubt if he
would be able to sketch the bird from the descrip-
tion given, and may desire to hear it described in
simpler language.

If so, let him imagine a full-grown black turkey cock
of the domestic species made shy and cautious in its
movements, restless with its head and neck, high step-
ping over obstacles with its bare, sinewy legs, and
erect, slender and game-like in its bearing. The wild
turkey is to its barnyard kinsman what the racehorse
is to the carthorse. See him in the early morn as
he stands on some elevation, and welcomes the dawn,
and announces to his family his movements for the day.
His scarlet wattles lie pendent on a neck that one mo-
ment curves like a swan's and in another is erect like a
crane's ; his comb is a soldier's plume, his eye is full and
hazel black, gleaming with something of a human look
from his shapely head, covered by the wrinkles of skin
and a few scattered hairs, and tinged with blue and red.
His neck swells very gradually to his body, and is bur-
nished with a gloss of brown and gold that varies with
every light. There is no pomposity or clumsiness about
his air ; on the contrary, his whole manners are those of
an accomplished gallant and a warrior.

You see him among the hens. Their gentle looks are
on him, and they follow his unspoken directions with
perfect readiness. They ramble hither and thither as
fancy leads them beneath the wild plum-trees, pick-
ing the stray fruit that has ripened before its season

TURKEY HUNTING. 17

and fallen to the ground, then a russet persimmon or a
choice pecan-nut shaken down by last night's wind.
Their leader casts his eye from side to side, scanning
everything that moves. Now a caressing love-note is
uttered to his favorite hen ; then, drawing himself to his
full height, he gives a glance of scrutiny into the woods
ahead of him, where the little pine trees open an ex-
tended vision. Passing a rotten stump, with a stroke of
his stalwart leg and claws he tears down the rotten bark.
A half inclination of the head, more graceful than that of
any gentleman, defers to the nearest hen a curd-white grub
that has rolled out from the wood, and with a low cluck
of acknowledgment she picks it up. Now with one foot
half raised, he searches for the cause of a sudden noise.
Ah ! it was only that opossum, and the turkeys care little
for him when they are in a flock together, and now in
passing he leaps up and catches a beetle that was crawl-
ing in a bush above him, now a may-apple, then a spider
or plethoric tadpole stranded in the hollow of the reced-
ing waters, are all espied by these wandering gipsies, and
immediately appropriated. At length they reach the
banks of a river; there is a little hurry among the
young hens. They don't like large streams : there are
alligators and garfish in the, water, and wild-cats and
eagles prowling around the banks, yet the river is to be
crossed, and they are not half so good at flying as they
are at running. Indeed they would walk round the
head of it, had they not learned that all Florida rivers
connect, in some way, one with another. As it is, they

18 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

walk up and down a little while on the high bank, cluck-
ing and purring, with an occasional pick at some mis-
placed feather, just as an old lady smooths down her
apron before expressing any decided opinion. The cock
may occasionally spread his fan if the sun shines brightly
where he stands, and utter his loud thrumming sounds
like the roll of a drum. He has eyed for some minutes
a low-limbed juniper tree, standing near, and presently,
after much examination, flits into it. Up go the hens
in succession, and from the juniper they all fly to the
upper limbs of a dead cotton-wood standing hard by.
There is a continuation of the duckings and notes of
preparation, and then with the gobbler in the van, they
launch themselves out in the air, and with broad ex-
tended pinions float in a slanting direction across the
river, landing on the opposite side, at the edge of the
underbrush, and are immediately lost to view.

I remember a pretty incident in connection with a tur-
key hen falling under my own eye, demonstrating a
knowledge of character on her part.

I had taken my stand on the end of St. Rosas Island,
off Pensacola, to watch for deer that the hounds were
driving. After my arrival I noticed a turkey hen
come skimming to the ground, and presently walk
toward a knoll of grass a few yards from my place of
concealment. Her anxious look and her feigned attitude
of indifference immediately showed me that she was near
her nest, and taking a little pocket spy-glass I carried
with me to watch the water channels, I presently saw

TURKEY HUNTING. 19

her settle herself down among some low willows, until I
could discern nothing but her head.

Shortly afterward a fox came by, and coming across
the trail of the turkey he turned short about, and throw-
ing up his sharp nose, scented the different spears of
grass the bird had touched, and then taking up her trail,
commenced following it slowly and cautiously toward
where she was sitting. "With noiseless foot and undulat-
ing body he wound along in the trail, when suddenly, to
my surprise, I saw the turkey hen leave her willow
clump, and returning on her own trail, walk directly
toward the fox. She picked hither and thither, in a non-
chalant manner, and when within some ten or fifteen
yards of her enemy, who had crouched in the sparse
grass when he first saw her coming, she diverged slowly
to the right, and the fox, as she turned aside, recom-
menced his crawlings, keeping his eye on the bird and
leaving the trail he had been previously following. In
this way they progressed some hundred yards in a direc-
tion contrary to her nest, when coming near a low tree,
with a soft chuckle, which seemed to say, as plain as
accent could make it, ." what a fool you are," she flitted
up in the tree.

The fox being then on open ground, at once knew
himself discovered, and raising from his crouching posi-
tion, after one or two longing looks, and a whimper of
disappointment, trotted over the sandhills, and was lost
to sight.

WILD 8POET8 IN THE SOUTH,

CHAPTER II.

THE CAMP FIRE.

" Under the shore his boat was tied,

And all her listless crew
Watched the grey alligator slide

Into the still bayou."

LONGFELLOW.

" TUBKEY buzzard ?" sarcastically cried my friend and
hunting comrade, Poke, as, returning to camp, I laid my
game down, and seated myself by the blanket that was
serving for a table, and around which Poke, the hunter
Mike, and the two negro boys were busy at their break-
fast.

" Spring turkey ?" inquired Mike, in delicate allusion
to the age of my turkey.

It was generally the habit of the party to quiz each
other at every success, and even mishaps were treated
as sources of amusement.

" Da is har nuff to pizen all Floridy," said Scipio Afri-
canus, raising the long tassel of beard hanging at the
turkey's breast.

" Pooh 1" said Poke, " I don't believe in that nonsense ;
it wouldn't kiU a cat."

" Jis you try him, da's all; ya cut em up fine, and put

THE CAMP FIRE. 21

um in de grog or de bread, and don't he work urn ?
Din't ole Ma'm Lize, on cte Robinson plantation, take off
Maussa Robinson? She be real nigger witch! Ole
man, he took sick, and all ee doctors in Swanna couldn't
cure him all winter, an' in de spring he die ob turkey
beard. Dat's Gospel !"

" You nigga, mussen come cooking 'fore our fire, or
we be habin' turkey beard too," retorts Ca3sar, as with
his black muscular arms, bare to the shoulder, he elbowed
his darky brother aside to put a dish of meat before the
party.

The sight of the smoking food brought every man's
thoughts and fingers to the subject before him. The
huge roll of cookery smelled good, but was by no means
comely to look at. As layer after layer of green leaves
were pulled off, there presently rolled out what might
have been a pig in civilized life, but which we immedi-
ately recognized as an oppossum. His skin and hair
adhered to the wrappings that had been bound around
him, and which kept him from the ashes and the burning
coals, and nothing now remained but the steamy fat
little carcass that would have made a vegetarian forego
his creed. Added to this there was a venison steak and
some corn-bread, and Poke had a canteen of whisky hid
away (the sensual dog ! ) and we feasted like kings, or
rather as kings are supposed to feast, with great good
humor and monstrous appetites, but which I verily sus-
pect kings rarely have. Each one pulled at the 'possum,
or cut strips from the venison, as he liked, and as fast

22 WILD 8POET8 IN THE SOUTH.

as one cake was eaten, another would be ready on the
stone in front of the fire. Beyond the circle sat the
hounds, awaiting, with expressive attitude, the stray bits
that were handed them from time to time ; and joke, and
tales, and future plans, were one by one rehearsed with
laugh and hopeful wishes.

Poke was a jolly fellow. A critical judge of character
might have said he was a little lazy, but none of us were
critical, and who could blame a man who never lost his
temper in all his life ? His face was like an orange, so
full and gentle, and the soft flaxen curls that clustered
tight around his head were like a child's. A shrewd
observer, he never saw a leaf changing color but he
inquired the reason, and with his gentle air read human
character with great facility. He seemed to know every-
thing, medicine, atfd the arts, and the commonest little
handicraft, and the greatest human theories, and he would
discourse up to his waist in a miry slough upon the beau-
ties of some aquatic plant as gracefully as in a parlor on
the color of a painting. His true name was Earnest
Pollock. His acquaintances called him Doctor, for he
had studied medicine at Paris ; the newspapers call him
the Honorable Mr. Pollock, for he had once been
appointed bearer of dispatches to Russia : I called him
Poke, for I loved him. Poke was short in stature, and
ready to talk. In this respect he was the counterpart of
Mike, or Michael Hone, or Mike the Spook, as he was
termed by different classes of people. Mike was gaunt,
though not over tall, slow in his motions, and very quiet

THE CAMP FIBE. 23

in whatever he did. There was no pretension or osten-
tation about him, and so far did he carry this negative
virtue, that he never mentioned himself if he could avoid
it, and no one could tell his intentions or anticipate his
motives until the act was done. A leather dress, and a
leather cap, the same colored shoes and belt, with a blue
flannel shirt, buttoned in front by two polished alliga-
tor's teeth, was the invariable costume of the hunter.
Once he had a cabin at Tampa, where he would come
and go with such uncertainty that he obtained the name
of Mike the Spook. Thence, at evening, when the set-
tlers with anxious eye regarded the forest that environed
them, dreading the whoop of the Seminole on every
wind, Mike would flit into the shadow, and begone a
month or more, appearing again on the limits of the
peninsula at Fort Dallas. The great inferior wilderness
was his home, and in its solitudes he had acquired his
taciturnity. His voice was low and singularly musical.
He might not speak for hours, the indication of his fin-
ger and the expression of his countenance being suffi-
cient for all ordinary language, yet when he did, his tone
was as effective as a command. The villagers at Mican-
opy called him Injun Mike, and said they never saw him
come or go but in a storm, and they, hunters as they
were, seemed afraid of his reckless will and strong
arm.

Mike acted as guide in our wildwood roamings. He
had undertaken it partly from a liking for me, and partly,
as I suspected, from mere curiosity to see the Doctor and

24; WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

myself in the woods, for he would sometimes sit by the
hour in his silent way, watching our motions and conver-
sation. He never added a word, but if his opinion was
asked, and the subject one that had been in the range of
his observation, he answered the querist in the simplest
manner. There he sat by the fire that morning ; I re-
member him as if painted before me. His mahogany
face wrinkled in kindly lines, and his chin covered by a
long, thin beard. He was smoking in the Spanish fashion,
rolling cigarettes from dried leaves across his knees, and
his quizzical eye wandered over us with a considering look,
as though we were children. A big, black and dun hound,
with a melancholy face, stood beside him ; it was said
either of them could track a bear by the scent. He had
acquired the Indian habit of inhaling smoke for some
minutes, and then driving it out of his mouth and nos-
trils in dense volumes, as a whale fills his lungs with
water, and then spouts it into the air.

The negro boys, Scipio and Caesar, regarded him
with feelings of respectful veneration. He excelled them
in all their own handicraft. He knew every tree in the
woods, and its uses ; the habits of wild game, vegetable
poisons, and the best manner of cooking ; he could swim,
ride, hunt, and shoot better than they. He had a close
acquaintance with the Indians, and, the boys said, with
the devil, and therefore there was a superstitious awe in
regard to him, that was exhibited to no one else.

Besides the human members of our party, there were
a dozen dogs of high and low degree. Mike had two ;

THE CAMP FIKE. 25

they were long-eared, sad-looking hounds, with fierce
eyes. I had a couple ; one was a hound, and one a terrier.
The negroes had four or five; you could not tell pre-
cisely how many, for they would appear and disappear
like sprites, and sometimes one would be gone for a week
or more, and then come to light at the most unexpected
moment. The Doctor had one, and his name was Wag.
Now there were two ways of seeing this dog, and there-
fore two ways of describing it. If he should be regarded
through the Doctor's eyes, he was a Gelert in courage,
of the sagacity of a fox, and so graceful and beautiful,
and of such winning ways, that all the world loved him.
But any one else in speaking of him would have called
him a rusty, ragged, ill-tempered mongrel, with an elfish
disposition for mischief. He stole our food, 'he frightened
our game, he howled away our sleep, and whenever
he saw vengeance coming he slunk away to his master's
protection. He knew he did evil, and, with one eye
on his pursuer, and his tail wagging, he would stand
until standing was no longer safe, and then run for his
life. Why the Doctor loved that dog I never could
divine. He said he found him when a pup, and rescued
him from some boys who had a rope around his neck pre-
paratory to giving him a swing; if so, his humanity
brought sad discredit on the canine race.

It is beyond the scope of my story to describe the toils
and successes of each day in the campaign which had
commenced that morning. Scenes of hourly interest to
the actor, and adventures which to the hunter and

26 WILD 8POETS IN THE 80UTH.

naturalist would be beyond expression exciting, would
be dull to the reader. Therefore, in a long winter's trip,
that extended from the Suwanee River almost to Oke-
chobee Lake, I can only recall those scenes that remained
most strongly on my mind after the lapse of months,
and which sometimes, when my brain is most active,
will come up to me in my dreams, when in sleep I hear
the wash of waves and the ringing music of hounds and
guns, and the frantic rush of the chase in the deep ever-
glades of the Seminoles. Yet there are many little
minutia3 of an extended hunt to explain, as they form the
regular duties of camp life.

After the breakfast has been dispatched, the one sauce-
pan, one coffee-pot, and two tin coffee cups, are neatly
cleaned, the two little vagabond horses which are pos-
sessed by the party are caught and led up with leading
ropes around their necks. They are vicious, ragged-look-
ing little beasts, but invaluable as pack-horses. On their
backs we strap a couple of blankets folded in half; over
that a little open frame-work, in which and to which we
may fasten anything- that is to be carried. This novel
pack-saddle resembles a kitchen chair turned upside
down. In it is put the little box containing our salt,
pepper, vinegar, cloves, lard, etc., little matters, but of
great use — we familiarly called the box "the kitchen;"
also a small keg of powder, a bag of shot, another of bul-
lets, caps, needles, thread, scissors, etc., then a joint of
venison, or a turkey, or any article of food, the Doctor's
trophies, skins of birds, skulls of animals, or strange

THE CAMP FIRE. 27

flowers or sketches. Then the coffee-pot, frying-pan,
etc., are hung on the perpendicular legs of the saddle,
two axes are strapped to the sides, and the ponies move
off after making two or three malicious kicks at the dogs
and bystanders. Mike leads the van with a cat-like
motion, his long rifle lying on his arm, and followed by
his dogs. I generally came next in line, then the negroes
and the ponies, and then the Doctor. We passed for the
most of our time through an open pine country with
a sandy soil. Here and there a grove of closer vegeta-
tion could be seen, and now and then a pool of water,
surrounded by oaks and cypress, but generally the long
vistas of slender trees would only be interrupted by some
climbing plant, or the high knolls that traversed the
country, following the general course of the drainage of
the water. We only made one march a day of about
eight hours, and then selecting some spot for the beauty
of its location, or the abundance of its game, we pitched
our camp, built our fire, turned out our horses, that is to
say our ponies, and made ourselves as much at home as
though we never expected to change. There were many
days that we never broke up our camp, for the great
abundance of game would entice us to stay, and then our
resting-place gradually assumed a very comfortable
appearance. A tent of boughs carpeted with skins, a
a substantial fire, a well-stored larder, a pine slab table,
and the Doctor, half reclining, smoking his pipe, and
watching the frying joint, lest Wag should steal it, formed
an agreeable picture of contentment in low life, and made

548 WILD SPOBTS IN THE SOUTH.

one marvel how few are the necessaries in this world
essential to our happiness.

Several times we had our domestic privacy intruded
upon by our rustic neighbors during our absence, and
once in a way that ruffled the Doctor's good humor very
unusually. The camp had been left at early morning as
usual, and from the ridgepole of our tent was suspended
a sandhill crane, recently killed, and waiting for a cook-
ing. In returning, toward the dusk of the evening, the
negroes had separated to drive in the ponies, and the
Doctor was leading the van, and talking of his bird, the
sandhill crane, which at that season of the year was very
fat and delicate. The fire had gone almost out as we
came up to the tent, but by its light we could see the
little matters around in their usual condition. The Doc-
tor laid down his gun against a tree, and, stooping down,
walked into the tent. At that instant there was a pur-
ring growl, Poke was hurled over on his back, amid a
cloud of feathers, and a big wild-cat came dashing out
over the Doctor's prostrate body.

" Oh ! ah !" sputtered the Doctor. " Catch him ! stop
him ! The wretch has eaten my crane !"

The dogs yelped ; I fired a flying shot, and with two
or three rapid bounds the cat leaped up into a huge
magnolia tree growing hard by, and with a corkscrew
motion was soon lost to sight in the dense foliage that
extended far above the level of the surrounding trees.

On entering the cabin, I found Poke disconsolately
sitting on his blanket, with the long bill of the crane in

THE CAMP FIEE. 29

his hand, the sole relic the cat had left him for his
supper.

It was a pleasant hour in the old woods, when our day's
travel was ended, we had pitched our tent and drawn up
around our gipsy camp while the huge fire flickered and
crackled and lit up the green dome of the woods. The
tree trunks, for a long distance around, were lighted into
rugged distinctness, and behind them remained the wall
of shadow. The evening meal was ended. The negroes
had curled themselves up to sleep, and the rest of the
hunters settling themselves down to the easiest positions
they could invent, drew forth their pipes, the universal
solace to the wanderer. The dogs still mumbled their
bones, around the fire, with an occasional wrangle over .
some breach of canine etiquette, and the two ponies
appeared once in a while, when the flame blazed brightly,
munching the wild grass that grew around.

It was the hour for meditation, and my mind, blandly
composed by the fatigues of the day, the glowing light,
and the voluptuous climate, wandered back through
misty years. I saw the blue crisp waves of distant lakes,
and my hand held the tiller, and dear old faces looked
up at me from the thwarts of a swiftly sailing boat. My
cheek felt the free wind, my eyes filled with moisture, I
heard voices that " murmured proud pleasure soft and
low," and then I heard " zee-zee-zee-zip !" Ah, misery I
what a mosquito ! And there is another — has been sit-
ting on my cheek for ten minutes, and I didn't see it<-

30 WILD 8POET8 IN THE SOUTH.

And now that I am listening I hear them on every side
zee-zee-zeeing all around me, and every moment taking
a nip. Oh, I see how it is ! I forgot to light my pipe.
There are Poke and Mike in undisturbed dreams of
tobacco and glory, smiling faintly at my convulsive slaps.
Now my pipe is lighted — no more nips, blessed pipe.
Why are mosquitoes created ; and what do they feed on
when they can't get blood ? Please answer me an oft-
repeated thought, sage frequenters in Southern swamps.

" Charlie, do you know what an alligator is ?" drawled
out the Doctor, after he saw me fairly roused to the com-
fort of the pipe.

" No, do you ?" I replied.

" Not precisely, but I came very near knowing to-day.
I was stooping to gather a strange flower on the bank of
the river, when the earth caved in with me, and let me
down with a fearful thump upon an old alligator that was
sunning himself beneath. He gave a snort, and plunged
into the river, and if he was half as frightened as I, he
will never come ashore again."

*' Pooh, man ! why didn't you take him by the legs
and lay him over on his back ?"

"Oh, I hadn't the time ; he wouldn't wait."

" Doctor Poke was up the bank before the alligator
could see him," said Mike, in a low quizzical voice.

" Oh Poke ! for shame, to decline a fair fight!" said I.

"Who wants to fight with such a huge dragon?
Not you, I warrant !"

" Whar your pup alligators ?" said Mike to the Doctor.

THE CAMP FERE. 3l

"Bless me, I forgot them!" exclaimed the Doctor,
diving his hands up to his elbows in his capacious poc-
kets ; out came bits of thread, seeds of plants, little tin
boxes, claws of birds, and finally two or three young
alligators, about the size and shape of small daggers.
They were of a mottled chocolate and yellow color, and
feeling the genial effect of the fire, commenced scram-
bling around like tortoises. The Doctor, with a hand on
each knee, regarded them with unfeigned delight, and
Mike, between his puffs of tobacco, looked on the scene
with a quirk in his cheek.

" Mammalia, oviparous, amphibious," enunciated the
Doctor.

Just then one of the little animals inserted his nose
under Caesar's neck, as he lay snoring by the fire, and
commenced wriggling himself into the woolly retreat.

" Bress de Lord !" shouted Ctesar, springing to his
feet ; " what am dat yer pizen little varmint — what fur
you cum here, hey ?"

Seeing our laughter, he shook himself, and going to
the other side of the fire, rolled up again like a ball, pull-
ing his blanket over his head, and went to sleep as
soundly as before.

" Charlie, do you see that alligator's tail ?" said the
Doctor, as he pointed with the mouth-piece of his pipe at
the caudal extremity of one of the little brutes, as it lay
on the warm sand. I admitted that I did, first because
it was true, and next because I saw the Doctor was in
a humor to talk, and I did not want to contradict him.

32 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

" Now tell me why it is that this animal should have
such a big tail, for so small a body, when any one knows
he can't wag it with any pleasure ?"

"Couldn't say, Poke."

" Can't you imagine, then ?"

" Ornament," I blandly suggested.

" Ornament, indeed ! Now, I have been studying
these mammalia to-day. Mike and I went down Black
Bayou after bear tracks, and I saw he was going further
than I fancied, so I sat down to watch the alligators
lying on the opposite bank. I then noticed that an alli-
gator, when he came to the bank and heard the others
grunting in the reeds, climbed up as far as he could go
with his short legs, and then bending his tail under him,
against the beach, by that means, with a single jerk,
threw himself up on the bank. Now, therefore, as these
animals live chiefly on streams with low perpendicular
banks, as they, by this example, do mount the bank with
the assistance of their tail, and as nothing was made for
naught, ergo, their tails were made to climb banks
with."

" As these animals frequently scratch themselves with
their hind feet, and as nothing was made for naught,
ergo, their hind feet were made to scratch themselves
with."

" That is sheer malevolence," retorted Poke. " You
try to take away my cane and don't offer another."

" I did. I consider the tail an ornament, of as much
use as the tail of a mouse or a turkey gobbler."

THE CAMP FIKE. 33

" And why should so cruel a monster, hidden in these
solitudes, have his person decorated ?"

" And why should the flowers bloom in the ever-
glades with the same glory of odor and color as they do
in the Tuileries ?"

" There you go again. You are never kept down to
the practical bearings of nature."

" I warrant you that these negro boys would coincide
with me, and give the true reason. Caesar ! Caesar ! you
sleepy-head. Explain to us the use of the alligator's
tail." '

" Wha's dat, maussa ?"

" "What does the alligator do with his tail ?"

" Suck urn in de winter."

" You fool — you know better than that."

" Dat so fur true, maussa. Maussa Poke, nebber see
little alligator in de egg, just gwine to hatch, hey ? Den
he see little alligator wid his tail in his mouf, and when
he cum out de egg den he take him tail out of him mouf
and eat hop-toads, and debil-bugs, and sich like, till win-
ter cum on, and den he curl up in de mud and suck tail
agin till hot time cum agin."

" Oh, Doctor, there you have it, an explanation by a
child of nature. I hope you are content."

" Caesar, you're a fool !" said the Doctor sententiously.

" Caesar ain't fool nudder," interposed Scipio, raising
his curly head from behind his comrade. " Ef he don't
pickle young alligators, he sees 'em and knows suthin or
nudder."

2* •

34 WILD 8POET8 IN THE SOUTH.

This retort was hailed with a volley of applause, and
even Mike smiled at the Doctor's discomfiture.

Scip, evidently elated with his success, continued : " I
knows alligator from time I picaninny. I knows alliga-
tor tail's good to eat. Course he sucks 'em. Alligator's
science varmint, and when he roars in de springtime
he knows what he roarin' bout ; ain't no fool, nud-
der, and makes speech wiser'n the judge in 'lection
times."

" What does he say, Scip ?"

" Maussa ask ole Aunty Foko what he say. She's got
witch roots, and she knows how to talk alligator. She
stay out all night in Oke'fnokee swamp, alligator neber
so much as looks to her. She tell me what alligator say
to his picaninnies."

" Don't, maussa, ketch me tellin' bout alligator and
them little alligators layin' there wid ears wide open.
'Morrow mornin they'll be in the ribber, and ole alliga-
tors know all bout me."

" Well we will stop that, by carrying them away."
So the little eavesdroppers were taken by the tails and
dropped into the nearest watercourse, and the super-
stitious negro looked all about him with suspicious
glance, rolled over to a more comfortable attitude, and
commenced his story :

" You see Aunty Foko 's Guinea nigger, cum ober
from Cuba, but after her boy he gin out, she don't work
any more, and tuck to de swamp. She be older'n Csesar
an me, boff togedder, and her hair a'mos' white. She

THE CAMP FIEE. 35

know de pizens, and she know all de woods, an' day an'
night is all de same to her ; an' she knows niedicine to
throw huiitin' dogs off her track, an' nobody kin ketch
her. An' she tell dis child all what alligator say, an' so
I knows. Alligator lay he eggs in de sand, and den
when dey hatch out on some blazin' hot day little alliga-
tors cut streeks fur de water right off; dat's all seen of
em till night. Night cum, an' ole alligator dat keep
watch cum up on de sand-bank, an' he find de little alli-
gators all hatch out. Den he turn round and commence
to croak little : nuffin come ; he croak little louder, nuffin
come ; den he stand up on he toes and he roar like all
natur. It makes" de water shake ; den young alligators
cum, an' ole marm alligator cum, an' dey all stand dere
togedder, an' ef de moon is shinen it's real savage fur to
see 'em. An' de ole alligator he takes de chair, an' he
tells em, and dis is jes what he tells em, I knows it's so,
and so does Aunty Foko :

" ' You young alligators, you great fools ! you tiiik
you sumthin an' you aint nuttin. You live half de time
on land, t'other half de time in bayou, an' so you ben't
smart in nudder. You be so loggish-like in de water
you can't ketch fishes, and you got such little legs on
land you can't come up to nuttin. Now you must lam,
and when you've lamt then you'll know suthin. And I'll
give you a teacher and he's de possum.'

" When de ole alligator says dis all de young ones
larf, for dey knows what a possum is, for dey seed em a
pokin' long the b'yous and dey's clined to de pinion dat

36 WILD BPOKT8 IN THE SOUTH.

possum's a fool. But de ole alligator growls cin down
an' den he say :

" ' Possum, he great animal ; not kase he fast, for he
bery slow ; not kase he strong and kin fight, for he bery
weak ; but kase he's sly. When he sees anythin' cumin
he make b'lieve sleep an' ketch em. When he get
ketched heself he make b'lieve dead, an' dey let him go.
Now you all play possum.'

" Den ole alligator send all de picaninnies back in de
water an' dey grow bery smart. An' dey learn to lay in
de grass for sumthin to cum long nice, an' den gobble em
up. An' dey roll in de mud till gets all covered, an' den
cum up in de sun to get dry, an' nobody take him for
alligator, an' would cum an' sit right down on em, an'
den he grab em. An' after a while he gets so he lays
side to de water, little piece back, an' when anyting
cums along de bank, he hit him a slap wid his tail an'
knock em in de water, and den he slide in after an' eat
em up, an' de only ting he won't hurt 'tall is de possum.
Possum nebber gits ketched 'tall, an' dat am a fac."

Before the negro's fable had ended, one by one his
auditors' pipes had gone out. The fire had burned low,
and shadows, not parlor shadows, but huge ghostly shad-
ows, went and came among the forest aisles as the fire
flickered high and low. In Scipio's legend I remembered
my first experience with alligators, and as it is of a kin
with the legend, and as Scip, immediately after his recital
travelled away to the land of dreams, I will describe it :

I was visiting a friend some years ago who lived on

THE CAMP FERE. 37

one of the many banks of Alabama on the Gulf coast, and
whose plantation was intersected by several little creeks.
One of these inlets was quite near the house, and the
morning after my arrival, while dressing at my window,
I saw a large alligator crawl out of the water and settle
himself down on the grassy bank on the other side of this
creek. Between the house and the creek was a rice
field, and the rice bank built along this inlet intercepted
all view except from the upper part of the house, so I
would have an easy approach.

Immediately I seized my double-barrel shot gun, and
loaded it with the heaviest size shot I could find in my
room, descended the stairs, and made my way across the
rice-field to the rice bank, and there lay my prize on the
other side of the creek, wholly unconscious of his fate.
He was a huge beast, with scales glistening in the rising
sun, and his big yellow eye shining like a golden pippin.
After a moment's survey and a mental congratulation
that there was a creek separating me from the monster,
I took aim at the largest part of his body and fired. I
heard a splash in the wrater, and when the smoke cleared
away the waves showed me the spot where my friend had
disappeared, and after waiting some time to see if he
would float ashore dead, I gave it up and went back
discomfited. As I entered the house I saw a dozen
grinning rows of teeth at the kitchen window, and was
thus made aware that the negroes were enjoying the
spectacle of my skill in hunting.

At breakfast my friends questioned me about my shot,

^86753

38 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH

which they had evidently heard of from the servants, and
I learned, for the first time, that I could only kill the
alligator with a ball, and even with that it was no certain
matter. I also was informed that this particular alligator
had frequented that spot for several years, and was well
known on the plantation by the name of John Bull.

The next morning as I rose I incontinently cast my
eye over to the bayou, and there, in the full enjoyment
of the glories of the sunrise, lay my yesterday's acquain-
tance. It did not take me three minutes to get into my
clothes and down to the rice bank. I saw the grinning
waiters at the door, but I did not care, for I was armed
with a rifle and sure of my game. I took a rest on the
high bank, and sighting for a big chocolate spot on his
side, I fired away. A wheeze, like a plethoric alderman,
came from across the creek, and with a mighty splash
the animal slid into the river, and the dark waters closed
over him. I knew I had not missed him, but, as he did
not rise, I supposed him dead at the bottom.

" Well, Charlie, my boy, how's the shooting to-day ?"
was the hearty salutation of my host as I took my seat at
breakfast. A suppressed giggle, behind me, informed
me that the negroes were enjoying the joke, and I had
to explain it as best I could, which I did, by assuring my
friend that the alligator was dead at the bottom of the
river.

" How's that, Johnson ? Do you think you can find
his body ?" said my friend to his huntsman, as he came
in to get his orders for the day.

THE CAMP FIRE. 39

" Find his body, sah ? Yes, sah, easy miff find his
body, sah ; de body crawled up on de bank before de
genleman got quite in the house, sah."

Every one laughed at me, and I did not forget the
mishap until I became engaged in shooting, in which we
spent all the day. The next day was a repetition of pre-
cisely the same farce, except that the conduct of the ser-
vants became quite extraordinary, laughing outright, as I
went across the rice-field, and the little nigs came out
of the cabins in crowds, and crowed with delight.

" Well, Charlie, my boy, how's the shooting to-day ?"
became a stereotype question at the table, and " tough
as an alligator, hey?" one of the commonest com-
parisons.

At last my patience and my visit were finished
together, and as I was being pulled out to meet the
Mobile steamer in my friend's canoe, manned by eight
as good oarsmen as ever pulled a blade, in passing by
the head of the creek a heavy splash was heard in the
water, and my friend whispered to me, loud enough to
create a chuckle among the boatmen, "There's your
target, you have left behind."

40 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

CHAPTER in.

A BEAR IN THE CAMP.

I'll pitch my tent on dis camp ground

A few days, and a few days,
Till I give old Cuff annudder round,
A few days, and a few days.

Wake, snakes, day's a breaking.

NEGRO BALLADS.

AFTER one or two days of quiet southward travel, some-
times verging toward the seaside, sometimes turning into
the back country, we came one day on the banks of the
"SVakassare River, a deep, black stream that empties into
the Gulf. No fording place being discovered, we halted
preparatory to crossing the river. As this is an every-
day exploit in travelling a new country, as much tra-
versed by sluggish streams as the Florida peninsula, a
description will not be unimportant.

Picture to the eye of fancy a camp, with all its acces-
sories of rustic comfort, its bright fire, its feeding ponies,
dogs, and hunters under the pine woods. Before it
a close hummock of tangled vines, and tall trees border-
ing the bank of the river, and the long vines pendent
from the branches. Beyond this leafy barrier, turbid
with the gleanings of swamps, with whirl and glassy

A BEAE IN THE CAMP. 41

eddy, the dark tide of the river moves onward to
the sea, trailing with it the floating skirts of moss
that still cling to the trees. On the far side a dense
canebrake arises from the low bank, from whose fast-
nesses, as the shadows settled on the view, came forth
the quacking of ducks and the booming of bittern.

On such a scene we looked one afternoon, and forth-
with began our preparations for crossing. Selecting from
the fallen pine trees one or two logs of medium size, we
cut them in uniform lengths, and dragged them to the
water's edge, where they were bound in couples with
grape-vine wythes. After having having made several
couples, they were gently launched over the drifting
wood and tangled roots that cluttered up the side of the
river, and were all connected together with a rope, and
then tied to a tree. This was our ark, and on it were
placed, first of all, the powder and other ammunition, and
Mike, as captain, and the two negroes as crew, each
armed with a long pole and a rude paddle, began the first
trip. First fastening the end of a long rope to a tree on
the shore from whence they started, they poled out until
the depth of the water prevented them from touching
bottom, and then with the paddle slowly worked their
way to the opposite bank. Then commenced the diffi-
culty. The tall canes grew down into the water, and
presented a barrier to the entrance of so obtuse a vehi-
cle as a raft ; and though they might be pushed aside
sufficiently to effect an entrance, they would spring up
on every side, and hedge the pioneers in an inclosure as

4:2 WILD SPOET3 IS THE SOUTH.

tight as a bird-cage. To meet this difficulty, Mike sat
down on the bow of the raft, and with a hatchet cut away
the reeds, as the negroes poled the raft, until a narrow
lane was cut through to terra firma, and the men landed
with the munitions. Here selecting a sturdy cabbage pal-
metto, they fastened the other end of the rope securely,
thus making a taut line entirely across the river, and
throwing away both poles and paddle, by means of
the rope pulled back to the shore from which they
started.

Next came the ponies' turn, and with much coaxing,
and some pushing and pulling, one of their equine high-
nesses was brought on board the raft and pulled to the
other shore, where, when he was loosened, he quickly
disappeared in the reeds. Sometimes we made him swim
by the side of the raft, but it was a dangerous attempt in
large rivers on account of the alligators that were tempted
to nibble at the legs so invitingly paddling above them.

The third trip brought the other pony, who, by his
obstinacy, came near breaking up the raft ; and, finally,
I rode over with the balance of the camp equipage and
the dogs, that had to be tied up at the beginning of the
operations to prevent them swimming, which, had they
attempted, they would certainly have been lost by the
rapaciousness of the alligators, that even in the early fall
were still very active in all the rivers.

Lastly the raft was sent back empty, with Scipio to
unfasten the end of the rope. He, after casting off the
rope, pulled himself leisurely ashore with the slack line,

A BEAR IN THE CAMP. 43

and taking off the rope that had been used in the con-
struction of the raft, he followed us back from the river
to where we had pitched our camp for the night.

While coming through the canebrake, Mike, with an
indication of his finger, and a quiet smile, pointed out the
track of a bear impressed in the soft mud ; his huge paw
and leg left a print as though a man had walked by
on his knees. The Doctor stepped around his mark
rather suspiciously, and, I noticed, looked back at it as
though suspecting his bearship might retrace his steps.
The dogs were still tied, and they threw up their noses
and whined piteously, but it was too near night, and we
would not let them loose. The marsh was alive with
ducks, and the grey egret, with his long crest, would
constantly rise around us with a whoop of surprise.
Indeed, the whole bottom was trodden up with the tracks
of deer, turkey, and the smaller game that find refuge in
these close coverts.

After making our camp, and as the darkness drew its
curtains around us, shutting in the bright firelight, and
shutting out the void of darkness beyond, all the natives
of the forest and river lifted up their voices in concert.
Each bird or beast that dwelt in these heavy brakes
uttered his individual note, and while smoking one's
pipe, lying by the fire, the mind amused itself lis-
tening to the confused cries and distinguishing them one
from the other. The ducks quacked and fluttered in the
marsh, the raccoon's plaintive call sounded its decrescendo
from the wood, the honk of the heron, the shrill clatter

44 WILD SPOUTS IN THE SOUTH.

of the rail, the mournful howl of the wolf, ascended in
turn, or in a confused medley, now low, now high, as the
wind rose or fell, and all up and down the river the bel-
lowing of the alligator domineered over every other
gound, with its huge volume of noise. Then there were
other sounds that played low accompaniments to the bass
of the river. The occasional twitter of a bird, the drops
of the chinquapen nut, the patter of the dew falling from
the trees, and the rustle of the leaves, all joined in that
nocturnal anthem that was swelling from every rood of
ground on the great Peninsula, and entered into our
souls by the Wakassare with the mysterious lulling
influence with which nature's chorus affects the human
mind, where it is left open to the whisperings of the wild
creations of God.

The day dawned reluctantly, the morning after our
crossing, and so slowly the light broke through the mist
that environed the camp, that it was more like moonshine
than daylight. Drip, drip, drip, pattered the gathering
moisture from the cypress trees into the pools beneath.
The osier-grass bent down, heavy with the dew, the ferns
were matted to the earth, and the glassy leaves of the
magnolia glinted with a double lustre of sheen and water.
" Like a sea fog landward bound," the warm fog shut us
in, as did a few hours before, the darkness. The voices
of the night were hushed with the dawning, and all ani-
mal life was motionless, save where, now and then, from
the invisible heights of the tree-tops, some moving ani-
mal would shake down showers of drops.

A. BEAK IN THE CAMP. 45

One by one the negroes came to life, and yawning and
muttering gathered together the remains of the fire.
The Doctor raised himself on his elbow, and benignantly
surveyed the dull circuit of a dozen yards that the mist
left open to his vision. The dogs snuffed the air wist-
fully, looked into the trees, and sauntered out into the
mist, looming as large as the ponies as soon as they
gained a little distance. In a moment a sharp yelp was
heard from one of the smaller dogs. Again, after a
pause, another, then a prolonged " yeough " from an old
hound.

" Whas dat are !" said Scipio, raising his curly pate
from the coals that he was vigorously trying to blow into
a blaze.

" Nebber you attendsiate to the dogs, you lazy nigger ;
you cook," retorted his comrade, and Scipio renewed his
puffing.

" Geow-ou-ou-ou !" roared out all the dogs in chorus,
with a burst of clamor that awakened the sleepers, and
before any one could get to his feet a huge black bear,
that appeared as big as a bull, dashed out of the fog,
followed by all the dogs in full cry, right through the
camp, scattering the fire, overthrowing Scipio in the
ashes, scaring the ponies from their tethers, and leaving
the Doctor sprawling on his back.

" Bress de Lord !" shouted the negro, scrambling out
of the coals ; " did de Lord ebber see like o' dat ?"

" Tally-ho !" echoed the Doctor, hurriedly snatching
an axe.

46 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

" After him 1" shouted Mike , and with cheer and cry
every soul dashed out in pursuit, and the camp that stood
so picturesquely still in its first awakening, after the one
rude rush of the chase was left deserted, while we fol-
lowed the wide trail and frantic cry of the hounds.

The game, immediately after crossing the camp,
turned toward the river, and entered the dense canebrake
that fringed the shore for some miles. The hounds bayed
and yelled with excitement, and hunters and negroes fol-
lowed helter-skelter, now over grassy holes, starting the
duck from her covert, now over slippery trunks of fallen
trees that had been floated by the water, and left to
molder green in the damp. One moment held back by
a vine, at another so crowded by the reeds as to be
obliged to lean down and run like a rail. One moment
the crashing of reeds and baying of the hounds were
close to us ; then again they would gain on us ; but far or
near, we went plunging and rushing forward with a sense
of intentness that gave no thought to anything but the
chase. Soon we became separated ; one man, plunged
into a slough to his waist, was left to extricate himself;
another was turned here, another there, by intervening
obstacles, and presently I was left alone, following
always the fierce rush before me, that wound hither and
thither among the reeds, now pausing as if at bay, and
then rushing on to the right or the left, as the hunted
animal was assailed by the dogs coming up from either
side.

Shortly there was a pause, and the prolonged

A BEAR IN THE CAMP. 4:7

" Oo-oo-o !" of the hounds proclaimed the bear was at
bay, and hastening in the direction, I came into a close
thicket of canes that had sprung up as thick as wheat
from the rich bottom land.

I could hear the bear, before I came to him, snorting
and grumbling with rage, and as I entered his covert,
I saw him on his haunches, with his back against a
bank, his eyes red, his mouth open, shedding foam in
huge drops on the ground, and surveying the dogs that
were ranged in a semicircle around him, panting with
rage, and bearing marks of Bruin's claws that had evi-
dently taught them discretion.

But the greatest mark of respect to the grim wood-
king was presented in the person of the Doctor. He sat
directly in front of the bear, and scarcely six steps off;
his feet were half buried in the mud, and he was seated
on the same easy cushion. His coat and vest were wide
open, his hat was gone, his curly flaxen hair hung matted
with sweat and dew, and his axe, that great weapon of
offence and defence to the forest knight, was held in both
hands directly in front of him, the handle sticking in the
ground, and the blade pointing directly to the bear. If
the bear's tongue was lolling, so was the Doctor's ; if the
bear seemed out of breath with his chase, the Doctor was
doubly so with his ; if Bruin disliked his position, the
Doctor appeared more than uncomfortable in his. In his
hurry he had tumbled down over the bank directly in
front of the quarry, and what with the chase, and what
with the fright of this fearful juxtaposition, the bear was

48 WILD SPORTS m THE SOUTH.

in the better position of the two. The Doctor with his axe
presented, and the bear rampant, with his fore paws just
touching the toes of his hind ones as they projected up in
front of him, resembled much some old coat of arms I
had seen, only the Doctor's position was somewhat new
in heraldry.

" Hurrah !» I yelled ; " have at him!"

" Eh — eh," said the Doctor, all out of breath, " shoot
him — eh — eh — quick — eh !"

I levelled my gun, and the bear's quick eye glanced
at me fiercely over the barrel. I pulled the trigger, and
a dull snap followed ; the bear shook his head. Another
snap, and another — my gun was wet with the dew.

The bear thus insulted gave a low growl, and a quick
toss to his sharp nose. The dogs, construing this a chal-
lenge, and emboldened by our presence, rushed forward,
and the huge brute, with a skill that was incomprehen-
sible, would box them oif with his fore-paws. One would
be sent with a slap a dozen paces in the air ; another would
get a long cut from the bear's sharp claws, as he sat up
like a boxer knocking over children with a mischievous
playfulness that seemed more like fun than malice. "Wag
was there, as pert as the best hound in the brake, yelp-
ing, running, biting, and making much noise, and yet
keeping out of danger. At length his turn came ; a
well-directed blow of that big black paw sent him curled
up like a kitten, and as senseless as a rag, into his mas-
ter's arms.

Poor Doctor ! this seemed to awaken him, and spring-

A BEAK IN THE CAMP. 49

ing to liis feet he aimed a blow at the bear's head, that,
had it taken effect, would have cloven him hi two, but a
scarcely perceptible motion of the same black paw sent
the axe flying away among the canes, while the Doctor,
from the parrying of the blow, came over on his face,
and the bear, with a growl and crash, rushed off again
into the canes, followed by the whole yelling pack.

The Doctor, gathering himself together, picked up his
axe, and listened with me to the lessening crash of the
chase as it turned down the river, cry of dog, and crackle
of brush, and now and then the whoop of the negroes,
who had apparently come up with the chase. At length
another pause, and then the peculiar notes of the hounds,
and the calls of the negroes, told us the bear was again
at bay, and, having recovered our breath, we started to
overtake it.

As we came in view of the spot selected by Bruin for
his fight, we saw all the dogs gathered about the base
of a tree, the elder ones squatted on their haunches, and
the younger ones jumping up and snapping their teeth
at the bear, who was comfortably seated on a huge limb,
balancing himself with the skill of a dancer and the bur-
lesque gravity of a comedian. The most urbane simpli-
city marked his countenance ; he seemed of a character
that would not have harmed a child, and if I had not seen
him a few minutes before boxing the dogs with such vin-
dictive vigor, I would have been willing to have climbed
the tree, and put my arms around his neck. He looked
down at us condescendingly, now and then winking his

0

50 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

eye blandly, and then with a dexterous use of his paw,
he scratched his side, or rubbed his nose, when the flies
tickled him.

Presently Mike came up, with his rifle on his arm. A
glance up in the tree, and he quietly took his seat on a
log, remarking, as he did so, " He bear."

" Oh ! what a murderous animal !" said the Doctor.
"Look at my dog there ; how he has treated him."

Sure enough, the dog was a living witness to bad
treatment. He could just move, and when he lay down
he gave one or two short yelps of'mingled pain and spite.
Never was a dog more miserably punished ; had he been
heavier he would have been killed, but as it was, he was
only bruised, and woefully frightened.

The Doctor looked grimly at the bear. " Shoot him,
why don't you?" he continued to Mike; "just see him
making fun of us all!"

Mike wiped his rifle with his coat sleeve and raised it
to his shoulder. A pause, and the clear ring of the shot
was followed by a convulsive leap of the hunted animal,
and a short, fierce cry, and crashing through the inter-
vening limbs he came with a heavy, dull sound to the
ground. We ran up to him; he did not move. The
ball had entered his eye, and the bear was dead.

I looked at Mike. With his still smile on his wrinkled
face, he was carefully fitting a ball to his rifle. He didn't
oven glance at his prize.

THE DANGERS OF FIRE HUNTING. 51

CHAPTER IV.

THE DANGERS OF FIKE-HUNTING.

" The pass was steep and rugged,
The wolves they howled and whined ;
But he ran like a whirlwind up the pass

And left the wolves behind."

MACAULAY.

" MIKE, what kind of night would this be for fire-
shooting ?" said the Doctor to that meditative Nimrod,
who was busy sewing up a moccasin by the light of the
camp-fire, after a week of travel.

" So, so," replied Mike, without looking up.

" I am going, I think."

No answer. Mike put on the mended moccasin, and
drew off the other.

" Do you think we can kill anything ?"

" S'pose," replied Mike.

" Come Charlie, let us try it for a little while."

This was all a ruse on the part of Poke, in order to
make Mike think our great hunt was an unpremeditated
affair, and thereby increase the glory of killing so much
game. It had been arranged between us during the
day, that we would try fire-hunting that night. It
promised to be a cloudy night, which was of great

52 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

advantage, as it prevented the game from seeing any-
thing of the hunters, and at the same time rendered
their eyes more reflective when exposed to the torch-
light. We had even gone so far as to make our pitch-
pine torches, and the whole preparation was complete.
It was a party of two — the Doctor and myself. There
would be rather more interest in getting the game
alone ; and beside that, Mike's opinion on fire-shooting
was well-known, and we knew he would not go with us
— so constant a hunter scorned so primitive a snare as
the one we proposed. The negroes we did not want,
for the fewer in a party the better. So, one of us taking
a gun, and the other carrying a torch, we left the camp.

The boys were chuckling together as they watched us
go, the dogs howled because they could not go with us,
and Mike gave one of his expressive coughs, that said as
plainly as words, " Now for it."

We were soon outside of the glare of the camp-fire,
the little creek was crossed, and our torch flashed
brightly on the taper trunks of the pine trees, the climb-
ing-vines, and the broad-leafed plants that grew by the
pools of water. There was no wind, and, walking in the
pine woods, there was no sound. Once in a long while,
a sand-hill crane, disturbed in his wanderings, would be
seen stalking away, with his red head high in air, like a
sentry on duty ; or the sudden motion of the under-
brush would tell us that some one of the many little
harlequins of the wood, that gambol most when men do
aleep, had fled from this unusual spectacle of a moving

THE DANGEES OF FIBE HUNTING. 53

light. But no deer rewarded our search,; no bear
showed us his heavy coat.

" Faith," said the Doctor, " this romantic promenade
is getting somewhat long."

" Think of the deer, one buck will well pay us."

" Fudge ! if there was no one to laugh at us, I would
have turned back long ago. Give me the gun, and you
take the light."

Accordingly we changed positions — I going ahead,
carrying the torch before me, in such a manner that it
would throw the light ahead as much as possible, and
none on our persons, and the Doctor received the gun.
and took my place directly behind and shaded by my
person. The night had become still darker, and a misty
rain commenced falling. We had left the pine woods,
after walking a couple of 'miles, and had come into a grove
of lower timber. The long moss drooped in curtains, the
odor of magnolias burdened the air, and every minute a
denser copse would force us to turn aside from our route.

" Hush !" whispered the Doctor, suddenly, with a
spasmodic pull at my coat tail, " there's a deer."

I was just wondering at this absence of deer, and
could not account for it, as it was a rare thing to go a
mile in Florida without seeing one.

" "Where ?" I whispered ; " I don't see it."

" Hush ! it has gone now ; but we will see it in a
moment again."

We advanced on tiptoe, both in body and expectation.

" There ! there !" said the Doctor, pointing with his

54 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

finger a little distance to the left ; but the lunynous spot
was gone before I hardly got my eye on it.

We were in the very place for deer. A heavy wind-
fall lay ahead of us, and the mingled trunks and twisted
branches looked like the chevaux defrise to some great
encampment. The flickering light made the shadows
move back and forth with a spectral effect, as though
dancing, and the hush of the forest was unbroken by any
sound. Every moment, I expected to see again the two
phosphorescent stars that indicate the deer's eyes, and
then the true shot would bring us the prize for our
labor. It seemed a long time in coming again.

" That deer must be very shy," whispered the Doctor,
just above his breath.

The next time, I saw it first. It was some distance
ahead, and there were two ; but before I could point
them out to my comrade, they had disappeared. Pres-
ently, we saw it on one side of us.

" Charlie, that's a will-o'-the-wisp," said Poke, in rather
a subdued tone, " or the devil ; who ever heard of a
deer going around so ?"

"He is examining you to see what manner of man you
are."

" Perchance it is some spirit of a departed buck, lead-
ing us a wild chase to destroy us."

" There it is, right behind me, as I live !" ejaculated
the Doctor, in evident trepidation.

Sure enough, as I turned my head, I saw the two blue
lights that indicate the reflecting4enses of the eye. The

THE DANGERS OF FIEE HUNTING. 55

Doctor was taking aim, but I noticed it was not very-
steady. He pulled the trigger — a dull snap announced
a miss-fire. He pulled the other trigger — it snapped in
the same way. The gun was wet with rain.

" Was anything ever so provoking !" said Poke, as the
eyes vanished in the darkness.

" If it is the devil, he will have you now."

" How can you talk so," said the Doctor, with a strong
accent on the " can."

" There is your deer, Poke, in the windfall," said I, as
I caught sight of the eyes moving rapidly along over the
mass of timber that lay heaped and knotted together.

" That's no deer," said Poke ; " no cloven-foot could
ever go over that windfall that way. I would rather see
the night huntsman of the Hartz Mountains than see
those eyes again." As he was speaking, I saw in the
inky darkness ahead of us, another pair of eyes, and two
or three pairs on the left. The truth flashed on me.
The scarcity of the deer, the proximity of the windfall,
the restlessness of those baleful eyes, all gave me the
clue — the wolves were around us.

A word to Poke, and the affair was explained, and we
stood still for consultation. We tried new caps on our
gun ; but it was of no use, the cones were saturated with
water. We turned toward the camp, but in our con-
fusion we forgot the direction. To heighten the misery
of the scene, our torch was almost burnt out — let that
die, and the rest could be easily divined.

We were standing, at the tune, under a grove of small

56 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

pecan trees, and at that instant a low snort was heard
from the shadow near us, like the cough of a dog.

Poke did not say a word ; but, dropping the gun, and
seizing a limb of one of the trees over his head, with an
agility for which I had never given him the least credit,
elevated himself to the crotch, about ten feet from the
ground.

I did not want to do anything of the kind, of course
not ; I would rather have placed my back against a tree,
and won a glorious death in battle against my numerous
foes ; but, alack ! for a bad example, I dropped the torch,
that broke in pieces in falling, and, clasping the nearest
tree, which happened to be a medium-sized gum-tree, soon
scrambled up to a place of safety. Lucky was it for me
that I had that torch in my hand, for when it fell, it lay
scattered around the base of the tree, still nickering and
flashing in the darkness, and the animals that had sur-
rounded us, as they saw their prey escaping, rushed for-
ward with an angry noise ; they saw the glowing embers,
and held back just long enough to permit my escape. As
I drew myself up on the first limb, a rush of gratitude
passed over my soul, and my feelings were as warm as a
child's. Nothing could be seen, for the sombre forest shut
out the little light there was in the atmosphere, but I
heard the pattering of feet beneath my fortress, like fall-
ing rain. Back and forward they came and went, and
snorting sounds and champing teeth made the black night
alive with imaginary shapes. I wondered how it fared
with the Doctor, yet dared not call, for the uncertainty

THE DANGERS OF FIEE HUNTING. 57

was less fearful than the reality might be. I pictured
him fallen, dragged back from his half-attained refuge,
and divided among the hungry pack ; and the very noises
below might be the mumbling of his bones,

" While their white tusks crunched o'er his whiter skull,
As it slipp'd through their jaws when their edge grew dull."

At length I summoned courage, and called "Poke!"

"Hulloa!" was the response — more grateful to my
ear than any sound in the world.

" How are you, my boy ?" I called again. *

" Safe, thank the Lord !"

" What a disgraceful situation to be in, and how are
we to get out of it ?"

" I will be grateful if I can only keep in it ; for this
tree is so small, that the wolves can almost reach me
when they jump ; and, as I climbed up, one caught my
coat-tail, and tore it entirely off."

" Climb up higher, then."

" I can't ; the tree is so small that, when I get any
higher, it bends over, and lets me down — oh dear !"

" Haven't you your pistol with you ? Try and shoot
one, and it may frighten them."

" Oh, dear, no ; there are hundreds of them. Just
look at them below !"

I looked down, and surely I could see a drove of them.
They were evidently the grey wolf, for, in spite of the
darkness, I could, once in a while, detect their motions
from their light coats.

3*

08 WILD SrOKTS IN THE SOUTH.

Poke suggested they were phantom wolves and
declared they were all white. *

All the fearful stories I had ever read, came coursing
through my brain. I saw snow-buried huts snuffed
out and ravished by these prowlers, and heard the shriek
of the child, thrown from the sleigh by its fear-mad-
dened mother, and many an old dream reshaped in my
mind the terrors of nights of fever. Were we to be
tired out by their devilish patience ? Was one gang to
relieve another, until we wearily fell into their hot tainted
jaws, th\»6 to be hurled into oblivion ?

I shouted in the hope that some one might hear me ;
but what good to shout in that midnight forest ? I heard
a voice — it was Poke saying his prayers. I listened
devoutly, but could offer none myself.

When he had finished, I called to him. He answered
faintly —

" What is it ? speak quickly ; I can't hold on much lon-
ger."

" Fire your pistol ; do try, it may bring some help,
even if it does not kill."

" I will try," answered Poke.

" There was a momentary pause, and then the sharp
crack of a pistol was folloAved by the singing of a bullet
close by my ear. By the flash, I saw Poke, hatless, and
almost coatless, hanging on to the topmost branch of a
young pecan, that bent with him like an orange-treo
under a heavy load of fruit. With the report of the
pistol, there was a scramble among the voracious crew at

THE DANGERS OF FIRE HUNTING. 59

our feet; but they did not go away permanently, and
were back in a moment.

" Fire the other barrel, dear Poke, but try and fire it
the other way — point it down."

Bang ! sounded the pistol, and I heard a thump on the
ground, as the poor fellow threw away the now useless
weapon.

" Hold on, Poke ; take heart, my dear boy."

" Oh, it is easy enough to say take heart, but when the
tree bends a little more than usual, I am within a foot of
these hell-hounds. Oh, dear !"

At this moment, I thought I saw a light flashing
through the foliage. A moment more, I was sure of it.

" Poke, Poke, they are coming — some one is coming."

" Where — where ! Oh, dear, I can't turn my head,
lest I slip off."

" There they come ; I see them — three torches, and
men and dogs."

" God bless them !" I heard Poke say, faintly.

I was afraid he was faulting. " Hold on, Poke," I said,
and screaming to the men, I called them to hurry. On
they came, at a run. I recognized them as they came up
with their torches flashing through the woods; they
were Jackson and his men. He had been in our camp
only the day previous, and told us he had a sheep farm
in this neighborhood. " Quick, this way," I shouted —
" the wolves ! the wolves !" He answered me. How
blessed a thing was the sound of a human voice in our
necessity. They came under the trees we were in.

60 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

" Hulloa there ! where are you ? where are the
wolves ?" he shouted in his stentorian tones.

" Dare's de sheep I'm bin huntin' all dis bressed night,"
exclaimed a negro who accompanied Jackson on his
search.

I looked around, and there was Jackson's big flock of
sheep, staring blandly at us up in the trees, and at their
master, by turn. It had been their eyes we had seen in
the darkness.

And there was Jackson see-sawing on a fallen tree —
hiccoughing, and laughing and crying by turns — and there
were the negroes, and they called in the sheep, " Ho !
ho ! ho ! Oh laws a maussy, did I ever — ho ! ho ! ho !
ho ! — wolves, oh laws a maussy !"

Poke slid down the tree he was in, picking up his coat-
tail, that had been torn off by a broken limb in his
hurried ascent, sighing :

" Oh ! that I had the wings of a dove."

THE PLANTATION HOUSE OF "FAR AWAY." Cl

CHAPTER V.

THE PLANTATION HOUSE OF " FAR AWAY."

"Ofttimes, in travelling through the west,
The stranger finds a Hoosher's nest.
In other words, a Buck-eye cabin
Just big enough to hold Queen Mab in."

JACKSON, the sheep-raiser, whose timely arrival had
driven away the phantom wolves, was a fair example of
many a planter. He was tall in figure, sauntering in
gait, wearing a black beard and moustache, and hair so
long as to be confined behind his ears. His hazel eyes
were large and expressive, flashing with excitement, or
quizzical with mirth, his face was sallow, his lips thin and
stained with tobacco, his dress loose, and extravagant
in color when he was where he could select it. His man-
ners were like his dress, and he seemed reckless of all
appearances as to what he said or did. He was wealthy,
after his kind ; that is to say, he had dogs and horses
without number, and "men-servants and maid-servants
were born in his house," and he owned, by inheritance,
acres of land enough to have made him a duke in Rhine-
lahd ; and yet for ready money he was poor as Peter the
Hermit. Debts he had many, but they did not depress

62 WILD 8POKTS IN THE SOUTH.

him ; friends by hundreds, who would every one of them
have gone his security for a million, yet could not have
loaned him a hundred dollars in a month. He lived in a
low, badly-built, wind-cracked, fenceless, vineless, paint-
less mansion in the Pine Lands, yet the proudest chief
of all the McGregors could not have equalled the cour-
teous pride of manner with which he welcomed the
stranger to his home, and made him his friend. No mat-
ter for the rickety table ; he scorned to mend it, and no
one saw its defects, it was so gracefully presided over.
He never alluded to the food he asked you to eat, and
you never saw it was only pork, sweet potatoes, and
corn bread. He was bountiful with the choicest wine,
lavish of command, and never by any possibility did any
labor that could be either deferred or avoided. Yet, for
all that, he was an ardent hunter. Strange to say, all
lazy people love to fish or hunt, and Macpherson Andrew
Jackson loved the latter. Nor bush, nor savannah, nor
river, nor heat, nor rain deterred him. He would ride
where mortal man could ride, just for the fun of the
hunt. So we camped by the side of his house, in com-
pliance with an invitation from the proprietor, to spend
a few days with him in pursuit of the chase.

Jackson's palace was of one story and two wings, and
the whole building was raised from the ground about
three feet by means of wooden posts, which left a pleasant
abiding-place beneath for whole broods of young negroes
that constantly lay in this novel kennel, looking out like
young puppies. The cyperus grass grew sparsely in the

THE PLANTATION HOUSE OF " FAE AWAY." 63

white, sandy soil around the house, and the few out-build-
ings that straggled hither and yon. Fences there were
none, but the overshadowing live oaks, with their trail-
ing moss, gave an air of grace to the establishment that
man never attempted to improve.

" Hulloa !" cheered the lord of the manor, as we drew
up to the house a few days after our misadventure with
the sheep; "glad to see you at Far Away. The
door is never shut, and the bottle never corked, and we
will make you at home for a year and a day. You Tom !
Cuff! You Cuff! Hannibal! here, run call the boys to
take the horses and tie up the hounds. Run, all of you !
Fine day, this, for hunting. Bring out some glasses,
Melissa ! Dogs can nose well to-day. Lively there !
Well, bring some tin cups, if there are no glasses, you
lazy huzzy I"

The negroes ran, our dogs howled acquaintance with
the dogs of the place, the little nigs looked on from every
out-of-the-way corner, and with shout, and laugh, and
much confusion, we soon had our tent pitched by the
spring, the ponies tethered, and everything well regu-
lated about us. Then came a good dinner, cooked hi one
of those little disconnected kitchens so favored by your
true darky cook, who, when not engaged in stirring the
pepper pot, or turning the corn-bread, stands in her red
bandana in the doorway with her arms akimbo, looming
as large as the wonderful fat woman in the Museum.
We brought game, and Jackson had cooks, and we all
dined well, and then a glass of good old wine, whose

64: WILD SPOETS IN THE SOUTH.

parent stock shaded the gravelly banks of the Garonne,
carried our minds to other lands, and sent our tongues
travelling all around the world for adventures.

It was dark as we finished the bottle, and Jackson un-
locked his closet for another. I believe that wine-closet
was the only thing that was locked on the whole place.
The negroes had crawled out of their curious retreats,
and were lying around in groups. The sheep-drivers had
come in from the folds, and the tinkling of tiny bells
announced that the sheep were penned for the night.
The camp-fire was lit, pipes were smoking, Jackson was
sitting against one of the pack-saddles, and his daughter
was reclining against his knees. His daughter was a
brunette girl of sixteen years of age, and her mother
was dead, it was said, many years ago.

" He was a gentleman," said Jackson, pursuing a des-
cription he had been giving of some one living on the
coast. "He never took an insult, and never gave one;
what more could be said of any man ?"

"And he gave dis child a dollar Christmas day —
course he's a gentleman," struck in Hoppin Lem, the
planter's favorite servant, who, squatted on his haunches
a few yards behind his master, drank in ah1 the conversa-
tion, and joined in the laugh, with the low " yah-e — ah-
ah-ee !" so peculiar to the negro.

" Hold your tongue, you black rascal!" said his master.

" Was it not he who shot young Travers in a duel at
the Mobile races ?" asked the Doctor.

" Of course it was, and did it as bravely as any man

THE PLANTATION HOUSE OF " FAE AWAY." 65

ever did. Yet that duel ruined him; he has been a
broken-down man ever since."

" How is that ?"

" Why you see they had a dispute about the winning
horse. He said that Centiped came in first, and Travers
replied that if had not staked so much money on Centiped
he would have seen straighter. This was a reflection on
his honor that no one was expected to stand. He chal-
lenged Travers, and Travers fell at the first fire. It
wouldn't have been so bad, but Travers' old mother got
wind of the duel from some of those Puritan meddlers,
and came riding down to the field with her grey hair all
streaming, and when she saw her son dead she cursed
him. I wasn't there, but those that were there said it
was a hard thing to see. He never got over it. It was
a windy afternoon, about sunset, when the duel occurred$
and to the present time, when there comes up a hard
wind about that time of day, the poor fellow rides off as
if the devil was after him, and will not speak to man or
beast."

" What a diseased mind a man must have to fight a
duel !" said the Doctor.

" How can he help it — is he going to have his honoi
impugned, his character insulted ? He would fall so low
that no one would speak to him."

" But he does not mend his character by killing a
friend, and haunting his conscience."

" That is an accident inseparable from society. There
are certain wrongs which the pistol alone will redress,

66 WILD SPOET8 IN THE SOUTH.

and the duel puts the feeble gentleman on an equality
with the greatest bully."

" No," said the Doctor, his impassible nature grad-
ually warming, "it lowers the gentleman to a bully.
If he gets shot, his honor dies with him ; if he kills, he
is a broken man — either way the wrong is doubled ; and
it is, after all, the bully that supports the institu-
tion."

" No, sir ; it is the gentleman that supports the sys-
tem, and is supported by it. What else gives the navy
and army its character, and holds it together — what pro-
tects the weak, and cowers the laboring poor whose
strength would make him over-reaching — what gives a
tone to the gallantry of the South but a power that pun-
ishes insult ?"

" And murders its own children !" added the Doctor.

'• Murder ! do you call it murder ? My own father
was shot in a duel, but he died like a man. Where's the
poltroon that don't resent an injury ? — as he lives, I'd
spit on him ; every woman would despise him. There is
not a girl in Florida that would dance with Alexander
Pell after he got slapped in the face without killing the
man that struck him. Is man a dog that he should
suffer this ?"

Jackson's manner was wild, and he gesticulated with
his long arms like a phantom. The Doctor's blue eye
was kindling in the fire-light. We looked for a war of
words that might even amount to a specimen of the bat-
tle they were discussing, when the Doctor, with one of

THE PLANTATION HOUSE OF "FAR AWAY." 67

his usual strong transitions, cut off the discussion with a
favorite couplet :

"A wink to a blind horse is as good as a nod ;
Your faithful servant, Ollapod."

Jackson turned his flashing eyes on the Doctor, his
lids slightly contracted like a man in doubt as to another's
meaning; it was evident he was reading the Doctor,
and the bland face turned toward him was like an open
page with blue marginal illumination.

" Where do you reside, Doctor Pollock ?" he asked,
after a moment's pause, and in the indifferent tone
assumed by the Doctor.

" I was born in Virginia, and inherited a plantation of
a hundred negroes," replied the Doctor, answering the
planter's thoughts, and not his question.

A long pause followed. We watched the light wood
crackle, and the big particles of fire climbing up into the
canopy of woods on the current of hot air, reflecting
brief circles of light on the foliage above, and then going
out in blackness. The Doctor resumed his pipe. Mike
pondered, cross-legged, puffing at his cigarettes, and the
boys talked among themselves in under tones.

" This won't do, gentlemen ! Mike, hand me that
bottle," called out Jackson, rousing himself. One drink
all around, and now for to-morrow's hunt. What shall
it be, deer or turkey ?"

"Or sheep?"

" That's a shame, Mike !" laughed Jackson.

68 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

" Don't let him quiz you that on mishap, gentlemen,
older hunters than you have fared as badly. Did you
ever hear of my blunder in fire hunting ?"

Of course we had not.

"Then I'U tell it to you."

JACKSON'S STOKY OF A FIRE HUNT.*

" It came about this way. I was up country looking
around for a good two-year-old to run ' at Charleston
races, when I met my old comrade, Stockton. We had
been chums together at Princeton, as thick as two cats
in a bag, sometimes studying, sometimes courting, and
then we were good friends. When we had nothing else to
do we quarrelled ; it is a sure sign of a good friend when
he loves you enough to quarrel with you. Strangers don't
care a picayune, and won't quarrel about you any way.
Stockton had settled down to a sober life, owned a pew
in the church, and as many little carroty-haired tokens
as you could stand up endwise in a ten acre lot. I was —
well about the same sort of fellow as when a boy, only
the devil had covered me up with his wicked ways.

" The first thing after seeing Stockton, that was pro-
posed, was a fire hunt, and a fire hunt it was. Dark
still night — you could hear a peeper squeak a mile off, and
run your nose against a cotton bale without seeing it.
* Just the night,' said Stockton ; ' Just the night,' says I.

* For this tale, I am indebted to the graceful pen of my friend,
Guillermo.

THE PLANTATION HOUSE OF " FAK AWAY." 69

' Come Jake,' says he to his son, a boy about sixteen, long
and lank like bis father, and always ready to. poke away
from home. Accordingly, all things ready, we trailed off
into the woods and took a course along the sea-side,
thinking to find more deer.

" I led the way with the frying pan on my shoulder,
keeping the -fire in it well up with pitch pine knots,
Stockton right behind with his rule, and Jake keeping
within sight in the rear. We had gone about a mile or
so and the pan began to grow heavy, when I suddenly
felt Stockton's hand on my shoulder, compelling me to
stop, and then the crack of his rifle from under my arm
told me that he had fired at a deer that I had not seen.
' That deer shone up bright any how,' he said, in a low
self-satisfied tone, as he proceeded to load his gun, ' only
to get blown out.'

" 4 Hadn't you better secure your game before load-
ing?'

" ' Ha ! ha !' said he, * that fellow will not leave there
until there is another set of legs under him. But come,
I'm ready.'

" So saying, we started in the direction of our prize ;
when to our no little joy and surprise, we beheld another
blue light apparently just beyond the spot where lay our
fallen deer. Stockton again fired, and out Avent the light.

" * I first shot the doe,' he remarked, while deliberately
loading his rifle, ' and the buck would not leave her.'

" Again we stalled, but had not taken a dozen steps,
when lo ! and behold, another eye appeared.

70 WILD SPOUTS IN THE SOUTH.

" ' It's deuced strange,' said Stockton, quickly, as he
raised his gun to his shoulder, ' that I have seen but one
eye each time.'

" ' Perhaps they have all accidentally been standing
sidewise to you,' I replied.

" ' Side or front,' he answered, * I'll black that fellow's
eye for him.' Crack went the rifle, and down went the
eye. "VVe had now arrived at the place where we
supposed the first deer to have fallen, and made search
for it, but nowhere was the game to be found.

" Turning from the place, imagine our surprise at again
beholding that single fiery ball glaring upon us with the
same identical motion of the others. Stockton mecha-
nically raised his rifle, but paused as he did so. As for
me, nothing prevented my throwing down the fire-pan
and giving ' leg bail ' but the disagreeable certainty of
not being able to retrace my steps. I ran back in
memory to childhood's hours, and recalled the old nur-
sery tales I had heard of bears, lions, and hobgoblins, until
I was satisfied beyond a doubt that Stockton had been
shooting at the devil ! I was, however, aroused from my
revery by his exclaiming, ' Ha ! I am a pretty fool.
Something is the matter with my rifle, and I've been
shooting all this time at the same deer ! Here, give me
yours.' I did so, but could not help thinking that the
deer was a greater fool by far if he had stood to so many
shots.

" The eye was now hid behind some bushes, but soon
appeared again, when Stockton, after a long and delibe-

THE PLANTATION HOUSE OF "FAR AWAY." 71

rate aim, discharged his piece. The eye immediately
disappeared, and he turned toward me, triumphantly
nodding his head and exclaiming :

" * He'll not show that infernal eye of his again, I guess,
for I put that ball square into it.'

" I made no reply, but the term ' infernal eye ' seemed
to me to be very appropriate indeed. I had now placed
the ' pan ' upon the ground, and was arranging the fire,
when Stockton uttered a suppressed exclamation of sur-
prise and disappointment, which caused me to look up.
Down went the fire, gun, and everything else ; my mouth
gradually opened until my dinner was perceptible, and I
felt satisfied, from the progress my hair was making, that
I should soon be relieved of my hat, for there was that
little ball of fire moving veiy slowly toward the ground,
with the same singular motions of the others.

" ' Stockton,' whispered I, as soon as my feelings would
permit me, ' we are a set of jackasses, for as certain as
fate, we have been chasing the devil to-night.'

" He turned toward me with a half comical, half inqui-
sitive look, and finally remarked :

" ' Well, hang me if you're not complimentary, very.
No, that is not the devil, but I am very well satisfied the
devil is in me. Here, take this rifle, and when he again
shows his eye do you let him have it. I'll hold the
light.'

" I could not refuse, and so I took the gun, and was
slowly and reluctantly raising it to my shoulder, when a
noise behind me attracted my attention, and looking

72 WILD SPOKTS IN THE SOUTg.

around, I perceived Jake conducting in a most discredit-
able manner, twisting and squirming and holding on to
his stomadh as if he had the colic, and all the while
making a noise like choking.

" I wish you would be kind enough to stop that infer-
nal clatter !" said Stockton sharply, and adding immedi-
ately, " There he is — no w give it to him — right in the
eye."

I was again raising the rifle to my shoulder, but was a
second time deterred from my purpose by a peal or yell
of laughter, from Jake, sufficient to have frightened
every deer withing ten miles of us. For Stockton and my-
self, however, there was no such thing as laugh, but, on
the contrary, we were both rather inclined to raise a row
than be laughed at, and Stockton, grasping his son by
the shoulder, in a passion exclaimed :

" What the devil is all this tomfoolery about ? Say ?
Tell me this instant, sir, or I'll ' boot ' you clear home."

" Ha ! ha ! Oh Lordy ! ha ! ha ! Amelia Lighthouse !
O, Lordy! Did I ever? Five miles — ough — ray poor
sides!"

My curiosity was now excited to the utmost, and I
turned to Stockton for an explanation. I shall not
attempt to describe the expression of his countenance.
Mirth and anger were never so well mingled before.

"Jackson," said he, finally, "we are a pair of jack-
asses, and have been shooting at the revolving light on
the Amelia Lighthouse, five miles off 7"

Then suddenly dropping the fire-pan, he ran to where

THE PLANTATION HOUSE OF "FAR AWAY." 73

his son was kicking and screaming about on the ground.
He picked him up by the coat collar, shaking him into
silence, and then said, " now look here, if you say one
word about this at home, as sure as I'm your father, you
shall never fire a gun as long as you live."

As the laughter and comments on Jackson's story
subsided, one of the negro boys said :

" Wish maussa hunt dat are varmint what's takin' off
de lambs so ; 'specs as him hab no lamb 'tall soon."

" Lost any to-day ?"

" 'Spec a los' two, and two afore yesterday, and gwine
to lose two to-night, kase all sheep come in airly, bein'
wild : sure sign dat."

* What is it, do you think ?»

" Painter, for true ! I'se seen his tracks !"

" Why don't you let your boys sleep by the sheep-
pen ?" I asked of Jackson.

" I am afraid I would have to *pen them in," he
replied ; " and then, if it was a panther, he might take
the negro, and he is worth more than the sheep."

" Then why don't you shoot the beast ?"

il I have hunted her till I am tired, and it only ends in
her killing my dogs, and keeping out of shot herself.
She will get tired here by and by, and then will go
further down the coast. She has raised a young one
here this season, for in the summer one of the boys,
while coming up the river in a canoe, saw her swimming
across with her kitten in her mouth. He could have

3

74 WILD SPOET8 IN THE SOUTH.

come up with her then, but she growled so fiercely that
he was afraid, and made a fool of himself."

" 'Specs anybody make a fool of hisself, when painter
want to climb in his boat !" replied a self-conscious voice
in the background.

" We had Mike here last year to hunt the same pan-
ther, I think, but I believe he got whipped ; at all events,
he went out one day, and didn't come back since."

" Mike smiled his peculiar smile, which meant, like the
German * Yah wohl,' anything according to the speaker's
intent, but said not a word.

" Tell us of that hunt, old father of Dinah," said the
Doctor.

"Where is my panther skin you promised?" said
Jackson.

"Painter is an oncommon onsartin varmint," was
Mike's musing rely, as he put his brawny arms around
his knees, and rocked himself backward and forward like
a China Mandarin.

" I should think that he was onkimin sartin, for he
comes here regularly once a year."

" Wall, you see, Colonel, this war the way I was done
for that tune, and when yer heern it, you'll say that it
was skeery, and no mistake."

" A story — a story !" exclaimed Miss Jackson. I leaned
forward to see the speaker, and he began his tale.

THE PANTHER'S CUB. 75

CHAPTER VI.
THE PANTHER'S CUB.

»

"He who fights and runs away
May live to fight another day."

" WELL, it was airly mornin' when I started out after
that air painter. Small sign I had to steer by, only the
hearin' tell that there was a painter 'bout. But it had
been showering o'ernight, and so trailin' was easy
enough, and yer could see every stalk of grass that had
been shook, let alone the tracks a varmint the size of a
painter would leave. I tuck down to Spring Creek, and
followed it e'enmost to the barrens that stretch toward
the salt water ; then I fetched a turn north, and struck
inter the big swamp that comes out of the Suwanee.
Here I saw an all-fired big bar's track, and slathers of
deer, and a show of gobblers, but no painter whatsum-
ever. Got a gobbler and tuck breakfast, and then kept
on. Struck the branches of the St. John that arternoon.
Good painter ground here, tearin' big swamp, and all-
fired high cottonwoods and sycamores. No signs, and
my dog was gin out, so we shantied under a grape-vine
waitin' for daylight. Heered a painter holler in the
night, but knowed it was a young one by the voice, and
it was off the wrong way. Mornin' come, and I got

76 WILD SPOET8 IN THE SOUTH.

around through little Ammaninac Swamp, and by night
time had come purty near whar I fust started from, hav-
ing made a purty tolerable circle, and nairy a painter.
Sez I, * Those cusses at the sheep-farm have been foolin'
me, and tuck wild-cat for painter.'

" So arter soundin' around to see where the buildin's
lay, and whar the sheep-pen was, Yowler and I lay down
together, and were doin' some tall sleepin', when I heerd
a soft kind o' crying down the woods. I knowed it in a
minnit ; it war the same painter — he hadn't been outside
of my circle at all, the dratted cuss! He had just been
a layin'-to for another haul on the sheep-pen, and so
I hadn't struck his trail. I kept quiet, thinkin' he
would come up toward the improvements, and I could
tickle him, but he reether seemed to move off. Arter a
while I heerd him purrin' like, and then I knew he had
something to eat — fawn, like 'nough, or some small ani-
mal. This guv me a mean opinion of this painter, for
your rael snortin' big fellars don't stoop to small fry, but
live on deer, sheep, hogs, or sich like. Wall, mornin'
come on, and when it bruck enough to see a meetin'-
house, I pushed on, but the painter had moved off. I
found a sheepskin all rolled up, and I knew then why he
had been purring. The painter had caught a sheep on
the range some time in the day, and not eaten it, so he
didn't have need for more fodder all night. I found
the trail, and then sez I, 'Now, Mr. Painter, we'll see
who's best at walkinV Yowler tuck the trail, and along
we bowled for about an hour, when all of a sudden I

THE PANTHER'S CUB. 77

heerd Yowler, who was some ways ahead, stop his
yelpin', and back he come, with somethin' arter him,
tight as he could buckle. As they come up I let drive
at what was arter him kind o' promiscuously, for it
wasn't fairly dawn yet. The shot hit, I knew, for the
varmint held up, and then run off.

" * Now,' says I ter myself, ' isn't a painter a mighty on-
sartin varmint ? Here is one that gets wounded, and yet
don't pitch inter a fellar. Who'd ha' looked for sich a
coward in a painter?' Then, after loadin', I put on
Yowler again, and we bowled along, not quite so lively
as afore, for Yowler was a leetle kind o' shy, but still we
did some pretty loud goin'.

" ' Whar's that air painter ?' sez I to myself; ' did any
painter ever run so far before ?' It come on to be light,
and I could see the trail, and it was an all-fired big trail.
Presently it got into a cane-brake, and then tuck a turn.
Yowler guv tongue. I could hear the canes rattle as he
jumped, but the painter broke out of this on the fur
side, and made a bee-line agin right straight for the
Ouithlacouchee River.

" When we got to the river it was noon. I looked
down the bank, and saw the tracks along in the mud
where the varmint had been lookin' for a good place to
cross. Presently I could see where he had laid down in
the mud, and then for the fust time I saw it was a she
painter with sucking young ones. As near as I could
make out by the marks in the mud she had two cubs
lugging at her, the rest of her tits being of no account.

78 ViTLD SPOKT8 IN THE SOUTH.

Then the track went in a little further under some alders,
and there she had laid down agin, this tune on her side,
and, Jehosaphat ! thar by her side, as clare as daylight,
was a dozen little tracks of a cub she had been a-carryin'
in her mouth all that way. She had tuck to these bushes
to give it some milk, and was goin' with it into the big
swamps t'other side of the river. It was all as clare as
if a schoolmaster had written it. That war the reason
why the she painter didn't come on to fight when I fired
at her ; she wanted to git her pups clare from the dog ;
that's the natur of a painter, and an oncommin consider-
in' natur it is, too. My 'pinion of that painter rose some.
Arter the trail left the alder bushes, it went right into
the river.

" I soon found a log big enough for me and Yowler,
and, puttin' the dog on one eend on't, so as to save him
from the alligators, I slung my rifle on my back, and
paddled across. I soon found the trail, and went jogging
along pretty slow, for it was a tough kind of swamp,
when in a minute or so I heerd Yowler burst out in a
clear yell. I knowed he seed the painter, and I hurried
on as well as I could, but, Jimminy Peters ! that painter,
when he made a jump across the fallen logs, went as fur
in one minute as I in ten. I soon come to where I heerd
the dog break out so, and I seed somethin' kind o'
curious. The old tracks went straight on south, but
there were a set of new tracks that came right back on
top the old ones, and just where the dog had come np
they had turned off to the east.

THE PANTHER '8 CUB. 7SJ

" Wall, that's queer !' sez I to myself. * If that's the
same varmint, she's what I'm arter, and if she aint she's
just as good, for I calkelate that one painter is just as
good as another, providin' allers she's as big.' So I
cheered on Yowler, and we went on the side track.
Now over logs, then in a mucky place, and now through
the water, that dog and I stuck to that painter like two
wood-ticks. Arter going a little to the east the track
went back to the river, and went across about a mile
above where it had crossed before. * Wall, that's queer,'
sez I to myself. ' There's somethin' onnateral in that
painter. She won't tree, and she goes in a straight line
to t'other eend of creation, and now she's going back
agin. Wall, here goes,' sez I, and I took another log and
ferried back agin to the north shore. There was the
trail as clare as mud, and big as an alligator's. Up the
bank and away inter the woods we went. There's no
sucking of cubs now. Yowler is a hurryin' her along a
leetle too fast for any sich family doin's. So on we went
right north. ' Jerusalem !' sez I to myself, ' keep on this
way, old steamboat, much longer, and you'll be back
where you started from, and I'll drive you into Colonel
Jackson's pen, and shut the door on you !'
"'Bout by the Black Mud Creek there's a flat of land
that had been overflowed and had dried off, and as we
come here I seed the painter had jumped through, and
every time she had jumped she had come up to her belly
in the mud, and once or twice had come so low that her
neck and chin had sunk in the mud. Thinks I, that must

80 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

put the cub under in the mud, yet I don't see the marks
of the little rat.

" Jist then we got through the creek, and I seed whare
the old painter had lain down on the bank with her side
to the river.

" Thar were her tracks as clare as Gospel, but whar was
the cub ? The cub was gone ! Whar had it gwine to ? It
was clare it hadn't gwine any whare that Yowler and I
had been; it had been left on the fur side of the Ouith-
lacouchee. It tuck just a minute of thinkin', and it was
all clare. The bee line she had made, the two full tits,
the bee-line back agin ; what a cursed fool I was not to
have seen through it afore I had come so fur !

" The painter had littered two cubs somewhar near
whar I had seen her in the mornin' ; she had been chased,
and knew the parts was onsafe ; she had made up her
mind to carry her cubs into the Ouithlacouchee swamp,
and had started with one when Yowler struck her trail.
That was the reason she sent Yowler back ; that was the
reason she wouldn't tree ; and jist keepin' in sound of
the dog's yelp, had gone right to the swamp, hid her
cub, come back on her back track to ketch the dog and
lead him away, till she could go back fur t'other cub,
bein' sartin that the hound and his fool of a master were
away from her cub, and were chasin' her about.

" Soon as I had reasoned this out I called Yowler in,
and turnin' about, struck for that ere swamp straight.
Yowler come on behind, and about two hours afore sun-
set I struck the river, ferried across, took up the old

THE PANTHER'S CUB. 81

trail in the swamp, and was busy pickin' it out over logs
and under vines whar the moss grew so thick it didn't
leave room for a track. The scent was cold, and Yow-
ler could jist ketch it, but what with puttin' our two noses
together we fetched up in a big windfall, and jist in the
snarl of trees, whar the splinters and branches, and
growin' vines was the wickedest, there was a little bed
of strips of bark and leaves, and the young painter cub
was curled up, dreamin' of supper-time. He was about
as big as two tomcats tied together by the tails, and his
natur', when I come to prick him up, was not quite so
sweet. He meowed, and sneezed, and about chawed up
my coat-sleeve afore I could bag him, which I did by
takin' off my huntin' coat, jammin' his head into one of
the sleeves, and buttonin' and tyin' him in bag like.

" When I got all this done, I thought of the old pain-
ter, and what she would say to me when she come home
with her t'other young 'un. The more I calkelated, the
more it seemed onpleasant, for though the varmint was
so perlite when she was outwittin' me, I reckoned that
she wouldn't be so much so when the boot got on t'other
leg. Fust I thought I would get out of that air windfall,
and wait for the old lady on the bank of the river, whar we
could have a clare field, fur I knew it was sartin she would
be arter me, and I'd a leetle reether the fight wouldn't
be fit out in that swamp. So I put out for the river,
and when I got thar took a clare spot, and puttin' the cub
down for the stakes, sat down to wait fur the other party.

" The wind was still, and I could hear around a con •

82 WILD SPOETS UST THE SOUTH.

siderable distance. A few big frogs, and once in a
while an alligator, let on for music in the river. Now
and then an owl hooted in the bottom land, and
the cranes goin' out to sea were honkin' away over-
head, but I couldn't hear any painter, and accordin' to
my calculations there would be some howlin' when she
cum home and found her pappoose bagged. Yowler
began to get restless, and watched the swamp as if he
knowed what was comin'. The woods begun to get
blacker, the sun had gone down, and some black clouds
bellowed overhead. It looked like a squall.

" ' Why don't she cum ?' sez I to myself; 'or maybe
she's sich a knowin' varmint she's waitin' for night, to
chaw me up completely.' Once I thought I seen her eyes
in the edge of the bushes, but it turned out to be some
rotten fire-wood. 'Jerusalem !' sez I, ' why don't she cum !'
It got to be so dark I couldn't see the sights on my rifle,
and I thought it all over to myself. I own up I felt kind
a mean like. This stealin' young cubs out of their nests
is onnateral, any way. It is good enough for an Injun,
but's not Christian-like. I could see that old painter
comin' home, with her second cub in her mouth. I could
tell jist how she felt. I could see her big nostril open
when she smelt my tracks about her nest, and when she
saw her cub was gone, Lord ! what a cry she would give.
I'd given a bearskin to put that cub back, and then have
fit it out with a clare conscience. But 'twas no use a
talkin' ; it couldn't be done, no how. All that's left when
the deal is made is to stand up to yer hand. ' But,'

THE PANTHER'S CUB. 83

thinks I to myself, * ef it's right to shoot the old painter,
it is right to ketch her kitten.' That's the natur of man ;
ef they do anything wrong they reason to themselves to
make it right.

" ' Jerusalem !' sez I, as it got blacker and the fire-flies
cum about, * why don't she cum ?' Jist then, in lookin'
around me, I sees a light shine on the other shore a little
way below. I knew right off it was an Injin camp, and
reckoned it was part of Tiger Tail's band, that ha'd cum
up from below. Nasty varmints that band was — worse
en painters any day. Howsumever, Injins or no Injins,
they will help fight the painter ; so I rolled a drift-log
into the water, and once more paddled over the river.
I looked behind once or twice to see if the painter wasn't
a comin' over, too, and climbin' on the log behind me,
but it was only the mullet jumpin' in the river, and so
I got over with the cub all right, and put right down
the bank for the camp. Yer better believe I didn't let
grass grow under me. As I cum up to the fire-light, I
saw who the Injins were; they were friendly enough
that summer, but mighty mean cusses, and had served
me many a dirty trick. Their camp was just in the edge
of the timber, and the squaws were cooking supper in a
pot, while about a dozen men sat around in a ring,
lookin' on and suckin' their thumbs, wrapped up in their
blankets, just as if it was cold. As I cum up, I looked
back on my track, and whar the sandy bank lay agin
the water, whar it war brightened up by the sunset, I
see the she-painter cumin' like greased lightnin'.

84: WILD SPOKTS IN THE SOUTH.

" I walked composed-like and slow into the Injin camp>
and right through the ring, puttin' the painter cub all
rolled up in the coat down in the middle, and then goin'
to the fur side, set down as far off as convenient.

" ' Injin Mike is welcome,' said a young man, who I
made out by his paint to be Tiger Tail's son, waivin' his
hand like to me, and keepin' his eye inquirin' like on my
coat, that was a wrigglin' about on the ground.

" ' Injin Mike is a hunter, and he brings a hunter's
gift,' sez I, slow-like, and speakin' Injin ; ' he was afeerd
his Injin brother would be in want of some game.'

" I knew this would rile 'em some, for Tiger Tail was
allers a big hunter, and he didn't like me, for I could take
the feather out of his hair any day. I war goin' on to
say more, but I didn't have time, fur jist then I heard a
thump in the bushes, and the she-painter cum in as ef she
was flyin' ; ears back, eyes like candles — she was some.
She tuck the young chief before she landed with a sort
o flyin' box with her paw, and he never riz hair arter-
wards, for she tuck scalp and all.

" The lousy devils rolled over like prairie dogs — the
pot upsot, the coals flew around, the squaws yelled, the
dogs pitched in, and afore any one could get out his
knife, that painter did some tall tearin'. They rolled
over and over, yellin', bitin' swearin ; some got hit fur
the painter, fur they couldn't see whar to strike, and
thar was no room for shootin'. Lord, Colonel, it would
hur done you good to have seen that air scrimmage. I
got behind a tree and larfed so it hurt me, and when I

THE PANTHER'S CUB. 85

see they had well-nigh fit out, Yowler and me, thinkin'
they might blame us, stepped out, and I hain't seen them
Injins, nur that air painter since, though I've heer'en tell
that Tiger Tail ware lookin' for me about the Mecaco
this summer."

" And if he catches you, you will not be able to raise
hair either," said Jackson.

" Ef he does," answered Mike, laughing.

" But what became of the other sucking cub after the
Indians had killed its mother and brother ?"

" I went back arter it that very same night, and found
it jist whar the she-painter had left it when she tuck my
trail. It was a meowin' away in the woods all alone, and
I felt kind a sorry for it, and carried it into the Fort at
Tampa Bay and guv it to the Colonel thar, whar it
growed iip, and got so big and saucy that it licked the
hull fort one day and then cleared."

86 WILD SPOKTS IN THE SOUTH.

CHAPTER VII

THE DEER HUXT.

11 A hundred hounds bayed deep and strong
Clattered an hundred steeds along."

SCOTT.

THE light broke early on the planter's house, and the
smoldering brands of our camp-fire the morning after
Mike's panther story. It may not have been early,
though our late hours of the evening before made it seem
so to me, and I silently banned the sleepless hound that
bayed at the early day. Then " the cock's shrill clarion,
and the echoing horn," ushered in the fuller light, and
drew us to our feet, yawning and drinking in the misty
sights and sounds.

The sheep were crowding out of the pens, and spread-
ing over the open woods. Their constant bleating
drowned the cries of their negro drivers. The horses
were whinnying for their food. Our boys were light-
ing a fire, and preparing meat, singing and laughing
away. There were calls to negroes with fancy names,
and shouting answers ; guns were discharged, and saddles
examined ; a dozen things were wanted that could not
be found, or when found were not in a condition to be

THE DEER HUNT. 87

used. The little nigs were running to the spring for
water, or to the shed for corn, or all around the grounds,
merely for the fun of running and shouting. They were
dressed alike, in long, brown cotton shirts, and one
sex could not be distinguished from the other. Aunty
Blaze, after seeing the table was spread, and the meat
cooked, brought out an immense corn-cake, on a wooden
turner, and with a commendable feeling of pride threw
it down on the table, right side up, steaming hot, and
brown as rosewood. Turning to go, she stumbles against
a little nig girl coming with the sugar-bowl ; a smart slap
applied with the cake-turner propels the little nig forward
a yard, and elicits a yell of disapprobation from the
clumsy child, who drops the sugar-bowl to the floor, and
then runs off.

The Doctor loads his double-barrelled gun, and
explains its new-fashioned lock to Miss Jackson, who
comes out arrayed in a tight-fitting cap and bodice, and
her eyes lit up with the anticipation of the chase. Mike
slowly and methodically wipes out his rifle with dry flax,
and every moment is seen eating some hidden remains of
last night's meal, which he has stowed away on his per-
son, and which are to form more than half his breakfast.
We eat our hurried meal — it might be called a passover,
as no one takes time to sit — and then ride off down the
woods.

Jackson and Mike are leading the van, Lou and the
Doctor still side by side, and there goes a negro on a
marsh tackey, and there a neighbor that has come over

88 WILD SPOETS IN THE SOUTH.

for the hunt, mounted on a vicious mare as thin as a
crane. The hounds, of a dozen different colors and
sizes, go along in couples, led by the negroes on foot,
and on ahead to a given rendezvous shuffles Pompey
Duffield Sah, the oldest negro on the place, driving a
mule laden with two baskets of provisions intended for
the dinner of the party, and the mist comes up from the
river in golden clouds, for the sun is just rising. Down
along the bank we went with call and laughter, and the
bittern arose from the sedge with a guttural cry, and the
alligator sank into the water with a heavy splash, as our
cavalcade moved onward to the lower pine lands that
skirted the big swamp. The trees were all white pine ;
there was no underbrush, and we could see down the
long arcades they formed for nearly a mile. Now and
then a flaunting flower would rear its crimson cheek to
the wind, or a vine could be seen clasping a trunk, and
drooping from branch to branch in long festoons, but
generally the ground was covered only with the yellow
siftings of the pine, and free from all vegetation. The
horses trod without a sound, and, save now and then a
squirrel, we met no animal life, until we came to the
hummocks, and drew together to give general directions
for commencing the chase, the manner of which is neces-
sary to explain.

A hummock is a thicket often covering but an acre or
two of land, and sometimes presenting an extent of
several miles. The one now in view covered about thirty
acres, and half a mile further down the woods, we could

THE DEEK HUNT 89

see another. It lay in a low swale of land, and in it the
haw, the alder, and willow, grew into a tangled copse,
studded with the red leaves of the pinckneya, while above
them all, a hundred feet or more, the ash, the magnolia,
and gum-trees, reared their long arms, and opened their
blossoms to the upper air. It was an admirable spot for
game, with succulent grass and flags, and a dusky shade
that was never penetrated by the sun.

" You stay here, Doctor Pollock," said Jackson, as we
rode up ; " and mind your eyes."

The Doctor drew himself up with a doubtful air, as if
uncertain whether minding his eyes referred to the uses
he had just been putting those organs to in watching
Miss Jackson's face, or whether it referred to watchful-
ness in the future ; so he answered at random, " All
right, sir!"

" And you," he continued, turning to me, " take your
place two gun-shots off on that side, keeping always
within five or six rods of the swamp. And you," turning
to the neighbor that had joined us, " go on next ; and
you, Lou, come with Mike and me."

And away they cantered, with the dogs, around the
other side of the swamp, dropping one or two negroes,
as they passed, to guard some particular point of the
hummock, and in this way we inclosed two sides of the
swamp with a cordon of hunters stationed just so far
apart that if a deer came out, one or the other of the
hunters in waiting was certain of a shot. On the further
aide, and the only portion of the swamp that we were

90 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

unable to surround, the driver 'was to enter with the
hounds, and the deer would not be likely to make his
escape in that direction.

The last I saw of Jackson he was winding around the
swainp with Mike, having left his daughter on a little
knoll that commanded a fair view of the hummock, and
where her bright bay horse and little figure stood out in
relief against the dark pines beyond. She caught sight
of me and waved her hand. I could see, from her atti-
tude, that she was intently watching the swamp, and her
short double-barrelled gun hung from her arm with all
the ease that it would have been carried by a stronger
hunter. The doctor I could not see, but my negro,
Scipio, armed only with a knife, stood between us, and
only a short distance from me. I looked for the. other
members of the hunt, but they had gone, and perfect
stillness reigned over the pine woods and hummock.
Moment after moment slipped away ; I listened for every
sound, but could hear nothing, save the impatient champ-
ing of my horse. Away down the woods a fox-squirrel
flirted his broad tail as he chased his comrade up a tree,
or a painted woodpecker passed by in undulating sweeps
as silently as a moth. At length I heard a distant call;
it was so faint it just reached me, but I recognized it as
the driver cheering the hounds as he cast them off. Now
for it. Another pause. The cry was repeated, and with
it the low yelp of a dog, then another, and then a ringing
shot away down the woods. My horse pricked his ears,
and Scipio mounted a fell en tree the better to survey

TH Hi DEER HUNT. 91

the scene. No cheering shout announced the death of
the deer, though the dogs stopped yelping.

At this moment I heard in the bushes the rapid bound
of some annual ; it came nearer and nearer. From the
higher ground where I stood I could see over the bushes
a pair of antlers, and I supposed it to be the same deer
that had been fired at down the swamp. I dismounted
to take surer aim. How my heart beat in unison with
the bounding of his feet, while every sense converged
into the coming of his presence ! But, alas ! he did
not come out by me, but between me and the Doctor,
and very near to him. Bang ! bang ! I heard his gun
explode, and immediately the deer turned in again, just
keeping the edge of the bushes, and showing his back at
every jump. As he passed me, I took deliberate aim,
and when his flag showed over the grass, I fired. A bet-
ter aim never was taken, but the deer only seemed to
move with an accelerated speed down past the next
stand, and receiving a shot there, and two from
Miss Jackson, then rushed back into the swamp from
whence he came. The dogs, with the firing, broke out
into a louder chorus; the negro drivers were coming
on, thrashing the bushes and shouting away. I heard
Jackson's horn winding its clear notes nearer and nearer ;
he was following up the dogs, keeping in the open woods,
while Mike was doing the same on the other side. All
at once the hounds broke out with a louder yell, and at
the same moment the buck broke cover again in front of
me, accompanied by two does, one on either side. I had

92 WILD SPOUTS IN THE SOUTH.

just loaded, and had my foot in the stirrup, when, with-
out changing position, I fired at the stag's shoulder. I
missed my mark, but shot one of the does, that tumbled
down in the grass. The buck and the other doe once
more turned back, and, wild with fright, coursed down the
edge of the hummock toward Poke, who fired his barrel
again, and this time, with some correctness, for the buck
dropped his tail for an instant with an uneasy motion,
when raising it again, he turned back, followed by Poke,
on horseback, directly past my stand. I fired my second
barrel without effect, and then, not able to resist the
contagion of the chase, spurred my horse after the flying
animals. Away they went down the little swale that led
toward Lou Jackson's stand. One hound after another,
as he came out of the rushes, caught sight of the deer,
and joined in the chase with a double note. Bang ! came
a shot from my left, missed clear, and the hunter, not
stopping to load, joined the chase/ Now for it, Miss
Jackson ! I saw her raise her gun, her father was close
behind, riding hard to get to her, and away down the
woods I could see Mike trying to head off the chase, 'his
long hair streaming behind him like a woman's. A puff
of smoke, and a report — the buck staggered ; another
shot and he seemed to renew his courage, drawing in
behind him, in one yelling, shouting, crashing train, every
man, horse, and dog, in the woods.

" You hit him, Lou. Tally-ho ! Hi on ! hi ! Hurrah !
Faster ! There's Tip, and there's Slasher ! Go it, Music !
Golly! maussa, gib him fits!" were the cries that were

THE DEEE HUNT. 93

intelligible in the medley of sound, until the yelling of
the dogs, and the trampling of the horses drowned all
words. The horses, as wild in their ardor as their riders,
needed no rein. The buck led the way directly for ano-
ther hummock that was situated about three miles
away, and which was now within sight; his flight
was straight and well sustained, though now and then
a spot of blood on the leaves showed that he was
wounded. The dogs were toiling on behind, not two
yards away, and close behind the dogs came all the hun-
ters, the Doctor, riding the fastest horse, taking the lead.
As we approached the hummock, the pine trees grew
closer together, and while going between two of them
the Doctor was caught by his gun, which he held cross-
wise before him on the saddle, and was swept off his
horse to the ground. " There's a ten strike !" called out
Jackson, as we rushed by. Closer still we came to the
deer, every dog stretched to his utmost length, every
rider bending to his horse's mane ; Mike was just raising
his rifle to his shoulder to shoot, when without a sign the
big buck fell head first to the ground, and rolled over
and over with the impetus of the chase. His heart had
broken in the desperate burst just within reach of his
lair, in whose close covert the doe, with one long bound,
was lost. Up came the dogs and horses so fast they ran
over the game, and crowded and jostled together as they
pulled up. So rolls and bubbles a wave that meets a rock
on the sandy beach. Then there was dismounting, and
whipping off the dogs, and a search for the wounds in

94: WILD BPOBTS IN THE BOUTH.

our quarry. Two buck-shot, in the thick part of the neck
from behind, came from the Doctor's second barrel.

" Where is the Doctor ? here is his horse. Oh ! there
he comes limping along rather sore with his fall." A
laugh and a sly joke were all the consolation we had to
offer him. Two more buck-shot in the right side, close
together ; that is Lou Jackson's shot. They were the
only ones of the party using shot guns. None of the
shots were heavy enough to kill the deer, though altoge-
ther they had broken him down in the chase. We
wound a horn to tell the drivers we left behind our
whereabouts, and putting the buck on one of the negroes'
horses, and coupling the dogs to keep them from enter-
ing the swamp, we turned back the way we came.

"Now for the does we left behind," said Jackson.
" How many were there !"

" I saw two bucks and four does," said the Doctor.

:' Fudge ! those were the same deer we have been chas-
ing, only your people turned them back into the hum-
mock two or three times without killing them."

" I killed one," said I.

" Where is it ?»

" It fell in the bushes."

" Reckon you did not hit her."

" You had better believe it ; I can show you the place
where she fell."

" That isn't what we want. Where is the place that
she is now, can you tell that ? I fired at a doe, too, but
a long way off, and she probably is where yours is."

THE DEEK HUNT. 95

"Doctor, how's your back ?"

" He he ! golly mighty I he quit saddle smart dat
time !" remarked Caesar.

As we rode up to the hummock where we had started
the game, I found the place where I had shot the doe,
but she was not there, though the negroes said she had
fallen.

" Throw off a dog, then," said Jackson.

" Let Music try," said his daughter ; and accordingly
Music was loosened and sent in the grass. Music was a
young hound, spotted white and black, like a coach-dog,
and with such silky ears they felt like a satin robe in
your hand. She was led to the place where the deer had
fallen, and taking its track with a plaintive whimper,
commenced unwinding it from among the bushes and
reeds. Presently a louder effort warned us to beware,
and cantering apart a little, so as to be able to see all
around the hummock, Mike's grey eye caught a sight
of the doe trying to steal .out of the bushes. A clear
ringing shot was followed by a quick leap, and she fell
dead.

We laid them side by side, the stately buck and his
gentle consort. The dew of the morning was still glitter-
ing on their hides — their eyes were as bright and as full
as in life. I wondered if Miss Jackson felt any pity for
them, as she saw the dogs licking the blood that flowed
from their throats.

One of the negroes dismounting from his pony, we
substituted the two deer in place, and tying their feet be-

96 WILD SPOKT8 IN THE SOUTH.

neath the belly of the struggling horse, had them sent
to the place where we were to meet for dinner.

" Now one more hunt before dinner. Where shall we

"Saw de ole white buck fur sartin, dis day, maussa!"
said the planter's head negro, coming up.

"Where did you see him?"

" Down by de run, ober dere," said the negro, point-
ing with his finger ; " his tracks fresh as dis niggah's."

" You mean you saw his tracks ?"

" Yes a maussa."

" How does he know that it is a buck ?" I asked.

" How fur to know he's a buck ? Haint chased dat
air deers' often .fur nuthin'; 'spect I be'ent a fool!"
replied Jumping Lem, with some asperity.

" Wall, if that ere is the buck that run in this range
last winter, I kinder guess ye'll all have to rub your legs
with bar's grease to ketch him," added Mike.

" Don't you think we can shoot him, Mike ?" asked
Lou Jackson.

" No, young woman, I don't ; thar are too many here
to make certain of any deer. When a man wants a deer
bad, he goes alone and keeps his mouth shut."

As we rode over to inspect the tracks, I learned, partly
from the exclamations of the negroes, and partly from
Jackson's account, that this buck passed the winters in
the pine woods, retiring when the mosquitoes become
thick in the spring, to the cool swamps of the Ouithla-
couchee. It has been so often hunted, and was BO sue-

THE DEEE HUNT. 97

cessful in escaping, that it become well known at the
Jackson plantation, and was the object of a covert super-
stition to all the negroes, which mysterious fear rather
aided his escape, for when the boys saw it coming they
became so frightened, they could not hit forty paces
off.

On reaching the run that Lem had mentioned, we rea-
dily found the tracks, and all drew up to examine them.
The presentation of some unknown bone to a company
of savans, or the appearance of a new bonnet at a coun-
try sewing society, occasions not more curiosity and sage
comment than does the discovery of a new track in the
woods. One mentions its size, another recognizes old
peculiarities or marks, another says it was the foot of a
male animal, another that it was fat in flesh, and another
that it was going on an easy trot, and not disturbed, and
what is stranger still, from the small data of four marks
in the damp soil, all these facts arrived at are the results
of careful observation, and seldom incorrect.

According to the congress now assembled, this buck
was the old white buck, so called from an unusually
white coat, and had gone at a gentle gait into the Black
Jack hummock, which lay two miles further on, and
before which we presently arrived. It was about a half
mile in length by three quarters broad, and was filled,
like the other swamp holes, with long grass, bushes, and
vines, from which rose several tall trees of those
species that spring in swamps and savannahs, and at its
upper end there grew a close thicket of black jack trees.

6

98 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

Once more the members of the chase separated to take
commanding positions, overlooking the edges of the
thicket. We were cautioned against shooting at any-
thing that might come out, until we were certain the
white buck was not there. Once more Mike and Jack-
son disappeared, and with them the hounds, already
snuffing the air from the swamp, and tugging at their
leashes to get away. Once more the forest was still,
save the throbbings of our hearts, that counted the
anxious seconds.

In a short time I could hear the cheers of the negroes,
and the thrashing of the bushes as they struggled for-
ward in the tangled underbrush. At this instant a doe,
followed by a fawn almost grown, came to the edge of
the bushes. She looked up and down for an instant, her
large ears turning this way and that, when not seeing
any one, she came out on a lope, and passing close by
me, ran down the woods, making for the river. I had
my gun to my shoulder, but remembering the white
buck, withheld my fire, lest the bigger game should fol-
low the course of the doe and find me with an empty
gun. Yeow-ow-ow came from the hummock ; that was
Music's voice — her tone was like a bugle's. Then two
or three whimpering notes from other hounds.

" Wha's dat air a bobbin' in ee bushes ?" asked Scipio,
standing near me and eagerly trying to overlook the
grassy valley. " A cat — a cat !" he shouted, "sure as
gun," and a handsome specimen of the feline genius
sprung out of the bushes, and then seeing Scipio, darted

THE DEEE HUNT. 99

back again to cover. " Golly mighty, wouln't dat cat
get shook up — yah — ha, yah — ha — he !"

Now the hounds broke out in chorus, with a multitu-
dinous cry that babbled in the bushes and wailed in the
air, as though the echoes caught the sound and mellowed
it down to a continuous accord. Scipio felt the conta-
gion, and dancing up and down, relieved himself as fol-
lows :

"Dar dey come! dar dey come! Bress de Lord!
don't dey skin 'em — dat beats dis child ; hy ah ha, hy
ah ha ! — go it Music !"

The dogs had come halfway down the cover, when a
buck and doe broke out together. He did not appear
to be of unusual size ; but I could not wait any longer,
and fired. He fell and rose again, running over the
brow of a little hill with his tail down ; here he
drew the fire of my neighbor on the right, and fell to
rise no more. The doe halted a moment where her com-
rade fell, as if waiting for him to rise, when away
down the woods a rifle rung its sharp crack and she fell
like a clod almost on the body of her mate. I knew
Mike's rifle by the effect, even if I did not know its
sound.

The hounds came closer ; we could see the grass and
bushes moving where they were winding about, and
now and then their sickle-shaped tails above the weeds.
The clamor increased, the dogs were almost through,
and yet no white buck to correspond with the negro's
description of the big buck they had so often hunted.

100 WILD 8POBT8 IN THE SOUTH.

/

At this instant I saw rise up from the very edge of the
bushes, a buck, that from his stately size I at once
recognized to be the big buck. He had evidently been
watching the preparations for the hunt, and selecting the
very time our guns were discharged, he rushed out
between me and one of the negroes, and without
regarding either, flew down the open pine woods at a
flying gallop. Hardly had he cleared the valley, when I
heard Jackson shouting, and saw him riding hard toward
my stand ; but the dogs coming out and taking the deer's
track with loud clamor, prevented my hearing. I sprang
into my saddle, and went flying alongside of the hounds,
with the air soughing through my hair, and the deer in
view a hundred yards ahead. In a moment or two Lou
Jackson and the Doctor were in sight, their horses skim-,
ming the open woods like birds. Then came the sorrel
mare, and next Scipio on the pony, and then in the dis-
tance Jackson and Mike, with all the negroes that were
mounted. Faster, still faster, heart and sense fixed on
that flying buck, and the trees merged together in a
mass as we swept among them. Whoop ! why cannot
a man cheer louder ; why cannot a horse fly faster when
a deer is in view. There is a crash and a flash of dirt and
sticks ; the sorrel has gone down, and her rider rolled
over and over, and far ahead of his steed. There is no
time to see if he can get up again. Hurrah ! there is a
hummock ! See Tiger and Bess turn to the left ! They
know the buck will not run through it, and they turn
aside to cut the radius of the arc he is about to make.

THE DEER HUNT. 101

He sees the plan and accelerates his speed. His horns
are lying on his back ; he is stretching away at his high-
est speed, and whenever a bush intercepts his flight, he
leaps it with a bound that must give him a bird's-eye
view of his pursuers.

Far ahead of the deer grew a close swamp, and from
the straight line the deer was making we knew he was
looking to it for refuge. Behind, I heard Jackson shout-
ing at us, but who could stop to listen with such a buck
in view ? On we went, the dogs still nearer the deer,
and Tiger almost within reach of his haunches. Lon
Jackson held one rein in each hand, her eyes fixed on
the chase, and her hair flying loose behind her. There
goes the deer in the bushes ; he touched a log here and
a bog there, and along he went like a rope dancer.
Tally ho! On went the dogs, when, to my surprise,
Tiger disappeared from view, and in a second of time
the whole pack were floundering in the morass. " Hold
hard !" I heard again from behind. " Hold hard, Miss
Jackson !" I screamed, as the truth flashed on me.
" The quicksands !" Too late ; her horse was wild with
the chase, and she could not hold him. He made one or
two desperate leaps as he found himself floundering, and
in a second of tune was half ingulfed in the mud.
His rider still held the reins and kept her seat on the
struggling horse. The Doctor was in equal plight, while
his frightened beast pawed the air in its attempts to
regain a footing. My horse, more used to such ground,
turned short around when he felt it quaking, throwing

102 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

me in the edge of the mud like a clown in a circus.
Up came Mike as fast as he could ride, and Jackson
behind him.

Mike threw himself from his horse, and while the
others were cutting sticks to throw to the ingulfed
riders, ran out by quick jumps to the log over which
the deer had run, and then cutting off with his knife a
grapevine that had climbed a neighboring tree, he
wound it around his arm and swung himself out toward
Miss Jackson. The first swing did not send him far
enough, but putting his foot against the trunk, as his
rope oscillated, he swung out to where the young girl
lay up to her arm-pits, and rapidly sinking in the sands.
He said something in a low voice to her that we could
not hear; and putting his hand under her arm began
slowly to draw her from her perilous position. When
she was entirely above the surface, he swung the vine
sufficiently to carry his charge to the root of the tree,
from whence it was comparatively easy to reach the
shore. I would have given a year of life to get such a
look of thanks from a lady I know as the breathless girl
gave Mike — the ugly scamp ! The Doctor's turn came
next, and then the horses, until finally, after two or three
hours of hard work, we were all once more in the saddle,
and some of us bearing more resemblance to scavengers
than gallant hunters under the greenwood tree.

" S'pose you tink dat white buck is de debbil for true
now, hey ?" said Scipio, as he was tightening my girths.

" No, I don't ; why do you ask ?"

THE DEER HUNT. 103

"Kase I'se not sartin the niggahs here'bouts knows
Leaps, and dey sez dey ain't a gwinc to hunt dat buck no
how, and I guess as how I wouldn't nudder. 'Spec as how
sumthin' wuss en what we've seen will conic out a' that
eer chase yit. I'se not scared, but dat is very 'plcxing."

The day was wearing away fast, and, sending one of
the boys for the two deer last killed, we all turned
toward the place appointed for our meeting, where after
a few minutes' riding a blue smoke column arose among
the trees, and the distant gleam of water announced a
dinner and a rest — two pleasant things, whose worth is
only known to those who have labored well. From our
dining-place, a bend of the river showed us two vistas
down the ancient woods, and the broad sheet of water,
half in shadow half in sunshine, was broken by the flocks
of ducks that were coasting along its banks. The trees
that fringed the shore were covered with immense creep-
ing vines, that clasped the trunks and suspended them-
selves from the branches. Down by the water's edge,
the golden-rod reared its yellow head, and the love-vine
wove its orange thread like a net over many a rank
grove of water plants. The opposite shore Avas lower
than the bank on which we were standing, and the eye
took in miles of cane-brake and forest, unbroken by any
sign of human labor.

" Look at those turkey buzzards, Doctor," said Miss
Jackson, pointing to two birds that, with matchless grace,
were floating in slow circles high in the air. " I would
like to see the view they are taking in at this moment."

104: WILD SPOKTS IN THE SOUTH.

" So would I ; they are eagles in the air, and crows on
the ground," replied the Doctor. " They seem never to
move their wings, and yet how powerfully they fly, while
they watch every motion that is going on in the woods
below them."

"Do you want one of 'em?" said Mike, raising his
rifle from the ground.

" No, no, Mike ; when God makes anything so beauti-
ful, let it live."

" Dinnah's ready, gemens and ladies," called out Pom-
pey Duffield Sah, with a marked accent on the and,
while Jackson's horn played the stave of a march that
made the dogs howl, and we turned away from the bank
to the dinner that was spread out on the grass. There
was cold wild turkey, and ham, and sherry wine, some
excellent hot coffee, and corn-bread and bacon. It
wouldn't have been a Florida dinner without thercorn-
bread and bacon. Oh, what a blessed thing i& hunger,
when one has the means to allay it, and how contented
and beneficent one is when the dinner is ended, and how
pleasant when seated, after a day of rough toil, at a
rude meal, to have the gentle presence of a woman mak-
ing the beauty to the rugged scene ! Did it ever occur
to you, fair reader, that if that gentler grace that wins
and governs man's young love should accompany him to
his scenes of pleasure, his out-of-door pursuits, and natural
studies, it would always exercise the influence over him
that it did when he was a boy ? Do you not believe that
each would gain, the one a wider field of opportunity,

THE DEER HUNT. 105

and a more experienced taste, the other the restraint of
a presence whose absence is never for good ?

After dinner came the pipes and a long talk, and then
as the sun went down, tracking the woods with his
sanguine trail, we packed up our game, one deer to each
pony, and with Pompey Duffield Sah taking the lead,
filed off through the shadowy woods for the plantation.

106 WILD SPOET8 IN THE SOUTH.

CHAPTER VIH.

THE FIKESIDE AT FAK AWAY.
" 'Tis home where'er the heart is."

Lou Jackson was not a beautiful girl — much less did
she deserve the title of pretty. Her eyes and hair were
both good, though the coarse and irregular eyebrow
gave a masculine cast to her regard. Her nose was
short, her mouth almost a line, and her complexion,
naturally dark, was further injured by a roughness of
skin that made it resemble a laboring woman's. The
prevailing pose of her features was thoughtful, at times
almost stern, yet once in a long while the lines of her
mouth would curve, her cheek slightly dimple, and her
eye would flash out a look of joy, recognition, and
sympathy, the more gentle for being rare. So, at the
close of a murky day, the western sky flashes out the
sunshine of the morrow, and darkens again into twi-
light.

She had received the ordinary course of education as
practised among American girls. A little geography, a
little history, a little of the natural sciences, a little of
two or three modem languages, and a little of two or

THE FIRESIDE AT FAR AWAY. 107

threa dead ones; a little music, painting, polite litera-
ture, mathematics, crocheting, moral philosophy, and
dancing — all in homoeopathic courses; and then was
launched out into that practical world where one true
lesson learned in life's school counterbalanced the teach-
ings of years.

From the fashionable school she stepped to the mono-
tony of an interior plantation life. No musical instru-
ments to play on, no foreign friends to talk to, no foreign
books to read, even could she read them, where every-
thing was simple in action, and the bare bosom of tho
world, with its vegetation, minerals, and animal abun-
dance, was budding and throbbing all around her, and
the springs of domestic life, its great needs and small
attainments, its social loves and hates, were open before
her. Then came the question, " What is my place, and
can I fill it ? If I claim to be a flattered lady and a wife
of high rank, I have no beauty and cannot attain it. If
I am to be a literary woman, and make my position by
my thoughts, I have no education to invent or model
them. If a mere waif floating on the stream of life, the
very animals on the banks are better than I." She
reached out for anything she could do, and turned in
every way for some recourse against that nothingness
that swallowed her up — that dreaminess that all the day
filmed her eye, and all the evening upbraided her.

At length, one day, the first time coining abroad after
a severe illness, her mind drank in that confused blend-
ing of sound, color, motion, and fragrance, that is so

108 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

pervading in the early spring, and which affects the
nerves after a severe illness with so acute a pain. The
buds seemed expanding with an inherent instinct, the
birds seemed arranging their social affairs with a high
intelligence, which had never struck her before. There
was a relation of one to another, a connection to herself,
and an apparentness of creation by that Higher Relative,
that had just raised her from her feeble bed, that seemed
never so plain or so beautiful as now. The more she
pondered and .examined, the greater seemed the field of
thought. She was not idle now. Body and mind grew
strong together. No one slighted her homely face in
the fields, and Avith what aid from books that could be
had, she wandered forth a thinking, happy, laboring,
achieving, student. At last a field was before her ; how
strange, it had been under her eyes from childhood !

The fire was kindled in the planter's house, for it was
a chilly night ; the rain commenced to fall immediately
after our return from the hunt, and from the pitch-pine
branches " the light fell off in hoary flakes," painting
bright the heavy furniture of the room, and belching
from the chimney above the house, as from a smelting
furnace. The room was adorned with implements of the
chase, antlers, and rude stores of goods, and yet there
were marks- of a gentler taste in the engraving primi-
tively framed, stuffed birds, and gracefully-disposed
Indian weapons, decorated the walls. The interior of the
mansion was more comfortable than its rough and dis-
mantled exterior promised ; and from its lonely situation,

THE FIRESIDE AT FAR AWAY. 109

over sixty miles from any town and more than a dozen
from any house, it had been appropriately named Far
Away. The door stood open, the negroes sat on the sill,
drinking in the conversation and laughing at every joke,
while within, Lou Jackson, her father, and all his guests,
sat or reclined around the room as best they could find
places.

" Golly, Maussa, dat air buck's a grave-digger ! Da's
de same deer for sartin dat Blossom fired at two year
ago Christmas comin', when his gun bus'. Das de same
deer dat ripped up Snorter and Grip, de best dogs in dis
county, and now wha's dat air he's gone dun dis- day ?
He run Miss Lou's horse whare we like not see 'em till
day o' judgment."

"Lem, you fool," called out Jackson, "hold your
tongue ; you will get ah1 the boys on the place to be as
great cowards as you are."

"I'se no coward, you knows dat's well's anybody,
Maussa Jackson. Ef de Lord want a brave man, de
Lord gonter call Lem; but I'se seen a buck run o' nights
in de range, and he feet struck fire, and when I sees dat
I comes in, and so'd you, Maussa Jackson."

" What for gwine contrariwise to de Lord ?" said an
old negress, whose white head was obtruding in at the
doorway.

" De Lord send de debil and de debil come. Dare's
Maussa Wilson's Ebo Jane, a rael little drum-cuss of a
nigger woman ; no genouwine religion 'bout her, and jist
afore she die dere, by de door dat look toward de piney

110 WILD SPOKTS IN THE SOUTH.

wood, an old buck — oh, golly, Maussa ! look in at her 1
She guv one call and die, and de buck go away into de
dark woods. I seed dat wid mine own eyes, an' it make
dis eer hair of mine stan' straight up

On looking at the crisp, curling locks alluded to, no
surer proof of a miracle was required than the fact that
they could be made straight, for they were kinked into
little cocoons of yellow white over the big, black face
and staring eyes. As this inspired fact was related, the
negroes, with their credulous susceptibility, edged closer
in the open doorway to be fully Avithin the circle of fire-
light, and even Lem had pulled in his legs from the out-
side of the open window, where he was sitting, and
turned his body fireward.

As I looked at the bank of faces at the door, I saw a
feeling of horror dash over their countenances that was
singular to behold ; following their dilated eyes, I saw
them all fixed on Jumping Lem as he sat in the window,
though from my position I could see nothing about him
to excite the feeling. Mike kicked my foot, and I saw
his eye, with a laugh in the corner of it, turned to where
Lem was sitting. I leaned forward, and could see in the
darkness beyond, only partially lighted up by the fire,
the head and antlers of a large deer.

Lem had not seen the apparition, but continued:
" Down on de Waccassasee dare's a deer-path made by
dat air same buck, and when de dogs cum dere, dey
down tail an' take de back track, howlin' all de time as
if dey"

THE FIRESIDE AT FAB AWAY. Ill

At this instant one of the protruding tines of the deer's
horns touched the earnest story-teller on the shoulder.
He looked around, and caught sight of the spectre at his
side. He gave a wild shriek, and darted toward the
door; the negroes, frightened more by his fears than
what they saw, came crowding in and blocked up the
door, when Lem jumped into the middle of the circle by
the fire, crouching at his master's feet, and crying,
"Oh, Golly! Maussa! Lord a massy, dare h'is! dare
h'is!"

The spectre head continued to advance into the room,
when one of the horns, touching the side of the window,
it fell down from the pole on which it was stuck, and lay
on the floor. It was the head of tho buck we had shot
that morning.

" That is my deer's head," said Miss Jackson. " I was
having it stuffed."

" That's that are boy Scip's doin's ; he's a queer crit-
ter," laughed Mike.

" Get up, Lem, and tell us something more about that
buck," said Jackson.

Lem sprung to his feet, and, amid the jeers of his com-
rades— who laughed at him all the harder because they
were frightened themselves — he rushed out of the cabin,
and we heard him running around the house in pursuit
of the mischievous inventor of the ghost, and' giving vent,
as he ran, to divers threats of punishment, which had the
effect of rendering Scipio invisible for the rest of the
night.

112 WILD BPOKTS IN THE SOUTH.

Mike picked up the fallen deer's head and examined
it closely.

" Why, Lou, child, I never heard of your dressing ani-
mals," said Jackson.

"Nor I, father, until to-day."

" What are you going to do with it ?"

"Make it as correct as I can, and then hang it over
the front door until I can make a better one. The orna-
•"• ment is the Doctor's idea."

" The head is as correctly dressed as it can be," said
the Doctor. " Don't you think so, Mike ?"

" Wall — no, I don't," answered the literal hunter.

" What is it that is wrong, Mike ? It must be in the
setting it up, for you cleaned it forme yourself."

" It moit be one, and it moit be the t'other ; but I
guess it's some of both. Yer see the hair ain't over
slick — that's my fault. Wall, arter that yer've got the
eyes a lookin' for'ard, and the head well up, ain't that
so?"

" Yes," said Miss Jackson, leaning forward. \

"Wall, then," continued her instructor, taking the
deer's head on his knee and illustrating his position with
his fingers, " he's a makin' out somethin' ahead of him,
and he'll have his ears for'ard to help him, one on 'em
anyhow."

" That's true," replied the pupil, with a glance of plea-
sure, taking the deer's head in her hand and pulling out
the wires by which the ears were supported.

" That's the natur' of a deer. I one'st went to Char-

THE FIRESIDE AT FAR AWAY. 113

leston and seed more lies than you could shake a stick at,
and one was a stuffed deer a-feedin' with his flag straight
up. Wall, ef that didn't make me sick. Sez I to the
show-man, ' Mister, I'd jist like to tie you to a deer's tail
in Floridy to show you how they carry their tails ; dod
rot me if I wouldn't !' "

" Ha ha ! that is not as bad as my friend the Doctor,"
I said.

" You had better stop before you go any further, I
warn you," interrupted the Doctor.

"You must know," I continued, "the Doctor, early
one morning in Pensacola, saw two deer feeding in the
garrison garden on the old Commodore's pea vines. So
he ran down, and imagining that they had come in
through the open gate and could not surmount the high
picket that surrounded the garden, carefully closed the
gate. Then, with his gun in hand, he ran in to call the
Commodore to inquire whether he preferred them dead
or alive ; but when he returned the deer were half way
to the Perdido River."

" Oh, that is too bad, Doctor !" cried Jackson, as the
negroes shouted with fun.

" No, no," said the Doctor, laughing away, " that is
not all of the story. My friend here was there, too,
peeping through the palisades over his rifle, when I shut
the gate. It was his proposition that I should go in for
the Commodore, and as I came back, I heard a cap snap,
his gun had missed fire while endeavoring to kill one of
the deer, while I was gone."

WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

The mirth that followed this apocryphal story was like
nothing but the laughter that hails some unusual feat of
the Polichinelle, before the gaping circle of children and
nurses in the gardens of Paris, and it gradually subsided,
lingering longest furthest from the door, where the
negro boys could roll over on their backs without re-
straint, and laugh themselves to smiles, and then to
return for a fresh draught of fun.

" To come back to your deer's head," I said to Miss
Jackson, after the laugh had subsided, " where did you
procure the glass eyes ?"

" Oh, father supplies them with his broken bottles ; the
shoulder of the bottle makes an eye, only a little too flat."

" And the birds on the wall are dressed by you ?"

" Yes, all of them."

" And they are truer to natur' 'an a picter," added
Mike, approvingly.

" Where did you get your taste for such matters, Miss
Jackson ?"

"I think I must have got it from associating with
them, to the exclusion of most other society. We lead
a lonely life here in the pine woods, sometimes, and
I believe that when one has many gifts he does not
gain from them all as much as he does from one well
studied."

" Where did you get your original plan, your first les-
son in taxidermy?" said the. Doctor; "for I have
studied the art, and it seems to me that I have never
dressed a bird as well as some you have here."

THE FIRESIDE AT FAB AWAY. 115

"I never had any lesson, save what I have read.
Once, when first attempting it, I sent to Savannah and
bought a stuffed bird which I pulled in pieces to find the
secret. But the true teacher is patience. Try again
every time you fail."

" They have kept well for so warm a climate."

" That's a woman's secret," said Jackson. " Lou
bakes her birds in the oven."

"I'll tell you a joke," said Miss Jackson, "about
baking birds. One day there was a bird pie in the oven,
the pride of our new cook, and on looking at it, I found
it done, and the fire low enough to dry some birds I had
just set up. Accordingly, I stood them in the oven all
covered with white strings, in front of the pie. "When
dinner was ready, Dinah went for the pie, but presently
came running back, calling out, 'As sure as I's 'live,
missus, dem birds is out ob de pie, or else dere ghosts
am standin' dere in dere grave close. Oh Lor' help
us !' "

" Your birds were correctly set up, then, if they
deceived even a cook. What do you do when you are
where you cannot have the use of an oven ?"

" Oh, I do the best I can ; use pepper-grass, dry them
in the sun, and then let them slide."

" How pleasant it is to have a copy of nature's works
by your side, so well prepared that it reminds you of the
original bird," remarked the Doctor, laying back on a
wooden bench, looking at the hawks over head and
swinging his feet back and forward under his lounge.

116 WILD SPOBTS IN THE SOUTH.

"Yes," answered Miss Jackson, "and to study the
positions, and manners of the birds and quadrupeds, so
that you can copy in your subject the true position and
figure, and not burlesque them. So, sometimes, what
would be thrown from father's game-bag to the cook to
be plucked, or, more likely still, cast away as worthless,
with a little care and study resumes its old shape, takes
again its natural pose, flashes its eye, and remains ' a joy
forever.' "

" Do you not believe," said the Doctor, " that beauti-
ful associations, because beautiful, make the mind,
by exciting it in that direction, beautiful and gentle like-
wise ?"

" No, not altogether. Why, if so, should not the In-
dian be the most beautiful minded of us all ?"

" Because he has no beautiful moral or mental bases,
but, on the contrary, they are bad. The soul
and the mind are greater than the senses, and
their associations counterbalance. But let the soul
and mind lie idle, or present no counterbalancing
force, and then the natural lesson elevates by assimila-
tion."

" Oh no, Doctor ; nature is more of an active teacher
than a mere assimilator. She not only teaches by her
unseen influence, but she preaches by word, and sound,
and sight. For what is the unfolding year ? — for what
the garnered grain, and sapless winter ? It has more than
a productive use. Who tells the young Brent Goose, at
Vancouver's Island, that he will find no winter at Tampa

THE FIRESIDE AT FAR AWAY. 117

Bay ? And what teaches the saracena plant to shut its
fingers and gather in its leaves all nourishing insects ?
Thus, when you see these things day and night, you are
led to reason of them, and your thought makes you bet-
ter by a positive judgment. It is no mere assimilation,
but a refined study."

" I will propose a question to you," retorted the Doc-
tor : " why, then, should not the Indians be better men,
as they see these things day and night ?"

" Simply because the Indian never had mind enough
to think or reason at all of such things. You commit an
error by assuming that, because all these things are
visible and constant, therefore men of no mind will read
them aright ; but I think that it is, on the contrary, the
greatest minds that are the best students of nature, and
until a mind has received some education, it cannot
appreciate nature to any extent. Listen to the mon-
strous errors- the rustic repeats of what he sees in the
fields, and then, as the world culminates in a highly reli-
gious and educated society, see how it gathers, as in
London, all the birds of the air and beasts of the field,
together, to ' consider their ways and be wise.' "

As Miss Jackson talked, her grey eye kindled, and a
blush brightened either cheek. The Doctor raised him-
self gradually to a sitting position, then to his feet, and
then he walked across the floor, saying, in his clear,
hearty tone : " Give me your hand, Lou Jackson ! who
cares which comes first, the love of nature or the mind, to
appreciate her, the one is sure to produce the other."

118 WILD 6POKTS IN THE SOUTH.

" Wall, that's so," said Mike.

The evening promised a rainy day for the morrow,
and therefore it was arranged that Mike and I should
have a still hunt while Jackson would ride down to the
coast to see to some stores that had been promised to be
landed at a given point by a boat from St. Mark's.

" I think I will stay home to-morrow and set up some
birds," said the Doctor.

" You had better let >em slide, Poke," I remarked hi
a low tone.

" Never you mind," answered the Doctor, with a low
laugh. " A man's a man for a' that and a' that."

The negroes were turned out of the cabin, the fire was
covered, and in three minutes, oblivious of rain or deer,
all were in the " land o' dreams."

THE STILL HUNT. 119

CHAPTER IX.

THE STILL HUNT.

L'Aurore paraissait a peine,
Quand dans la brume a 1'horizon
Je 1'ai vu rcntrant de la plaine
Tout charge* de sa venaison.
Bedressant sa large empaumure
H s'est arr6te par trois fois
Puis il a longe* la bordure
Ecoutant 1'eau tomber sous bois.

As the first light struggled through the clouds and
the tassels of the pines overhead, Mike and I alone, with
our breakfasts in our hands, were winding our way
through the forest.

We trudged on as best we might over the rolling
knolls of sand, laced by the long, tough roots of the
palmetto, across hollows choked with grass and vines,
and down and up the quaggy sloughs that the waters had
made while seeking their level in the Ouithlacouchee.
The tough little ponies scampered along on the level
land, and where it was muddy Mike would slide to his
feet and cheer them on with whoop and hulloa, until
they ran up the banks as fast as they jumped, down. The
rain had ceased, yet it was not clear, and the drops hung

WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

on all the bushes, or showered down on us from above
as we struck the young timber.

Having reached a point of land in the bend of
the river, the ponies were unsaddled, their halters
were tied to their knees so that they could not run,
though giving them ample liberty to graze, and left
behind with an injunction to "Stay thar, yer sarcy
critters."

Again the word was forward. Mike led the way on a
long stride, his rifle lying in the hollow of his left arm,
and his body bending and oscillating to conform to the
inequalities of the ground. As he walked he turned
hither and thither, taking in with his eye everything in
the forest. At times, he would pick up a leaf here
and there, giving it a glance, and cast it down again.
Where the river bent, and we came where we could see
around the elbow, his walk was slow, and his foot came
down like a cat's ; when he was in the hollow he ran,
and almost halted as he rose the succeeding knoll, and
could take a view beyond.

As we walked, he pointed to a place in the sod, look-
ing at me with that communicative glance that said,
" There is something pleasant." On looking carefully, I
could just see a mark where the grass was thin, but a
mark it was, and nothing more ; it might be a natural
discoloration, or the result of one of the thousand mo-
tions constantly occurring in a forest.

"What is it?" I asked.

Mike picked up a broad leaf, one of those growing in

THE STILL HUNT. 121

a dank place, and handed it to me. The leaf was cut
almost in the shape of the letter V.

" What does that mean — a deer's track ?"

Mike nodded.

" How long ago was that track made ?"

" Two minutes — 'bout."

My looks must have expressed doubt, for Mike replied :
"Look here, now, leaves don't tell lies in the piney
woods, though I've heern tell they do in books. D'ye
see that juice comin' out of that leaf thai* jist whar the
the deer's huff cut it ?"

"Well?",

" D'yer think them air leetle drops has been more 'an
a week formin' when they're growin' bigger as ye look,
and haint run together yet ? Tear another leaf, don't it
come jist as fast ? Ain't that as plain as a bar up a gum
tree ? He's a sockdologer of a buck, too !"

" Now, Mike, look here. I will believe what you say
about the time, but don't say what you don't know.
You can have everything your own way here, but there
are no means in the world of telling this deer to have been
a buck, so you need not say so till we see it."

" Wall, now," said Mike, setting down the breech of
his heavy rifle on the ground, and leaning his chin on the
muzzle, while he looked at me with an expression of
pity ; " wall, now, ef I had a young 'un, and he
couldn't tell that he was a scandalous big buck, walking
alone slowly like out to the feedin' grounds, ef
I wouldn't claw his back with a wildcat, I would.

6

122 WILD 8POETS IN THE SOUTH.

Now jist look a here, there's one track by the lance
leaf."

" Yes."

" Here's the t'other on the same side, and here's the
t'other, and here's the t'other. Wall, that shows he's a
walkin', don't it ?"

" Ye-e-s."

" Thar he's nibbled off that young tree, haint he ?**

A small birch sprout, of about a foot in height, was
stripped of its leaves and bark.

" Ye-e-s."

" Wall, that shows he was feedin' slowly, and warn't
the leastwise anxious, and by the way the tracks pint I
calkerlate he's off for the meadows."

" Well, but how do you know it was not a doe ?"

" Cause he writ it up on that pine tree on ahead,
where the tracks are thick at the bottom. Now look on
the bark about six feet up, and tell me what rubbed that
bark off ef it warn't that buck's horns — and you better
believe it was a whopper ; no small buck kin scratch up
thar."

I thought a moment, and then the only wonder to me
seemed why it needed an explanation at all, it was so
clear.

" Whare has he gone ? Thare's a meadow across here
chock full of sweet grass and lily pads, and I reckon he's
thar, and slathers more."

A few minutes' walk, and we came on to the verge of
a natural meadow, bounded on every side by the forest,

THE STILL HUNT. 123

and yet smooth and waving as a field of grain, or a level
prairie. Here and there a water-oak reared itself from
the grass, twisting its great limbs on every side, shading
the sward below, and supporting wreaths of mistletoe
vines covered with waxen berries. But all else was one
free rustling field, grazed by the deer alone, and mowed
only by the winter fires or the hurricane. Over the
grass could be seen the marsh hawk wheeling along the
level in long slanting curves, while in the distance, where
a tall tree leaned over the eddies of the river, a solitary
eagle watched his primeval realm, where

Unheeded spreads the blossomed bud

Its milky bosom to the bee,
Unheeded falls along the flood

The desolate and aged tree.

This was a great pasture for the deer, and ever since
the creation thousands had spent the nights here, retir-
ing with the heat of the sun to the closer cover of the
pines.

" I haint seen that air buck's tracks agin," said Mike ;
" I rather think he haint got in yet. We'll go a leetle
further on to this ridge ; he will likely come down that
way, I reckon. Come, Yowler?" and taking the long
ear of his dog in his hand to prevent him taking to the
meadow, we ran on to the ridge. By the side of the
ridge we found quite a well-beaten deer path leading
through an opening in the fringe of trees that sur-
rounded the meadow, and through this, from time

124 WILD SPOKTS IN THE 80UTH.

immemorial, doubtless, the great horned herds had
wound their way in and out at their pleasure. Here,
too, were found tracks of wild hogs, and Mike pointed
out to me a broad foot-print of the cougar or panther
that had been made only the night before.

It was agreed that I should lie here concealed behind
some branches with my eye on the path leading from the
woods, while Mike should go around in the woods and
see what had become of the buck. In a moment he was
gone, and I was left lying on my breast, with my rifle
ready cocked before me, watching the lonely path that
led into the forest.

As soon as Mike was out of sight I began to feel that
intense loneliness and shadowy presence that is often
with one when in a great forest, particularly if unaccus-
tomed to its solitude. The stillness, the majesty of the
woods, the strange insects crawling about, the flickering
light that complexes the eye, the heart counting the time
with heavy throbs, the apprehension of making a noise,
all press on the senses with a bewildering power. I felt
this sensation, and longed for the deer or Mike, I cared
but little which. I sighted my rifle, and tried to deter'
mine from which way the deer would first come, feeling
certain he was mine if he appeared.

As I thus lay putting propositions to myself, I heard a
loud snort or whistle directly behind me. I turned has-
tily, and away bounded a buck that had been standing
apparently within ten feet of me. How I apostrophized
my carelessness, and watched the waving grass as he

THE STILL HUNT. 125

wound among the meadow paths far away on the
plains !

Again I watched, and this time more successfully, for
over the knoll I could see a pair of horns coming slowly
forward, though the deer was still out of sight. They
advanced like a rower in a boat, with measured but irre-
gular speed, and once in a while stopped altogether.
Then my heart beat like a drum, but when the horns
advanced again I felt more composed. At length the
head appeared above the brow of the hill, then the
shoulders, then the full length and height of the animal ;
there was no more doubt — it was the sockdolager of a
buck described by Mike. When it reached the hill it
seemed to halt for a survey, and viewed the whole extent
of the woods and savannah. Trees, and waters, and
waving grass, the cool retreats of low hanging bushes,
all appeared to his eye like the pleasant meadows to the
monarch bull, when released from his winter's stall, he
looks over the farm in the spring. All kinds of nervous
apprehensions arose in my mind. I feared lest he might
turn back, and almost called out in my anxiety. I
dreaded lest he should see me, and crouched to the
earth to prevent it. Presently, apparently satisfied with
his examination, he marched down the hill to where I lay
in ambush. His head high up, his great horns back, his
step like the step of a race-horse, he looked like a march-
ing king. I could not see any part of his body but his
breast, and did not like to take a front shot, but waited
until he should present some other view. But the stag

WILD SPOKT8 m THE SOUTH.

did not intend to turn aside ; he saw his feeding ground
beyond, green with the succulent herbage of the low-
lands, where his mates had awaited him all the night, and
he walked right onward. Now he was too near to
shoot. What should I do ? If he sees me, he will dash
off, giving me the worst possible shot. My heart beat
so I could not lay on my side, but raising my gun gently
on my left elbow, I depressed the breech, and without
taking sight, when the deer \fras almost over me, pulled
the trigger. With the report of my gun the frightened
animal sprang into the air as though he had been blown
up by a mine, and then dashed off into the woods. He
flew over the hills, and just as I had given him up for
lost I heard the clear ring of a rifle in the direction he
had gone. It was Mike's ; I knew its voice. What a
load fell off my mind — the deer was ours !

On reaching the place from whence the shot came, I
found Mike loading his rifle, and the deer with his
antlers ploughed into the ground by the force of his
running fall, and his throat cut. On looking for my shot
I readily found it in the breast, and the ball had gone
through the thick part of the neck without doing much
damage. Mike's had struck him in the head.

Selecting two small trees that grew from the same
root, we lifted our quarry up until his horns caught in
the angle, and his body hung down with his back to the
tree. Mike then cut the skin in a line from the throat to
the tail, and also a transverse line down each foreleg.
Then loosening the neck from the skin, he cut it off from

THE STILL HUNT. 127

the head at the first joint, and then pulled the fore
shoulders directly out of the skin, which, with the hind
quarters, was left hanging by the horns. When the
body of the deer was skinned as far down as the loins,
it was cut off there and thrown aside, while the hind-
quarters were neatly rolled in the skin with the branch-
ing horns, and hung on a sapling to await the time of
our return at night.

Our original plan had been to drive the deer from off
the meadows with the dog, we standing at the run-
ways, thus getting very fair shots on the open plain, but
by reason of the advanced hour of the day it seemed
doubtful if this plan would succeed; however, we
resolved to try it. Therefore we selected two paths,
apparently much frequented by the deer, and in some
places worn into channels, and sent Yowler off to hunt.
The old dog seemed to know his duty well, for he hied
away with a look at his master, and we could occasion-
ally see him, where the grass was thin, making long casts,
and occasionally his mellow voice would be borne in faint
from the distance.

Mike was standing not far away, and looking across the
grass I could see him leaning against a tree surveying
the scene befpre us. Afar down in the horizon I saw a
gang of deer headed by two bucks going out of the
meadow by some other path on a long lope ; I pointed
them out with my arm, and a nod from Mike showed me
he saw the game and understood my gesture. There go
two herons, blue and grey, flapping up from the grass,

128 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

and turning their heads first on one side and then on the
other ; the dog must be in that neighborhood and have
sprung them, though we cannot see him for the grass.

There comes a deer ; he is close by before one can see
he is started — a young buck with spike horns. How
fast he comes ! once in a while jumping high above the
grass to view his pursuer. Mike has disappeared behind
the tree against which he was leaning. I wonder which
path the deer will take. I raise my rifle ; no he is run-
ning for Mike. He comes now fast, and close behind
him is yelping the hound ! he is within shot of Mike,
running right for his stand. Spang ! rings the rifle ; the
deer jumps, staggers, halts, and falls. Well done, old
lied Beard ! next to shooting game one's self, the best
thing is to see it well shot by some one else.

Yowler is caught by his master, and sent back on the
meadows. Hardly had he gone out of sight before I
heard his yelp again, and a great rustle and shaking of
some reeds that grew a hundred rods in front of me.
There it is ! one, two, three deer — and there goes ano-
ther— and here comes a third party! The firing has
alarmed them, and they are off with a snort and a whistle,
each his own way. One has turned this way ; no, he has
gone toward the river. There is another ; he is coming
this way, surely ; yes, here he comes, head up, horns
back — a noble fellow. " Dear me !" I ejaculated, " this
is like shooting deer in a park." As I crouched low in
the narrow pass I was occupying, with a dense thorn
thicket on either hand, and the grass growing in front of

THE STU HUNT. 129

me sufficiently high to conceal me from view, I heard
the grass rattle furiously, and out dashed an old
boar, seeming in a desperate hurry; he ran close by
me, giving a malicious lunge with his snout, at me in
passing ; I sprung aside in time to avoid the compliment,
and gazed after his retreating form with feelings of great
indignation. The Spaniards of the coast had turned out
some hogs in this neighborhood in previous years, and
their offspring, increasing with great prolificness, had
become as savage as the boars of the Black Forest.

Before I had recovered my composure, another hog
came rushing past, grunting and tearing along, followed
by a whole herd of smaller animals, that thrashed down
the grass, and jammed past me in the wildest fright ; as
the last one came,~ I lost all patience, and fired. The
crowd was too thick to miss, and I had the satisfaction
of seeing one tumble over on its back. But my satisfac-
tion was short-lived when there swept by me a beautiful
deer on a long lope, and running as if playing with its
pursuer. He came so near me I could have hit him with
my gun, and did not see me until directly abreast ; Jhe
then rushed onward with a terrified leap, and was imme-
diately lost to view. At this instant I heard Mike fire a
shot, but could not see what he had killed.

When the dog came in, which he did in a moment, on
the trail of the deer that had passed me, he seemed
much worried, and laid down close at my feet and refused
to go out again. I could not account for his singular
behavior, but, not seeing any more deer on the meadow,

6*

130 WILD SPORTS #IN THE SOUTH.

I took him by the ear and walked around to where Mike
had taken his stand, and where he was busy taking off
the skins of the two deer he had shot.

" What did you shoot at ?" he inquired, as I came up.

"A young hog!" and then I told him how the drove
had rushed upon me, led by the vicious old boar, until
in desperation I had made bacon of one, and so lost my
chance at the deer.

"Some takes kindly to pork," replied Mike, "and
when hard up I can worry down a leetle roast pig myself
— but I don't keer to have 'em too often. Howsumever,
they like 'em at the house."

So taking up the two saddles of venison, we hung them
in the woods by the side of the other, and went down to
get my porker, but, alas ! like the old lady in the nursery
rhymes, when I came back my porker was gone.

" I am sure he was dead," I replied to Mike's quizzical
smile. " He lay there at that spot, and I had my feet
on him while I loaded my rifle. There's the blood on
the grass now."

" What druv the hogs out so fast — was Yowler arter
»em?"

" No, they seemed to come alone, and Yowler skulked
down, trembling, just as he is doing now."

Mike glanced at the dog, and then leaned down until
his face almost came against the sod, when, drawing him-
self partially up, he said, " We'd better make tracks out
of this corner ; there ain't room enough for a free fight
heyur."

THE STILL HUNT. 131

" To fight what V"

" Painter," he replied.

I looked at the speaker, but there was not the least
bit of joking in his face.

" How do you know that it is a panther ?" said I, in a
half whisper, the skin on my head contracting in spite of
myself at the idea of the animal having been there where
I stood only five minutes before in such fancied security.

"Wall, I know it in two ways," said Mike, in his
natural hearty tone, but without raising himself from his
stooping posture, and slowly bringing his rifle to a level,
" and one's 'bout's good as the tother. In the fust place,
thar's the mark of his foot on the grass ; and in the next
place, thar's the old sarpent himself under them are
bushes."

I leaned down and followed the direction of Mike's
eye under the bushes, and truly there was the panther
crouched under some wild plum-trees not forty feet off
from where we stood. He was in a sitting posture, and
one arm was stretched out and placed on the body of the
hog that laid beside him. There was something hand-
some in that position of easy grace, with the careless
claim of ownership that he extended over his prize. I
caught his yellow eye,, and could scarcely remove my
own from the fascination of its glance. He had the air
of a sentinel challenging us strangers, and I, for one, felt
like an intruder, and had a mental desire of apologizing
and retiring.

" Jist keep steady-like," said Mike, in his usual slow

132 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

tone, " Don't move fast, but step a leetle away from me,
and ef I miss him he will come out, and then you try."

As he finished speaking, his rifle was at his shoulder,
arid the clear report of the piece was followed by a rush-
ing bound as the animal came out. Mike drew his knife,
but it was useless ; the panther spent his life in that pro-
digious leap, and lay dead on the grass. The rifle
ball had gone through his brain. . »

"Ha!" said Mike, with a prolonged accent and strong
out-breathing that showed the force of his feelings.
Then, leaning down and laying his hand on the tawny
face of his fallen foe, he caressed him as he would have
done a child, smoothing his cheek and lifting his paw,
and speaking to him. in the proud yet tender way he
would have spoken to his sweetheart. " And ye be a
purty critter ; yer eyes has babies in 'em. My beauty,
didn't you know me when you squatted thar? I've
knowed you, pet, I reckon, when yer were quite a
youngster. I've seen you sleepin? on my coat like any
cat. I've watched you almost ever since, and heerd of
all yer doin's. Yer forgot me, but I didn't forgit you,
no how at all, little yaller back, and now yer dead, poor
thing. Wall, wall, we'll all come to that soon, only let's
have our traps all ready. I wish, Lou Jackson could see
you where you're layin'."

When this funeral address was ended, we dragged the
body out of the bushes into a more open place, to take
off the skin. The shooting of deer was an every-day
work, and they were skinned in a minute ; but the death

THE STILL HUNT. 133

of a panther, and the taking off his robe, is an incident
that calls forth the liveliest feelings of pleasure in those
who participate in it, and only the hunter can understand
the accent of pride with which Mike at length held up
in both hands the huge tawny skin, with its pendent
claws and cat-like head, saying, " Ain't that a bed for a
king ?" When we had completed this work, noon had
long since passed away, and we looked around for a spot
to dine.

Near where we had hung our first deer, on the slop-
ing side of a clay bank, a spring of water rose from the
earth, " and a clearer one never was seen," which filling
a natural basin among the roots of the trees that over-
hung it, poured down the hill in a trickling rivulet, and
joined by other smaller springs, sought its level on the
great savannah, where its course could be traced by the
eye for a mile or more by the line of joint grass and flags
that took root in its waters^ By this spring we carried
our three saddles of venison, our hog, and our panther
skin, and sat ourselves down to dinner. Not a grand
dinner of cold fowl and claret, sandwiches and cakes,
with which in more favored places hunters in the woods
regale their inner man, but a dinner that consisted sim-
ply of a large square of corn-bread, and an equally large
square of venison steak, but so hungry were we that no
rich repast, even though spread at Verey's, at Paris,
would have been more highly honored, and surely no
table, even on the Santa Lucia, with the broad bay of
Naples, and the flaming spire of Vesuvius before the

134: WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

door, could have been spread in a more graceful place,
or with a more characteristic view. The deep well
spring with its seething sands at the bottom churned
into a constant motion, the trees that for ages had
guarded that source, the rippling murmur of the brook,
the soughing of the pine leaves, the broad perspective of
meadow, with the distant belt of river beyond, so far
away that its gleam was like the horizon, the nearer
scamper of the squirrel, or the flap of the heron's wing as
disturbed by our presence he rose from the flags, all gave
a landscape to the eye, or a sense of solitude to the
mind, and occupied us in contemplation for an hour or
more after the dinner was ended.

'•' Do you think you ever saw that panther before to-
day?" I asked of Mike, as I tossed him over the tobacco
pouch.

" I'm not over sartin, but I reether spect. Yer see
thar ain't many on 'em heyar bout, and it was jist two
years ago when that ere painter cub I guv Colonel
Brown, at Tampa, vamosed, and then he was two
years old. This one, you see, would be nigh on to
three, and that would jist make it." A long puff or two
followed from his short pipe, when he said in a musing
manner, " That air cub left bekase of a fight he got in
with a soldier at the fort. Yer see he guv the soldier a
slap, when the soldier struck him with his bay'nit, and
then the painter jist chawed him up and sloped. Wall,
now look a heyar, do you see that mark on his cheek ?"
There was a triangular scar on the animal's cheek, just

THE STILL HUNT. 135

under the eye. " That, I calkelate, is that ere bay'nit
dig. This is the last o' that settlement. Grey Wolf's
band got the old painter, and the cub I left thar in my
coat, so I've heern ; the t' other cub, the one I toted to
Tampa Bay, is this heyar, and that's all the painters thar
is round these diggins."

Without precisely understanding the reasoning by
which Mike arrived at this last affirmation concerning a
wood that apparently might contain a thousand such
animals without any one being aware of it, I could not
help smiling at the particularity of his genealogical
knowledge of this family.

" Thar's somewhar here about another varmint, and a
purtier one yet, though tain't of much account as a
fighter. I've seen his tracks and have promised his skin
to Lou Jackson, and ef he ain't a ghost I'll git him some
day, though I've been a month tryin' to find him."

" What is the animal ?"

"Tiger cat; a rael likely little critter; yaller with
black dabs. I reckon he's 'bout the size of a small
hound."

" You were in a hurry to make your promises. How
do you know you can get it ?"

" Because Lou Jackson wants it."

" Could you get anything Lou Jackson wanted?"

" I reckon," replied Mike, with the assurance of a man
that had never failed in any thing he desired with his
whole mind.

" How long have you known Lou Jackson ?"

136 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

" Goin' on to three years."

" Where did they come from ?"

" Oh, Jackson had a big plantation on the upper coast
somewhere nor'east ; but I've heern say he lost his crops
and got in debt, and fit a duel, and then cum heyar,
and built this house, and called it ' Far Away.' "

" I thought you had known his family longer, you
seem such a friend of Miss Lou."

" I have known them only three years ; and some
folks you know soon, and Lou Jackson is one of them
kind."

" She is a pleasant girl."

" Yes, I can say that. Thar's nobody in Floridy that
can say so much, and be so sparin' of words. She's
always the same ; she makes it light all about the Ouith-
lacouchee when it's black dark everywhere else, she's so
happy like. Even the Injins, when they come there,
draw in their claws and act genteel, and that's oncom-
min for an Injin."

" They are very much exposed, living here so far from
protection, and bands of these Indians roving about, and
sometimes Jackson himself away."

" No ; he don't leave often unless she goes with him ;
but many a night I've kept round that house when
nobody knowed it, jist to know that she was sleepin',
when these cusses has been about."

" What did she say to you when she heard of your
watchfulness ?'*

" How would she know ? Do you think I would tell

THE STILL HUNT. 137

her sich like stuff? It's natural enough that I should
watch fur her. Wall — wall — thar are piles o' painters in
this State purty as this one, but there aint no woman
that is as handsome as Lou Jackson. That's so ?"

"Do you know anything about the duel that Col.
Jackson fought ?"

" I've heern tell that it was a hard go ; they fired one
at the t'other till the Colonel bored his man, and then
he larnt it was all a mistake, and they needn't have fit at
all ; but who the man was, or what they fit about, I don't
know. Whar's the terbacker ?"

I passed the pouch of squirrel-skin over to the hflnter,
and filling his pipe again, he relapsed into a musing
silence, while I watched the lengthening shadows, and
thought over the strange life at Far Away, the moody,
reckless, hearty, proud planter, and the gentle though
strange tastes of the daughter. What a wasting, sensi-
tive, weary heart he seemed to carry, joyous only by
turns, and then boisterously gay ! What a cheering
controlling presence hers, so earnest and frank, yet all
the while so lively and self-willed ! And the house itself
was a perfect mixture of roughness and grace, the life
within contrasting with its appearance, as did the fancy
of its name with the rudeness of its exterior. No news of
the world, no society, no lover, no music, the literature
of the most meagre kind, and yet the whole family
instinct was graceful and thoughtful, and like to no
western farm that ever yet was seen.

As I thus ran on, I noticed the sun was low in the west.

138 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

" It will be dark soon."

" I reckon," said Mike, in his usual manner.

" But we can't stay out here all night."

" I've lain by this spring right often, but I s'pose we
may as well go now ; you go ketch the ponies, and I'll
get their pelter ready."

I accordingly went after the ponies, which were
found near where we had hoppled them. As I rode
ba#k I saw a single buck feeding in the open woods,
but stopping to attempt a shot, he ran off in the
direction that we had come in the morning. On return-
ing £> the spring, Mike had the game already bound,
and balanced so as to hang over the ponies. The hog
balanced two saddles of venison, and the panther's skin
another saddie. After loading the ponies we started
toward home, Mike promising to get the buck I had
seen when I went for the ponies. I showed him the
place where the deer had been feeding when I first saw
him, and the direction he had taken.

" Wall, that'll do," he said ; " he's so much nigher
home."

In a few minutes after, as we mounted a hill, we saw
the deer in the distance again, and as we came in view
he looked at us for a moment, and then gently trotted
on, and some small galls or swamp holes intervening, was
soon lost to sight.

" Thar, he'll do now. Take your pony by the bridle,
and follow fast right for that gall."

We came within a hundred yards of the brake, and

THE STILL HUNT. 139

then hoppling the ponies, ran on to the edge of the
bushes, that afforded a good cover. Having reached this,
we passed carefully through, looking out toward the
open land beyond in hopes to see the buck within shot,
but, alas ! he was too wise for that, and had only stopped
when fully beyond the reach of harm from the thicket
close behind. Near by, a turkey-hen was leading a large
brood of youag ones, nearly full grown, clucking and
hopping along, and running hither and thither in the
pursuit of spiders and other insects, that showed she was
utterly unconscious of her dangerous neighbors.

" Now we'll have to crawl for it," said Mike,.

" Then the sooner we begin, the sooner we get within
shot," said I, moving forward.

" Stop," whispered Mike ; " wait till those turkeys get
away. If the deer sees them run away in a hurry he'll
make tracks too, for he knows thar is something wrong
hereabout, and having seen us once, he'll know it's us."

So we waited patiently until the turkey brood had
sauntered down the woods, and then emerged from our
place of concealment. Mike ran ahead in a stooping pos-
ture, and I followed close behind, running when he ran,
and halting when he stopped. The first run we made
was comparatively easy, for an immense pine tree, made
doubly large by a large grape-vine that wound around it
and hung in clusters by its trunk, fully concealed our
approach. Here we took another survey of the ground
and the game, and then, when a tree intervened between
us and the head of the deer, which stood with his side

140 WILD SPOETS IN THE SOUTH.

toward us, we ran forward again until the deer wagged
his tail, when we halted, in whatever position we might
be.

It may be necessary to explain, for the benefit of those
who have never learned the fact from deer-stalking, that
a deer feeds and watches at irregular intervals, and that
always, two or three seconds before raising his head,
either to walk forward, or to cast a glance of watchful-
ness around him, he gives his white tail a quick whisk or
two. The knowledge of this simple and peculiar habit
is of immense use to the still-hunter, who is thus fore-
warned when to advance, and Avhen to lie still.

Thus by quick and short advances we approached to
within a very long shot of our deer. My heart was
beating thick and fast, and the sweat of great men-
tal excitement stood in drops on my face, and rolled in
my eyes, causing me to wipe them with my sleeve every
minute.

" Now," whispered Mike, " ef yer want to try him,
yer must crawl alone while I wait ; we can't get any
nearer together, but mind his tail."

So Mike laid still behind the weeds that were shelter-
ing us, while I went on alone. Horatius advancing
before the Roman army to defend the bridge, could not
have felt more keenly the prominence of his position
under the eyes of all Rome, than I did as I stalked for-
ward, under the keen eye of Mike the Spook, to shoot
that deer. First I had a little shrub between me and
the buck, and about twenty feet ahead ; to this I ad-

THE STILL HUNT.

vanced safely. As I arrived, the deer whisked his tail
and looked round. Waiting a moment, to my great dis-
comfiture he turned his face toward me, and then com-
menced eating again. This was a state of affairs that I
had not anticipated, for it shut me out from a view of
that barometer tail. However, I calculated the time
during which he would probably feed, and made a short
advance. The deer now turned quarteringly toward me,
and, taking advantage of this change, with my eye fixed
upon him, I was hastily advancing, when something dis-
turbed the animal before his usual tune. I laid down
flat on the grass, with my rifle before me, as the buck,
now within shot, raised his crowned head, and took a
long and deliberate survey of the ground. There seemed
to be some latent suspicion in his mind, for, though not
seeing me, he yet looked all around him several times,
and then over me, and finally commenced walking
directly toward me. I slowly elevated my rule on my
left hand, my elbow all the while on the ground. The
piece reached its level — my heart beat as though it was
tugging with the blood that flowed through it — the deer
was at a close shot, and all the time coming nearer, yet
I could not aim correctly. Still on he came toward me,
his ears turned back and forth, his head stretching for-
ward, his nose dilating as he snuffed the air, and his eyes
seeming to look me through. I summoned my courage,
and held my breath ; every sense seemed to pause while
I sighted for the white breast not forty yards off. Dear
me ! the gun was not cocked. A pause was required for

142 WILD SPOBTS IN THE SOUTH.

this, and I became more nervous than ever. I aimed
again. A brief instant — it seemed an age between my
pulling the trigger and the discharge of the piece — when
the clear crack of the rifle sounded, and the deer, wheel-
ing around, flew away " as if the wolves of the Apennines
were all upon his track."

I looked around for Mike ; there he lay in the weeds,
and on the end of his ramrod he had been waving a little
red flag that had attracted the attention of the buck, and
lured him on to his dangerous position. I saw the deer
for a mile down the open woods flitting past the trees,
and I knew I had made a clear miss. On coming up to
Mike his dry smile glowed in the corners of his eye as he
asked me, " Did you hit him ?"

Without answering the question, I asked him why he
did not shoot, as the buck was clearly within shot for him
as well as myself.

" We've got our pile of deer's meat, and 'nuff is 'nuff,
and what's the use a wastin' ?"

So we went back for our ponies, and again started for
home, where we arrived safely late in the evening, to find
the big fires blazing, and a supper kept all ready for our
coming. How pleasant the cabin looked, from the damp
darkness without !

" And sweet the music of the step
That meets us at the door."

THE FLORIDA POCAHONTAS.

CHAPTER X.

THE FLORIDA POCAHONTAS.

" Theirmemory liveth on your hills,

Their baptism on your shore,
Your everlasting rivers speak

Their dialect of yore."

SIGOUBNET.

THE evening meal was ended ; the planter's family and
the hunters were circled around the fire, weary with the
day's fatigues and enjoying rest as none but the weary
may. Pipes and cigars were lit, and the negroes crowded
the door-way, while, as in many a hunting-lodge before,

" The stag-hounds, weary>with the chase,

Lay stretched upon the rushy floor,
And urged in dreams the forest race
From Teviot Stone to Eskdale Moor."

" Now for a story, Mike," said Miss Jackson.

" No, taint my turn. Doctor, slide along with a yarn."

" No, no ; stories are dealt like cards, always to the
left. It is your turn, Jackson."

" Well, what shall it be — anything from a fight to a
foot-race ?"

"Let Miss Jackson name the subject," I suggested.

144 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

" Then it will be love," said Poke, with his blandest
bow to the lady in question.

" More likely hate," said the planter's daughter, her
dark skin flushing at the Doctor's speech. " Tell us a
tale of woman ; we have the chase in reality every day."

"As you will — woman forever. Throw on another
log, boys."

The fire belched up a million sparks to the deep sky.
The flames started out afresh, and Jackson, putting his
pipe in its buckskin cover, and drawing himself up by his
elbows to the convenient support of a log, where he could
face the whole of his auditors, in a rough, though deep,
voice, and with occasional gesture, as he warmed with
his theme, spoke in the following romantic and poetical
style: &!•£,'

" Three times, since the Spaniard came to this country,
has a century rolled its wheel over the Floridas, each
time burying a generation of oaks, that mature and fall
once in av hundred years, each time obliterating two
generations of man — more transient than the trees of the
hummocks.

" Now, the land is a common, every-day reality. The
planter eats his corn-bread in his cabin ; the negro toils
at his daily task ; the Indian hunts in the pine-land, at
peace with the settler ; and if there is anything of the
poetry or romance of life in the land, it is to be found ha
the tropical luxuriance of vegetation, and the beautiful
life of the everglade, and not in the noble daring of man.

" Then, in the Floridas, there was romance in thought

THE FLOEIDA POCAHONTAS. 145

and action — romance in history and in fiction, in dress,
in races, and the love of man and woman, and all the
world was tame when compared with this El Dorado.
Here was the warrior's field ; here the adventurer's goal;
and hither came the poet to sing of Eden. Here landad
the courtly and refined cavaliers of the most chivalrous
nation of the earth. In an age of discovery, when all
the world was intoxicated by those vistas of wealth and
novelty that the Genoese opened to the ardent, no one
Arcadian land loomed from the waters of the Occident,
so clad in purple, so vocal with music, so voluptuous with
beauty, as this so-called Island of Florida.

"Its discovery was wrought by, and illustrates the
romance of the age. Ponce de Leon was a hidalgo of
Spain — noble, accomplished, and renowned. With grey
hairs had come honors and high command in the Indian
Islands, when the tales of his mistress, a Carib girl, told
him of a spring whose waters would bring back the fire
of youth, and renew his wasted years. This fountain
was situated on the coast of the great Mexican Gulf,
where the oak, when dropping into the sea, is trans-
formed into coral groves, its pendent moss waves beneath
the waters changed into sea-fans, while, mirrored in the
sea, the scarlet flamingoes reflect the colors of Paradise.

" The old knight sailed with his cavaliers in search of
this fountain, and landed among the mangrove bowers and
painted birds of the western coast, on Easter-day or day
of flowers of the year 1512, and thence baptized the newly-
discovered land by the name of Florida. Not finding tho

7

146 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

fabled waters, the Quixotic knight and his visionary fol-
lowers succumbed to those years they sought to reverse,
leaving a heritage of poetry and fiction to the coast they
discovered, as rich as the tales of Genii to Araby the Blest.
They died by shipwreck and wars ; or, if the legends of
those seas may be believed, they still live among the
coral reefs and keys that girdle the coast, and there,
having found that long-sought fountain of perpetual
youth, wander where the coral bowers make forests of
beauty — where the sands are strewed with gems, and the
summer never wanes. It is said to be a comely sight to
the diver there, when the waters are clear, to see the
Castilian knights, with their costly armor and their trail-
ing plumes, loitering with the Indian girls of long ago
under the pink shadow of the coral."

" What a ripper !" ejaculated Mike.

"An untimely remark," replied Jackson, turning to
the hunter, with a solemn wave of the hand, " and it
savors of unbelief."

" Wall ! the Gulf is a mighty safe place to yarn about
— for nobody knows enough to know nothin' about it —
that's sartin. Pile on."

Thus enjoined, Jackson, after a glance at his daughter
Louisa's wondering eyes, opened his mouth, and con-
tinued as follows:

"Following fast in the wake of the explorer, came
noble and vassal, for fame, or greed, or heroic quest.
Velasquez, De Guerray, Narvaez, succeeded each other
as conquerors or visitors to the newly-discovered land.

THE FLOEIDA POCAHONTAS. 147

"PamphilodeNarvaez was no mere adventurer. To
family honors and name he added the higher title of a
fame won on the battle-field, and wealth and love added
their charms to bind him to ease. But he also had heard
of that fabled spring, and from the esplanade of his
princely home in Cuba had seen the evening sky reful-
gent with what was said to be the reflection of the gold
of the Floridas ; and so, when the wind came fresh from
the eastward, the morning-star saw his black-eyed lady
watching from her balcony the lessening galleys that
were bearing away her chief and four hundred men.

" After seven days of* favoring winds, Narvaez landed
on the western shore of the peninsula, near where the
Mecaco River empties into Charlotte Bay, and forthwith
the bands of armed men, with their standards and their
horses, landed on the beach, and took possession of the
land in the name of Spain. A curious spectacle did the
adventurers present. There were the chiefs, with their
haughty mien, and Moorish war-horses, the soldier with
his pike and lance — the blue-steel cuirass, the chain shirt,
and Toledo blade — all contrasted with that tropical coun-
try of birds and flowers, and the gentle mien of the
Indians that welcomed them. Around their leader were
gathered chiefs of noble name : Cobecca de Vacca, the
treasurer ; Quesada, from his stately house in Cordova ;
and La Manca, the most gallant gentleman of Navarre.
There came, also, priests to cure the souls of the be-
nighted— hooded priests, whose convent stood high on
the hills of Sierra de Diego, and little boys to swing the

148 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

incense at the altars ; and hounds in couples nosing the
scented air with their tawny muzzles. All the parapher-
nalia of glorious war, and the emblems of an ostentatious
religion, or wild sports, swept by Gaspiralla Island, and
with the sound of the trumpet and the horn landed on
the main land.

" But a short history remains to be told. Treachery
to the natives aroused revenge. The arrow soughed on
every wind, hostile bands disputed every stream. One
battle followed another. The troops were divided in dif-
ferent bodies, under different leaders, and fought their
way northward, until all but fifteen of that hopeful army
found a grave, either on the field of battle or the quick-
sand swamps. Fifteen, under the command of De Vacca,
coasted the Gulf, and gained a shelter in the Mexican
colonies. But one man, a common soldier named Ortez,
escaped the others' doom. Being left wounded on a
battle-field, he watched his opportunity, and, as night
covered the shattered dead and trodden field, he crept
down to the water's edge, guided by the splash of the
sea. Here, finding a canoe of the natives, he hastily
gathered some fruit to support him on his voyage, and
setting a sail, was soon beyond pursuit. He coasted
down the shore, only landing at night to gather the
turtle's and bird's eggs that were abundant on all the
islands, until he reached Cuba, and saw once more the
towers of a Spanish town.

"A sad day it was in St. Jago de Cuba, when Ortez
came back with that Indian boat, and the grim tale of

THE FLORIDA POCAHONTAS. 149

disaster. Solemn-moving men, cloaked to the chin, in
spite of the tropical air, clustered together in the Plaza.
Lustrous eyes were dim with tears, and duennas hurried
hither and yonder to gather some scrap of hope for mis-
tresses, whose first young love was buried in the buz-
zard's maw.

" Ortez was summoned to the presence of Nar-
vaez's widow. In a few moments he had entered the
quadrangular stone court, and stood in a room where the
light came in through canopied windows, and the air
was cool with the splash of waters, whose music brought
back to his memories the houses of Seville. The stately
dame of the lost knight sat on a cushion by the window.
Her eyes were hollow with watching and grief, and her
voice was solemnly deep and low. Behind her sat her
daughter, with a black veil shrouding her face. The
soldier, leaning on his sword, at her word of command,
told the story of their cruise, of their landing and bitter
war, he narrated how, one by one, the leaders found
inglorious deaths by disease, by heat, by arrows, or flood
or quicksand, and how presently they had none to com-
mand but De Vacca.

" * But your chief — your chief, man ! Where did he
fall — how did he die — did you kill the foeman that
struck him, and honor his corpse as a king's ?' demanded
the proud woman.

" ' De Narvaez did not die by my side, or I would
have revenged him ; nor was his body buried by our
band.'

WILD 8POET8 IN THE SOUTH.

"'Where did he die — how — when? Speak faster,
man.*

" ' I don't know how he died. They say he died like
a hero ; and when attacking a fort at Appalachi, with
his good sword cleared a road so far into the stockade,
that his men could not get to him, and there he
remained and fell.'

" ' And where were you, did you leave your chief,
heathen Moor ?'

" ' No ; would I come back to Cuba had I done that ?
I was not with Narvaez's band ; they had separated
before into five parties.'

" ' Who was with my husband ?'

" 4 They are all dead that saw him fall, or prisoners
among the Indians.'

" 4 There were Spanish prisoners among the Indians,
then ?'

" ' Yes, they seized three or four ; but we counted
them dead, for they never kept Spanish prisoners.'

" ' What then did they do with them ?'

"The soldier replied not in words, but taking his
unkempt locks in one hand, with the edge of the other
he made a circle around his head, and then with the first
hand gave a twist, and a wave that was horribly signifi-
cant of the scalping process, that had then but just
come to the ears of the Spaniard, and possessed, to his
mind, the double terror of mystery.

"A groan and a long pause followed this panto-
mime.

THE FLORIDA POCAHONTAB. 151

" ' Soldier,' said the lady, ' he was your chief, you left
him in a hostile country; you do not know his fate —
will not honor, a soldier's name, tempt you to return, and
seek to biing some tidings of his death ?'

" ' Ha ! where is the honor to all my comrades who
are buried in those woods ? There is no honor there,
my lady.'

" ' Where is your religion man ? You swore on the
cross in our Holy Mother Church to defend your liege
and propagate your faith.'

" ' By My Lady, I kept my oath ; but where there is
no standard, and even the priest is slaughtered by the
savages, there is no piety in staying.'

" ' Have you ever loved since you left the Tagus ?'

" The soldier's eye glanced quick at the lady's, but he
did not answer, and the young girl peered from her
veil beside her mother, on the comely form of the
soldier.

" * Ortez, I will give you the fairest girl in all the colo-
nies if you will do this one thing for me.'

" ' I can't. "What is love worth if you cannot enjoy
it ? I have been been a true soldier in many a war ; but
this is no war. We have lost our ship, our lives, our
horses, our chief, everything is gone of that array, and
never a real have we won to repay us all. What, then,
could I do alone ?'

" * Soldier, you are a poor man now, are you not ?*

" ' As poor as a muleteer.'

" Do this for me and I will make you rich.*

152 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

" The lady's eye was on the adventurer, and noted his
look.

" * Do this for me. I will send you with a pinnace, I
will name you a lieutenant Before you go, and when you
return, I will pay you here in this chamber two hundred
ounces of gold. Stay here now as you are, and you
remain the bankrupt soldier, pointed out as the man who
left Narvaez in Florida.'

" Steadily Ortez weighed in his mind his chances of
life, and the golden sum that was as sure to him on the
promise of that woman as though belted at his waist.
His eye looked at the soft light that came in at the win-
dow, and the spattering fountain in the court below,
vacantly, while one could count two score ; and then,
turning to the widow, he said :

" ' I will go,' adding, with Spanish grace, ' and may
our Lady Mother keep you well till my return.'

" In a few days the adventurous soldier was again in
the Mexican Gulf, steering for the battle-fields where he
had left his chief. He sailed among islands covered with
mangroves, and pillared on coral, touching at every
prominent point, and threading the broad lagoons where
the sea-ferns spread their palms to the light of the upper
air. When opportunities offered, he landed on the
shore, and tried, by presents and gentle words, to gain
from the natives the information he desired, but they
remembered the fierce forays of Velasquez and Narvaez,
and only treated with the adventurer to betray. He was
induced one day by the Apalaches to visit the shore, and

THE FLOKDDA POCAHONTAS. 153

was at once seized ; and being recognized as one of Nar-
vaez's band, was condemned to death. His frightened
comrades having lost their guide, made haste to weigh
anchor, and sailed away to Cuba, glad to escape from
the terrors of that Stygian shore.

" Ortez was a true Spaniard. His haughty mien, dark
hair and eye, his active strength and bronzed face, all
spoke the soldier of fortune, and impressed the feebler
natives with a respect in spite of their hatred. His dress,
in the fashion of the day, of embroidered velvet and lace,
gave him the appearance, to their eyes, of a chief of rank,
and they rejoiced that they could punish their Spanish
foes by the sacrifice of one of their great men, and led
him, bound, to the village of the Appalachean Cacique.
This town was situated, as near as the old histories of
those days can inform us, on one of the many islands
that crowd the mouth of the Appalachicola river. It is
the more difficult to designate the spot, because, from
the currents of the river, new islands are formed and the
old ones are buried in the lapse of time, and the whole
character of the timber has been changed. Where now
groves of stunted pine surmount the sandy ridges, and
the swamp poplar and the rank titi cover the piles of
drift-wood that lodge on the upper end of the islands,
there formerly stood the life-oak, the gum, the maple,
and the pawpaw, while the deer grass beneath was pur-
ple with its fragile flowers, and the blossoms of the run-
ning gourds that the natives loved to cultivate.

" Ortez was rowed in a canoe among many an island
7*

154 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

covered with this rich vegetation, and dotted by the rush-
thatched cottages of the people. He saw stockade forts
built of reeds frowning down in mimic pomp on the
waters that had never bristled with more dangerous arms
than the tomahawk and the arrow. He heard the shrill
sound of clarionets and horns, and saw waving standards
of gaudy feathers. The women that rowed the boat in
which he was bound were dressed in the simple robe that
befitted the summer land. Their linen, or sea-grass kilts,
were trimmed with feathers or furs, and sea-shells orna-
mented their hair and ankles. Their olive colored limbs,
unshackled by dress, were as graceful in form as the
children that played on the sand ; and the men in the
stern of the barge, though warriors, all had that gentle
manner and expression that belongs to the natives of
every southern clime.

" On arriving at the village, the prisoner was led to
the Indian chief and his council, before the public lodge
of the village. There was short discussion as to the pun-
ishment, and no remarks were made by the prisoner at
the bar why sentence should not be passed, for;, in sooth,
he could not say a word in any tongue they could under-
stand. An Indian communicated to him, by a symbolic
motion of shooting with an arrow, that his death was
appointed ; and then, pointing to the setting sun, and
describing a semi-circle with his hand, assigned the time
for the morrow morning at sunrise. The prisoner was
led away, little noting the laugh of the Indian child that
pointed him out to his comrade at play, little heeding

THE FLOBIDA POCAHONTAS. 155

the wondering eyes of the Indian girls that followed his
steps ; for his thoughts were where the Alcanadra River
was leaping his native hills of Arragon, and the castanets
clacked to the dancer's tread unner the walls of his home
in Huesca.

" But there were others at the village who did not join
in the verdict of the chiefs. Those simple hearts, whose
love and faith in the forest, or the town, all the wide
world over, makes the sunshine to man's gloom, the hope
to passion's rigor, had seen the stranger, had sorrowed
for him, and had longed to save him. First among them
all was the daughter of the chief. Availing herself of
her rank, she had stood without the ring when Ortez was
under examination. She had seen his melancholy atti-
tude, and met the fiery glance of his Spanish eye. She
had marked his slashed doublet, and the graceful em-
broideries of his vest. His heavy moustache was differ-
ent from the smooth-faced warriors of her tribe, and his
form, by their lithe figures, towered like King Richard's
at Askelon. Her uncovered bosom throbbed beneath
the necklace of coral, her deep eyes were vacant with
thought ; Yahchilane was in love; and the object of her
love was the Spanish soldier that was to die at sunrise."

" That's not nateral at all, an Injin woman is a leetle
wuss nor an Injin man, and is allers down on a pri-
soner."

"You Mike!" said Louisa Jackson, with a hushing
gesture of her hand ; and the hunter relapsed into silence,
and sat as before, listening to the story, and rolling back-

156 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

ward and forward, with his arms clasped around his
knee. «

" It was the old story of Pocahontas anticipated among
a gentler people, and Yahchilane did not need to throw
herself under the war-club to gain the prisoner's pardon.
She came, when the moon was up, to her father's house,
and with her came one of the young girls of the tribe,
the friend of the chieftain's daughter. They brought
a roll of cloth, finely woven from the inner bark of
trees ; they brought tatooed gourds, filled with the pre-
cious stones that Indians prize so well, and wampum
belts of amber-colored shells ; they brought their gayest
kirtles of the skins of the merganser and wood-duck ;
and the moccasin, deftly sewed with the porcupine's
quills ; and when the old man, the chief of the Apala-
ches, sat at his door sill, and the next eldest chief beside
him, Yachilane and her maiden threw all these things at
his feet. Then stripping from her head the long white
feathers of the egret that shaded her neck, and unwind-
ing from her waist the cocoa-fibred skirt, she tossed them
on the pile and sat down in the sand, saying :

" ' Yahchilane is sick, and will need these things no
more — she is ready to go with the dead that go to-mor-
row morning.'

" The old chief sat silently looking at his daughter ;
but he understood her not.

" ' Where will the Young Swan go to-morrow mom ;
and why is she ill ?'

" * She sees a great man, with eyes like an eagle's, and

THE FLOBIDA POCAHONTAS. 157

hail- like a bear's — with a mantle of moleskin and gold,
and a silent tongue — he is alone and a stranger — and to-
morrow he dies ; and Yahchilane would rather hunt with
him in the Happy Land than stay here alone.'

" When the old chief heard this, he knew what the
offering meant ; for it was all of his daughter's goods,
and all that she and her maidens had woven through the
year. He knew how fast love comes under a tropical
sky, where the blood is hot, and how far the wild feeling
would cariy an Indian girl. He remembered the days
when Yahchilane's mother was a maiden ; and he turned
away to his brother chieftains, and left his daughter still
bent on the sands.

" At a summons hastily sent, the warriors came again
together, and sat as before around the door of their chief.
They kindled a fire, and the flames flashed red over many
a reed-covered house — over the pickets and lagoons, and
the still bowed figure of girl. None looked at the chief's
daughter, though all saw her sitting, and wist why she
remained ; and then they talked long and slowly, and
from mouth to mouth passed the pipe, fringed with eagle
feathers and the long beard of the turkey-cock. Hardly
wrould it have fared with the Spaniard if they had con-
fined themselves to his deserts — for the cruel wars of
Narvaez were fresh in their minds, and they remembered
Anta, and how their kinsmen had fallen there under the
arquebus and the long Spanish blade ; but when they
frowned and looked down, they still saw the young girl
in her beseeching posture, divested of her robes, with

158 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

her face in her hands ; and their hearts failed them, and
they consented. The council again broke up, and the
old chief, raising his daughter there under the palm trees,
gave her the life of her captive.

" When the morrow's sun glinted athwart the persim-
mons and sycamores, Ortez was again brought before the
council. But how different the scene ! His eye was bright
and hopeful — his step as proud as a Don ; and in €very
corner and on every face, fell his glance in pleasure and in
love. How had he learned the change in his fate ? Who
could tell him that he had been pardoned, when none in
all the land spoke a word of his tongue ? When he was
led before the council, Yahchilane stood beside her father
arrayed in her brightest dress. Ortez walked to her,
and raising her hand to his lips with the dignity of a
cavalier, kissed it and drew her to his side — she was
already his wife. And all the chiefs, the women and
children, understood that mute ceremony; and they
clapped their hands and shouted unintelligible words,
and Ortez and his young bride were the fairest and bra-
vest for many years of all the Appalachians.

THE FLORIDA POCAHONTAS CONTINUED. 159

CHAPTER XI.

THE FLOBIDA POCAHONTAS CONTINUED.

" Pray how comes love ?

It comes unsought, unsent.
Pray how goes love ?
That was not love that went."

"AMONG races but little advanced from a state of
nature, no human quality excites greater reverence than
personal bravery, and Ortez inheriting this power as a
natural birthright, soon sat in the first ranks among his
adopted people. He had to throw aside his arquebus for
lack of powder ; but acquired the art of shooting the
bow, and flinging the metal ball, with as much accuracy
as his instructors. He still retained his basket-hilted
sword, and his shirt of link mail ; and in the different
wars of the tribe, there was none who could strike a
surer blow, or stand longer in the breach, or was greater
feared for his prowess than the adopted Spaniard, who
rose to the position of second chief of the nation, passing
those who were immeasurably above him when he began
his race. Some were proud of his young renown ; but
others, as in every land, imputed their own subordinate
position to the just honors showered on his head, and

160 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

were proportionately jealous. But honor or jealousy
made no difference in the love of his wife — the same
gentle, passionate kiss greeted the soldier if he came
back honored or suspected. It was a woman's love, and
it flickered not ; and when angry voices told of Spanish
aggressions and coming wars, and pointed to him, she
merely said : ' He is not a Spaniard, he is my love.'

" There had been a fierce battle fought between the
Yupaha tribes and the Apalaches, hi which the latter
had returned with not their usual success, bringing home
with them the bodies of many of their warriors. They
came to the village with all the insignia of woe, beating
of drums, formed of the sections of hollow trees covered
with deer skins, and the mournful blast of their conch-
shell trumpets.

"Wealuste, the great black water chief, had been
killed, and they placed him on the shore, with his
arrows and his quiver, his knife and his eagles' plumes,
and a goodly store of chinquapin nuts and maize, to
support him on that long journey to the happy Hunting-
ground that he was to make in darkness and alone. His
body was sewed in deerskins, pictured with the scenes
of his life, and then placed in a wooden canoe formed
from a cypress log. This canoe was fixed on upright posts,
and the warrior was left to float away, as a chief should
go, to that silent realm that lies beyond our ken. But
for forty days and forty nights, or for one whole moon,
the corpse was to be watched by comrades of equal rank
with the deceased, so that neither beast nor bird dis-

THE FLORIDA POCAHONTAS CONTINUED. 161

turbed the dead. This is a part of the simple faith of
the tribe ; and they affirm that after decay has taken
the body, the departed chief is safe beyond earthly
harm.

" Ortez was the first in order that had assigned to him
this honorable duty, and in the early part of a summer
eve he took his post by the dead man. The sun laid
down in his golden bed in the western waters, and the
stars one by one stepped to their places in the sky, as
the watcher paced to and fro by the side of the scaffold-
ing where the dead chief slept. He heard the distant
wailing of music from the village, and the nearer hooting
of the owls, and the honking of the herons from the
wood. He saw the pawpaw wave its purple bells between
him and the sky, and the green balls of the buttonwood
looked liked the olives on the hills of his native land. But
it was not of the storied peaks of Spain the soldier was
then thinking — nor was he listening to the twittering of
the birds in the reeds. He was watching the path that
led toward the village, and his heart was beating thick
and heavy with the anticipation of meeting some one
that was fairer than the pawpaw bell, and dearer than the
towers of his native town. He listens on his beat with
one foot raised — he turns his ear aside, and his thin nos-
tril quivers like that of a horse. He hears a splash in the
water — it was not the grey duck. A canoe touches the
shore, and a girl steps out on the strand. Her luminous
eye is half veiled by its lashes — her limbs are trem-
bling with delight. She falls into the arms of Ortez, and

162 WILD SPOETS IN THE SOUTH.

after an instant of fainting embrace, they turn aside into
the Ilex groves that fringe the bank of the lagoon.

" ' Ortez, does not honor call thee to the dead man's
side ? Ortez, does not thy wife's low voice, that saved
thee once, beseech thee now ?'

" Ha ! who hears voices pleading in the mad tumultu-
ous hours of night — thought comes with the bare-faced
morn. The glare of the torrid day is for rest, and
penance, and prayers ; and the tropical night is pas-
sion's own holiday, when love and hate roll like the
sea."

" Hold there, and turn down a leaf," called out the
Doctor. " That's pure error. It is the day that is made
for action, ambition and hope — far reaching pride, and
quick deeds come with the sunshine. Then man does
his works for good or evil ; but when the day is gone,
the grey of twilight, the chill hush of voice, and emble-
matic sleep, bring thought and repentance. His good
spirit comes to him then, and whispers of errors done,
and cools his ambition ; and, if he is a true man, he says
his prayers, and "

" Goes to bed," laughed Jackson. " That's all very
nice for a man who lives in a land where water freezes
after dark, and nobody but a bear can keep out at nights
without the ague. That is not the way the hot blood
rolls in the Creole veins ; nor was it the way that the
Spanish soldier reasoned with the Indian girl. Where
was I ?"

"Ortez had just met the Indian girl."

THE FLORIDA POCAHONTAS CONTINUED. 163

" Ah ! yes ; Jumper-boy, give me a light."

Taking the stick from the hand of his negro, he lit
his pipe, and resumed the story.

" That young Indian girl had left the village, as
quietly as the dew, her moccasin had made no foot-fall
on the path, and her paddle scarce splashed the lagoon.
When she met her lover, their voices were as low as the
eddy of the wave in the river ; and when she parted,
and took her course back to the village, though her
speed was slow, and her stroke was languid and uneven,
yet still, her boat passed like a shadow beneath the low,
arching titi boughs, and the hanging folds of the Spanish
moss. But, for all this, an eye was on her in the dark-
ness, and an ear heard her very breathings, and when she
landed, and her bark canoe was hidden in the joint-grass,
she passed so near Yahchilane that the tails of fox-squir-
rels, that fringed her kirtle, touched the shoulder of the
young wife.

"The girl, once in the path toward the village, walked
swifter still, now and then pausing to listen, when in the
deeper shadows. On her route, she crossed a dense
grove of wild plum -trees, where the scarlet fruit covered
the ground, and the low-reaching branches made a sha-
dow as dark as a stormy night. When in the centre of
the grove she started, uttering a quick, aspirated sound,
for a hand was laid on her shoulder, from behind. She
turned quickly, but could not see who it was, the grove
was so obscure.

" ' Who is it ?' she demanded, in a low voice.

164: WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

" ' An eagle who had a mate,' said Yahchilane, in a
voice so quick and fierce that the young girl could not
recognize it, though she cowered from the threatening
shadow and rasping voice that continued. 'And who
are you ? The wild cat that killed him.'

" Nothing more was said, though the mocking-birds
that roosted in the grove flew frightened away. If any
more, there was, the lamentations from the town, and the
hollow drum, prevented it from being heard. And then,
down among the mourners, with her proud head at its
uttermost height, and her black eye flashing fire, strode
the chieftain's daughter. Old chiefs lay there with their
lips in the dust, but hers were as proud as a con-
queror's ; the women of the tribe were there, with dis-
torted faces, beating with hoUow canes the war-drums 01
the Apalaches ; the conch shells uttered their loudest
wail, and the fairest maidens sat, in their shame,
uncovered in the sand ; but with no semblance of sorrow
on her sovereign face, Yahchilane walked among the bon-
fires that lighted all the town, and across the council-
lawn, and went into her father's house.

" The next morning, when the young girls of the vil-
lage, in laughing troops, with palmetto baskets, wound
down the path to gather fruit for their simple meal, they
found one of their number dead in the grove. A knife
of fish-bone, with a beautifully carved handle, was driven
in her breast, so deep that the point came out behind,
between her shoulders.

" Hardly had the news been told, before a young war-

THE FLORIDA POCAHONTAS CONTINUED. 165

rior came rushing into town with a tale, whose horror
exceeded even the crime of murder.

"It appeared that the relief-guard that went out
early in the morning to take the place of Ortez, at the
tomb of the dead chieftain, found the Spaniard absent
from his post. On coming to the scaffolding they dis-
covered the canoe overturned, and the body of Wealuste
dragged out and mutilated by some wild beast. Depth
of all disgrace ! the face that had fronted a hundred
battles had been mutilated by a carrion wolf. Where
was now the soul of the chieftain in the shadowy land ?
What great doom was hovering over his people for
this neglect ?

*' As the warriors wondered and mourned, and hastily
gathered up the body of their dead, Ortez was seen
coming back from woods, dragging the body of a huge
grey wolf. The animal, while making off with its prey,
had been pursued by the soldier, wounded with an arrow,
and killed with a dagger, after severely tearing the arm
of his antagonist. Ortez could give no explanation of
how the animal had succeeded in mounting the scaffold,
unobserved, or what he was doing during the scene of
sacrilege. The fault was fearful, and the Spaniard was
bound and dragged back to the village. Again he was
the outcast criminal, chained and reviled. Now, all the
suspicious spirits that mistrusted his prosperity gloated
over his fall, and reviled his situation. They caUed up
every misdeed that had come to their knowledge. They
cited his Spanish origin ; and reasoned, that because he

166 WELD SPOET8 IN THE SOUTH.

was one of their natural enemies, the comrade of Nar-
vaez, and the countryman of Velasquez, therefore he had
permitted this unpardonable sin, and brought down the
anger of the Great Spirit on the tribe.

" Justice is not slow of foot among simple people, and
that very evening, while the young mistress of the sol-
dier was wrapped in fawn skins, and sewed in palmetto
leaves for her long sleep, her lover was brought to trial
before the chiefs of the village.

" The great fire of loblolly pine climbed up in the air,
and lit the scene with the whiteness of noon. The bam-
boo and grass cottages; the overshadowing cabbage
palms, with their colossal trunks and spike leafed crowns;
the solemn circle of chiefs, and the background of
women and young boys, formed a great picture glow-
ing with the colors of Rubens.

" Ortez stood in the centre, bound to a stake. He
appeared the same man as three years before, when he
stood in the self-same place. He wore the same steel
shirt, the same fierce look of pride; and from his
ragged arm, the blood, unnoticed, dropped slowly on the
ground;

" The warriors smoked long and doubtfully ; and when
they had done, and the pipe had been lain down before
the cacique, they spoke their views with the gravity and
sententious eloquence of Roman Fathers.

" When all had finished, Ortez replied. His words —
in the Appalachian tongue — were broken, though his
voice was deep and clear. He recounted his deeds, and

THE FLORIDA POCAHOKTAS CONTINUED. 167

alluded to his offence in comparison ; but the oldest men
shook their heads, for the soldier never gave any reason
for his neglect, or told whether he was absent or asleep,
or how that shameful fate came to pass.

" He alluded to his wife, calling her by name, when a
step without the ring drew all eyes in that direction. Yah-
chilane stood hi front of her husband, as beautiful as a pan-
ther. She tore off from her shoulder an embroidered sash,
which is worn by the married women of the tribe to
support their infants at their back, and which is the dis-
tinguishing badge of the matron among the Appala-
chians, and tossing it in the circle, it fell at the feet of
her husband. She never said a word, but her steady eye
was on the Spaniard, and it did not fail in its effect, for a
tremor passed over his frame, so that the links in his mail
rattled together ; and all the chiefs, and all the women of
the tribe knew that Yahchilane renounced her husband.

" There was no more doubt in the council. Ortez was
condemned to death at daylight, and was led away to
confinement.

"The council fire had burned low in the Apalache
village, and the few smoldering brands gleamed among
the ashes, or sputtered brief jets of flame and smoke,
like the smoldering passions that tossed the sleepers
strewn around in the open cabins, still dreaming of the
stirring events of the day. The sentinels by the fort
walked backward and forward, or leaned on their thin
lances tipped with the spikes of deer's horn, tasting in
anticipation the savage pleasures of the execution of the

168 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

coming morn. The young moon had set, and millions of
frogs and peepers in the marsh filled the air with their
shrill calls, and forewarned the rain that was coming up
with the easterly wind. Heavy masses of damp fog
rolled in from the sea, and left the palisades of the fort,
and the zizanea grass that grew from the water at its side,
wet with their soggy breath. It was drawing toward
morning.

" Within the adobe cell of the fort, the condemned
man sat on the ground; and if a man's mind is ever
occupied with his coming destiny, his must have pictured
the approaching execution, of which he was to be the vic-
tim. The stake and the fagot, the red-hot brand, the
pricking reed, the scalping-knife, the gauntlet, the jeer
and the death-song, had all been familiar to him in his
short episode of Indian life. If the southern savage was
of gentler mien and comelier appearance ; if his women
were fairer in face, and more lustrous in eye, than their
more northern tribes, they were in no wise inferior in
their ferocity of punishment to their prisoners. Even
the Spanish inquisition was not more refined in cruelty.
Well might Ortez ponder his death, and mumble long-
forgotten fragments of Latin prayers.

"There was another in the Indian town, who kept
vigil that night.

" Yahchilane, the young, the beautiful daughter of the
cacique, who had been loved by many in her tribe before
the hated name of Spain was heard — she who had saved
the prisoner's life — who had taken him from death to be

THE FLORIDA POCAHONTAS CONTINUED. 169

her lord and chief in the land — who had cradled his
head on her bosom — who had borne him sons — who had
been deceived and slighted — who had risen in her
wrongs, and condemned to death the mistress and the
husband — she, the fierce, proud, vindictive heart, and
woman withal, through the moonlight and the fog,
roamed and wrestled with her inner self. There was no
prouder blood from Natchez to Honda Keys ; and for
four and twenty hours it had coursed through her veins
like rivers of fire. Had she met her husband and the
native girl together, she would have slain them both.
When she saw his blood flowing from his wounded arm
in the council ring, she sorrowed only that she had not
made the wound from which it flowed. Had the council
acquitted the prisoner she would have tracked him like
a hound ; and now her wild delight made her fevered
step carry her to and fro, like the panther that SAveeps
his tail while watching to leap. Down by the fort she
went, and away on the point, wading into the water-
grass, until she seemed like the Naiad that lives under
the sea. Then she walked back again with a long, elas-
tic step, eyeing the palisades and the sentinels, her kir-
tle draggled by the dew, the long plumes in her hair
broken on her shoulders, and her symmetrical limbs cut
by the sword grass. Another turn would take her to the
lagoon, where she had watched her husband's try sting,
and then again she flitted through the plum-trees, where
still a dark stain lay on the grass. So back and forth stalks
a tiger-cat, when the spring water intrudes on the island

8

170 WILD 8POKT8 IN THE SOUTH.

where she has dropped her young. Thus along the bald
cliff dashes back and forth the mother eagle, when from
below she sees the hunter patiently climbing.

" The night gradually passed away. The big wave
that the Southern tribe declares comes landward when
the god of night turns to go back in the sea, had bro-
ken along the shore with a hollow roar, and the marsh
rosemary had turned its petals to the east to await the
rising sun.

" Yachilane noted these tokens of the hours. She had
taught them all to Ortez, and they had heeded them
many a night when fishing in the lagoons. He had nar-
rated for her the legends of Spain, and the wild Moorish
pranks that haunted the old towers of his native town,
when the chimes tolled midnight. She had plumed for
him his arrows, and softened his tongue to the liquid
accents of her language ; and he in exchange had sung
her fairy tales, and drawn on the sand the outlines of
great houses and sailing ships. He was a handsome man.
How his great moustache curled over his chain mail!
How he took the arrows and gave the blows in battle !
How proud she had been at village galas ! How sad at
distant forays ! How her heart had yearned to him in
that second love, when his child had tugged at her
breast, and they three had laughed together !

"Sad thoughts these to the bitter woman, and she
stopped in her walk, and leaned against the palm-
wiees.

"Yell, and curse, and seething iron probed in the

THE FLOEIDA POCAHONTAS CONTIOTED. 171

quivering muscles, while the naked wretch feels the lick-
ing flame.

" Ha ! had he not slept in her arms many a night and
day ? And up and on dashes the tortured wife, balanc-
ing her hate, that was of her race, with her heart, that
was of her common motherhood. And the hours waned,
and sick and hot the wind came in, and the odqr of the
honeysuckle and the water-lily were oppressive to the
senses.

" Chatte Echo, the Red Deer, was a young chief of
the Apalaches, of a noble name and tried courage. In
Chatte Echo's cabin hung the skins of ten panthers, and
behind his house stretched a field of maize and melons
that was smaller in size than none but the cacique's. This
warrior had loved Yahehilane ; but when Ortez came to
Apalache, his suit was discarded ; and ever since then
he had remained unmarried. He had always been an
enemy to Ortez, and was now one of the sentinels that
watched over him in prison. Posted on the side toward
the sea, from the low rampart where he stood he could
look out on the water and down into the inner fort where
Ortez sat. A proud man was Chatte E^cho that night,
and none in all the band would guard the prisoner surer.
As he was leaning on his spear and thinking of his re-
venge, a brown canoe floated up from the water, and
among the bending reeds. It came so whist the sentinel
did not hear it, and the fog was so heavy he did not see
it until it touched the wall, and an Indian woman stepped
on to the parapet. Chatte Echo would have struck at

172 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

her with his spear, but she seized his arm, and, bringing
her face close to his, he recognized Yahchilane.

"A moment's pause followed this strange interview.
She seemed to be studying him ; and he was wondering
at her. Had she attempted force, he would have called ;
but her pleading look kept him silent. A little of the
old love, seemed softening his eye, and the touch of her
hand thrilled his arm.

" ' Chatte Echo, you have my husband here, let him
go.' Her voice was low and inquiring.

" ' Sooner a wild cat when I had my arrow drawn to
shoot,' replied the warrior, hi a bitter tone.

" ' He shall flee us, and will trouble you no more.'

" ' He can trouble me no more than a few hours if he
stays.'

" ' You refuse me this, and you will be my enemy.'

" * I am your enemy now,' said the warrior, gloomily.

" ' No, Chatte Echo ; you are my friend,' whispered
the Indian woman, in her lowest tone, laying her arm on
his shoulder.

" The chief's voice trembled, as he replied : ' Where
will be your friendship when you get your lover back ?'

" ' Ha ! he is no lover to me !' said the woman, in her
quick, fierce mood. * Listen boy ! that brave is a wolf-
yet he must not die — I do not love him — he is no more
of mine — let him go, and he will flee, and — Chatte Echo,
I will love you. Refuse me this, and I will hate you.
No one will know it — he will take that canoe and go
without a trace, and the dawn will find him leagues away.

THE FLOKIDA TOCAHONTAS CONTINUED. 1Y3

Say it quickly, chief ; for the air is grey, and the gulls
are going seaward.'

"There was a hesitation in the warrior's eye, and
doubt, and hope, love and hate, chased each other over
his tawny face like the fog-clouds that were scudding by.

" ' How will I know your face will be the same to-mor-
row ?' he inquired, doubtingly ; ' the doe may flee with
the buck.'

" ' Keep me here — take me now — I am yours, Chatte
Echo !'

"The wild light lit up the coal-black eyes of the brave,
and the prisoner was free. Ortez silently hurried out of
his cell, and stepped on the low rampart, saved once
more. He saw his wife, and recognized her as the means
of his deliverance, and, with the quick perception of a
reckless adventurer, accepted the chance without a word.
He stood in the canoe, with the paddle in his hand, and
awaited, as for his wife to enter with him, while the
young chief stood by her side at the water's edge. She
leaned down to speak to her husband, and her voice,
necessarily low, was so distinct that not a word was lost.

" ' Sail south to Macaco's land in the Great Bay — stop
not for your life, and tell Macaco who sent you.' Then,
in a lower and a harsher tone, she continued: 'The
canoe you are in carried your mistress to see you at the
grave last night. She is dead now — stabbed while her
lips were yet wet with your kisses. Go, hound of a
Spaniard, or I may stab you, too.' The last words were
fairly hissed by the woman, the old tide of hate welling

174: WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

high and fast as she saw the Spaniard safe again. Ortez's
countenance blanched under the swarth of years. Chatte
Echo gave the light canoe an impetus with his foot, and
shoved it out into the lagoon. Her eyes followed the
spot where it disappeared, her outstretched arm trembled,
she staggered and fell into the arms of the young chief
who carried her into the fort. He had won her."

" I don't like that story, father ; it gives a low ideal
of woman." '•

" But, child, remember it is savage woman that I tell
of; you can't paint a crow green."

" How much is true ?" asked the literal Doctor.

" Is it not all written," answered the narrator, " in the
faithful annals of Garcilasso de la Vega ?"

THE BATTUE ON BONDA KEY. 175

CHAPTER XH.

THE BATTUE ON BONDA KEY.

" The stout Earl of Northumberland

A vow to God did make,
His pleasure in the Scottish woods
Three summer days to take."

CHEVY CHASE.

As the Ouithlacouchee River emerges from the bayous,
lakes, swamps, and drowned lands, which it has drained
for many a square league, and reaches the salt water, it
widens its bed, and harassed by the heavy beat of the
sea, deposits its accumulation of vegetable matter with
the sands of the ocean in little islands, that are presently
covered with the rankest vegetation. There grows the
cane like a gigantic grass, and the cabbage palmetto
there rears its huge, twistmg, bayonet bristling trunk-
like the fanciful verdure of Utopian land. Sometimes
these islands are based 011 the sand, and are as stable as
the mam land, but again they are the mere accumulations
of floating vegetable matter, rank weeds, and decaying
rafts of trees, lashed together by sea-weeds and clamp-
ing vines, and resembling those floating gardens that the
ingenious Celestials moor in the great rivers of China.
The aquatic plants and nameless vines cover them with
festoons, and a large shoot striking down in the water

176 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

anchors the raft, w.hich will float hither and thither by '
the wind, closing or opening some water pasmge, to the
great discomfiture of the bewildered explorer.

Beyond these ranker islets, and acting as outer piers
or breakwaters to the still inner bays, lie other islands
in long reefs, covered by sea grass and a smaller growth
of trees, and washed on their outer sides by the surf of
the Gulf. All of them abound in game of every kind, the
fame of which led our party of hunters with our hosts
for a few days' hunting and sporting, bringing tents,
dogs, and servants enough to beat up all the woods on
the Gulf Coast. These species of hunts are frequent in
the Southern States, where time is not regarded with the
monetary eye to value with which it is measured in Doc-
tor Franklin's proverbs, and where an ample range of
unclaimed ground is open to all that choose to come and
enjoy it. Such hunts are called marrooning, arid we
were marrooners as soon at we had reached the low
sandy shore of Bonda Key, and pitched the two white
tents that formed our travelling homes.

One hut was occupied by Poke, Jackson and myself,
the other by Lou Jackson and her girl Rosa, a bright
negress of the same age as her mistress^ and around the
big fire a large row of screens of blankets or evergreen
branches sheltered the dozen negroes that constituted
our party. As to Mike, he always preferred to carry up
his canoe, and elevating the side next the fire on a stick,
would crawl under it and sleep like an alligator.

In many respects our camp was more orderly than the

THE BATTUE ON BONDA KEY. 177

plantation house we had left. There were no sheep to
tinkle and bleat away the hours of the night, reminding
you of your bed in the Tyrolean chalet, with all the
herds stabled beneath you. There were no young
negroes constantly disputing or tumbling under your
feet ; there was no old Aunty Blase tyrannizing over your
culinary department, and ordering around all the boys
within reach. But we still had one nuisance, in the
shape of dogs —

" Both mongrel puppy, whelp and hound,
And curs of low degree " —

melodious hounds that bayed at the moon ; sullen dogs
that snapped at your heels ; insinuating, dogs that crept
under your tent and into your arms when half asleep ;
spiteful dogs, with their voices attuned to the sharpest
chords, and that came under Shakspeare's definition of
being " fit for treason, stratagems, and spoils." All this
mongrel herd had been kept in peace at home ; some were
quartered away from the house, some were chained, and
others meditative or sleepy. But here, as sure as plea-
sant harmonies came over your soul, and the hush of
sleep fell on the camp, and the loudest sound abroad was
the flitting bat and droning sea, some canine tyrant
would infringe the etiquette of the brotherhood, and
immediately there would break out a most fiendish tur-
moil of snarls, yells, bays, howls, growls, and yelps,
intermingled with the babble of the negroes' voices and
the whacking of sticks, and when you were fully awake,

8*

178 WILD 6POET3 IN THE BOUTH.

and had seized your gun, or a paddle, determined on
deeds of revenge, peace would be declared in a loud
voice ; in some such phrase as"

" Ketch you yowlin' again. Tink Ise got a stick here
for nuthin', eh ?"

Bonda Key was perchance half a mile in width at its
widest part, and three miles in length, where we were
encamped. The thickest growth of trees and shrubbery
stood at our end, and near the outer side was a long
pool of water, formed by the sea throwing up a bank of
sand and leaving this isolated pond. The nearest land
adjoining this island was at the two ends, the sides being
bounded without by the open ocean, and within by the
sheltered bay, which, dotted with islands of different
sizes, extended up the broad mouth of the river and to
the mainland.

Thus much for the geography of our temporary home ;
as to its geology, it might be said to be, in the words of
Mike, " sand-some ;" its botany was represented by sword-
grass, palmetto, sea-wrack, some wild plums, and a few
water-oaks and pines ; by the pond the reeds and joint-
grass grew very closely, and in the centre we could see a
close tangle of vegetation, that would defy the best hunter
in the land to crawl through. As to its conchology, I can
only say it produced excellent clams, and a kind of conch
shell, that Scipio manufactured into a species of annoyance
he called a dinner-horn, and which when blown made all
the dogs on the island set up a prolonged howl. As to its
zoology, man seemed absent, and every other created

THE BATTUE ON BONDA KEY. 179

thing had its representative, particularly those classes
that preyed on man, which seemed the more voracious
from being so seldom gratified by visitors.

I am thus particular as to the peculiarities of this place,
that my readers may well understand the process of
hunting which we adopted the morning after our arrival,
and the success of which I will always remember. It
was Jackson's idea, and he styled it the battue. On our
arrival hi the evening, the hounds had all been tied to
prevent them coursing over the island, and the negroes
had been restricted to a very narrow range in the col-
lection of firewood and fish, so that nothing should be
done to disturb the game that might be on the island.

The next morning, as we came out from our tents with
the first grey light, the cool wind was still coming in
from the sea, laden with the salt flavor; the negroes
were poking together the half-burned brands, and pre-
paring the breakfast in haste, or rather all the haste a
negro ever assumes, and I plunged into the sea with the
happy anticipation of a grand hunt, and all a-glow to
hear the first cry and ringing shot of our grand battue.

" Good morning to you, Miss Jackson ; you look like
Diana this morning in your canvas jacket and gown."

" And you like a shipwrecked mariner, with your drip-
ping locks, and jacket on your arm."

" Where's Mike ?"

" Maussa Mike's gone off with he shell on he back, like
a gopher," said Scipio.

" There he comes ; he has been around the head."

180 WILD SPOKTS Itf THE SOUTH.

" How are you, Poke ?"

"O — ho — hum — oh — ho — heo-o — hum!" yawned the
Doctor, rubbing his eyes, as he staggered out of the tent.

" How are you ?" I reiterated.

"Oh, ho! — there's one of those dogs named Music, I
believe. I'd have his name changed after to-night. I
didn't get a wink o' sleep."

" Hulloa, gentlemen, a pleasant day to you," said Jack-
son, just protruding his head from the canvas. "You
boys, hurry there with breakfast !" and with this general
order, the head disappeared.

" Oh, ho ! dear me ! Break — breakfast — on thy cold,
grey stone, oh ! oh ! sea — and I would that my tongue
could utter the thoughts that arise in me."

" Pete, you boy ! pour some water on the Doctor to
wake him up !"

"You, Sam! tie up that Black Bess; she will be clean
gone presently. "Where is Sumpter ?"

" Maussa Jackson, Pomp say you a-goin' to leff him
shoot a gun to-day ?"

" Go along with you !"

" Yah ! yah ! yah ! I knowed de niggah lie !"

As the noise and hurry progressed, breakfast began
to smoke on the fire, the boats were launched, and hi a
few minutes everything was ready for the chase, while a
hearty breakfast df venison and fish was spread before
us and the sun arose in the woods on the shore, and his
level beams trailed the smoking water, and painted the
tops of the taller island trees with golden tassels.

THE BATTUE ON BONDA KEY. 181

The hunt was arranged by Mike as follows : The dogs
were to be led to the extreme end of the island, not far
from where we were camped, and all the party was to
follow," either on foot or in boats. One boat was to keep
on each side of the island, close enough hi shore to shoot
any game that might take to the beach ; the rest of the
hunters, with all the negroes, were to follow the dogs,
and, keeping at equal distances apart, beat down the
island shouting and thrashing in the bushes, and thus
drive before them everything that would run. As the
chase progressed, it would come to the narrower portion
of the island, and thus the men would come closer to-
gether just at the time when the game would be most
anxious to turn back, so that they could form a complete
barrier, through which nothing could return.

After all had reached the point appointed for the meet,
and taken their stations, Mike harangued them, telling
what should be done. Lou Jackson was in one boat,
with Rosa to paddle ; the Doctor in another, to guard
the two sides, and all the rest were to follow the hounds.
Scipio had been sent at starting to the other end of the
island, in a canoe, to He close to the nearest shore, to head
off anything that should attempt to cross to the main.

" Now remember !" said Poke to Jackson, just as the
hounds were being loosened.

"What?"

"Thirty centuries look down upon you from those
gum-trees."

" Shough ! Go ahead all !" shouted Jackson.

182 WILD 8POKT8 IN THE SOUTH.

The hounds were cast off, and with their noses high in
air coursed into the underbrush, and with, yelp and cry
the boisterous crew of coon-dogs and half-breeds rushed
in their wake, while the negroes, each armed with a big
cudgel and a heavy knife, with which to clear the vines,
dashed off, yelping very much after the manner of their
dogs, cheering on their particular favorites with endear-
ing cries, and all were soon scattered out of sight in the
dense undergrowth that succeeded the sandy ridges
and level grass of the coast. From time to time, we
could hear their shouting, and the crashing that was
caused by their progress, and when within sound, many
a rough joke and laugh came down the line.

I was nearest the inner channel, and within sight of
the beach. Jackson was next to me, then Mike and the
negroes all beyond. At first we could not see each
other except at intervals where the woods opened, but
as we advanced we came into a less tangled ground, and
we could maintain a connected vision entirely across
from one to another.

" Thar's deer," said Jackson, as we crossed the fresh
tracks of one. "And thar's Beauty," continued he;
" do you hear her ?"

"No, I cannot tell one from another; they are all
yelping, each on a different track."

A loud burst of voices from the negroes proclaimed
something started.

" What's that, Mike ?»

" Coon," answered Mike.

THE BATTUE ON BONDA KEY. 183

" No — thunder ! it's a cat ; see it come."

Grimalkin, however, did not like such a multitude of
foes as presented themselves, and turning to the right,
shot in under the underbush ahead of us, while two of
the younger dogs came full cry on her heels.

" There's a coon — two of them !" I shouted.

" Out of the frying-pan into the fire I think," said Jack-
son, as they ran into the same thicket the cat had taken to.

Here the bushes became so thick that I had to- take
my hunting-knife to cut my way and free my legs from
the close binding of tenacious green vines that seemed
stronger than packthread. We could hear the dogs
ahead of us and on either side yelping and scudding
hither and yon, and I at once saw the advantage of the
mongrel pack we were using. They wound in and out
of every corner, and under every fallen leaf where a hare
could lie, yelping as poor puss started from her form,
and only following her a few steps to pursue their
researches in another cover.

Slowly we progressed ahead, and after about two
hours of labor we had come down one half of the island,
and had drawn so near together we could see each other.
On calling down the line we had reported two deer as
having been seen, and " some coon," with such a strong
accent on the some, that we were inclined to think that
this particular game was very plentiful. Indeed, Scipio
was seen with two hanging to his girdle. I could see,
from time to time, Miss Lou's boat paddled by Rosa, and
the young lady seated in the bow.

184: WILD SPOKTS EN THE SOUTH.

" What's that ahead ?" shouted Jackson.

" Can't say, though it looks black," I replied, as some
indistinct body rushed out from under some grape-vines,
shaking down the ripe fruit in showers.

"Teow! yeow! — oohow!" chimed in two or three
dogs in chorus, on some new and fresh scent, and Wag,
who had been keeping very near me. dashed off to see.

" There's a buck, look out !"

" Bang !" sounded Jackson's gun.

" Never riz a hair !" called Mike, as the deer crashed
on.

" Big buck ! big buck !" called out the negroes
beyond.

* Spang !»»

' There goes Lou's . gun," said Jackson. " What is
she shooting ? can you see ?"

" Yes, a young buck."

" It's getting lively, Jackson."

" Wait a little, there's game here ! Hear the boys
sing."

The lively chant of the negroes sounded in the clear
air, accompanied by the crashing of their sticks :

Wake 'em up dare !

Waugh and a waugh da !
Git out possum !

Waugh da dey !

" Da she goes," called a negro, as something bounded
out of the bushes.

THE BATTUE ON BONDA KEY. 185

"What's that?"

" Big buck, sali; got horns like a dead tree."

" There's that cat again 1"

Sure enough, the cat came spitting along, and dashed
up a tree, sending down the bark in showers on the dogs
that were close after her.

" Drap, you hussey !" said Mike, following her zig-zag
course up the pine tree, with his rifle ; and as she paused
he sent a ball through her head, whizzing her down with
a whirling motion as though she had been swung down
by her tail.

" Git out, you dogs ! Clare away, that's my cat !" he
shouted, cuffing the dog aside, and taking possession of
his prize.

"Kehunck! Kehunck!" There goes a blue heron,
fanning the air with measured stroke. See him sail. He
got up so slowly that one of the dogs jumped up at his
long dangling legs.

" There go three deer altogether."

"Don't shoot the does, thar's no use," called out
Mike.

There was only one buck, and three shots rang so close
together we could not tell the report, but the buck fell
over among his wives, who leaped ahead, sadly frightened.
Mike cut his throat, and left his cat beside him to keep
him company.

" There's that varmint again," shouted Jackson ; " it's
a panther !"

" Whar's a painter ?" asked Mike.

186 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

" On ahead ; we've seen him twice."

I heard the Doctor's voice from the other side of the
island, and the quick repeated report of his double-bar-
rel. Then a shot on our left.

"That's Lou again; push down to the beach there,
will you ?"

I came through the young willows that shut out the
view, when I saw Lou gesticulating and pointing ahead,
at the same tune she was loading. I tried to see what it
was, but could not, on account of the intervening bushes.
She hurriedly rammed down the wad of shot with which
she was provided, sowed up in muslin, and taking aim,
fired again. .

"A wolf! look out — he is turning in the bushes."

I ran back just in tune to see the animal attempting to
sneak back, when, seeing me, he turned ahead, and ran
on so quickly I could not shoot, though I saw by his
track he was wounded.

At the place we had now reached, the island was not
more than a third of a mile in width. The trees had
ceased to grow, and only a few copses of willow were
found in the hollow between the ridges, and the tall grass
that lined the pond. We could see the negroes away
hither and thither, chasing the swamp raccoons that
seemed to overrun the island, and striking at the hares
that dodged hither and thither, and, escaping the men,
were sure to run directly in the mouths of the dogs.

Ahead of us we could see the deer coursing over the
knolls, hard pushed by the dogs, that had separated in

THE BATTUE ON BONDA KEY. 187

three or four different packs, and were each hunting on
their own hook.

" There's Yowler and Music. Here they come — they
are after the wolf. Hi, dogs ! hi, dogs !" shouted Jackson,
running to a knoll where he could overlook the chase.

The negroes yelled as they caught sight of the game,
and the wolf availing himself of every copse and hollow,
ran on, hard pushed by the dogs, and dodging on every
side to avoid his numerous foes. Whenever he entered
a thicket he remained there until the dogs were about
entering the other side ; then he dashed away with an
angry snap of his jaws that sounded like the ring of
metal. As he approached the further shore, the Doctor
saluted him with a double shot that stung him badly.
He passed down the line of negroes, but their shouting
and dancing deterred him from attempting to break their
array.

" Now, Mike !»

" No no, it is your turn ; I've had a cat."

" Take him, Charlie !»»

I levelled my rifle, and as he ran I fired. At the
report he rolled over and over like a ball.

" Well done !" shouted Lou Jackson.

I thought him quite dead, but when the dogs came up
where he fell, he turned around on his haunches and
snapped at his pursuers with such effect that the fore-
most lost a piece from his shoulder as broad as my palm,
leaving a ghastly wound. The dog turned away, yelling
with pain. Wag, who was always in every scrape,

188 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

received another nip, not quite so bad, but sufficient to
put him on the sick list for the rest of the day, and doubt-
less some of the other dogs would have been hurt, had
not Mike fired and killed the wounded animal as the
hounds came crowding up.

"Cat! cat!" "Yow! yow!" "Hit um a dip!"
" Ough ! ough !" were the sounds that came on the right,
as a big cat broke away down the beach. The Doctor was
just landing from his boat, and had a fair chance, as the
animal was close by. The shot wounded the furious beast,
so that it became completely confused, and being hard
pressed by the dogs, it took refuge in the only trunk it
could see, which happened to be the high curve of the
Doctor's cypress canoe, just landing end on to the beach.
In rushed the dogs after the animal, crowding the boat,
knocking about the paddles, and forcing the Doctor up
on the thwarts. The fierce animal fought with despera-
tion against the crowd of pursuers, thrashing around the
Doctor's legs, and tilting the boat from one side 'to
the other, till it finally upset, and dogs, and oars, cat,
and hunter, were ah1 thrown into the water together. It
only needed a moment of open field, and the dogs, smart-
ing with their scratches, tore the cat almost in pieces,
and left the cat-skin, as one of the boys remarked who
had run down to help the Doctor, " 'bout chawed up."

Jackson and I did not like to leave our places to help
in the fray, though we assisted all we could by laughing,
and Miss Jackson called out, after vainly trying to peer
over the land, to know what the matter was.

THE BATTUE ON BONDA KEY. 189

I explained how the Doctor had presided over the
fight.

"The Colossus of Rhodes!" she answered back.

"Poke! I say, Poke! Miss Jackson says you stood
like the Colossus of Rhodes."

" I won't stand for a Colossus again," he replied, shov-
ing off his boat, and resuming his paddle ; " that misera-
ble cat has scratched my legs bare !"

As our line advanced we could see the end of the
island that ran out in a long narrow bar. Hundreds of
gulls and black-headed terns, with snow-white bodies,
disturbed from the sands, were cawing over us, and
curlews and plover wheeled in circles, uttering their
plaintive cries. Crowds of merganser ducks that were
sitting on the shingle, basking in the sun, rushed out to
sea, piling up the water in front of them, and small birds
took flight to the neighboring islands, or flew high in the
air to regain their accustomed haunts in the thickets.
Like as some great seine that has inclosed a broad bay,
at last contracts its semi-circle toward the beach, expos-
ing to the light the flashing fishes that in vain attempt
to leap its cords, while the gulls and fish-hawks wait
above, so our line closed up, the prey rushed hither and
thither, the black heads of the negroes above the grass,
like the floats on the net, bobbed up and down, and with
shout and cry, the terrified animals made their last leaps
and tricks for their lives.

The first thing that broke our line was a doe, with a
fawn nearly grown. The doe was let past, but one of

190 WILD BPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

the negroes caught the fawn as it attempted to run by,
and with a blow of his knife across the back of its neck
felled it to the ground, before a voice could be raised to
stop him. Then a doe was pulled down by the houndfl,
and a dozen dogs piled up over it, very brave when its
resistance was overcome.

" There go two deer to the water ; see the boats pull
after them — the Doctor, and Lou, and Scipio in his
canoe."

"Whoop! see the turkeys — I'll have a gobbler!" I
said, firing at their leader, who spread out his wings and
settled down into the grass, while the hens scattered in
every direction, some taking wing and flying off to the
main land.

"Thar'sabear!"

" Where ?»

" In those thorn bushes."

" I don't see him."

At this moment, Scipio, who had been paddling after
the deer, turned his canoe landward, shouting' " A bear !
A bear !" and the dogs, that had been scattered about in
the underbrush, made a fresh clamor, and rushed into
the thorn trees, from whence they came howling back,
some of them with blood running from their shoulders.

" Who saw it ?"

" I saw it," said the Doctor, hurrying in from his
canoe at the first intimation of a bear, as "did both of the
other boats, letting the deer escape ; " I know it was a
bear."

THE BATTUE ON BONDA KEY. 191

" Fire your gun at him."

Lem was lying down flat on his face, trying to peep
under the bushes, when the Doctor, at the suggestion,
fired into the thicket. At the report ofhis gun, out
rushed the animal, stung, probably, by the shot. So
quick was his charge, that Lem did not have time to get
out of the way, and was run over by the brute, as dash-
ing right through the midst of us, he hied away for the
woods from which we had just come. There were too
many crowded around, when he first came forth, to make
it at all safe to shoot, and the moment he gained a little
distance, his round stern presented a target as little vul-
nerable as the rump of a rhinoceros, as he ran with a
lumbering gait, but with great speed, for his old haunts.
But the hounds were soon after him, and as they came
up they ran alongside, snapping at him without stopping
him ; then the smaller dogs came to their assistance, and
seizing him behind, forced him to bay, which he did by
standing on his hind legs, and making sweeps with his
front paws at his pursuers. It was an amusing Bight to
see the dogs run, but still more so to see the negroes
madly excited about the danger of their favorite curs,
and yet cheering them on with cries, and grotesque
denunciations, and warnings.

" Now for it ! Whose shot is it ?"

" Let the Doctor try."

" I ain't loaded ; wait a minute."

" Ho ! ho ! that's a good one ! Jackson, shoot."

Without a word of parley, Jackson fired, and struck

WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

the mark, as we could see, for the animal flinched,
and attempted to run, but there were too many dogs,
and they brought him to bay again after running a dozen
yards. I firtd, and so did Mike, both together. The
huge brute turned the way we stood, his eye gleamed
a fierce glance of revenge, his jaw fell open, showing his
long rows of white teeth, and then he sunk down a life-
less lump amid the ring of dogs.

" That air is rael murder !" said Mike.

As the heat of the chase subsided in my veins, I felt as
if Mike's remark was true.

" Four hunters, twelve men, and forty dogs,- against
one bear !" called out Lou Jackson, who had been a
spectator of the chase from her boat.

"I plead guilty to tyrannical oppression," said the
Doctor ; " deal gently with me."

"I fine you all one bear's skin, to be paid into the
Court," she replied.

" Oh ! that will make you a sharer of the profits."

Bruin was dragged down to the beach, under the
shade of a tree, and the men were sent back for the rest
of the game that lay scattered about the route of our
chase wherever they had fallen. On putting them
altogether in a row, it was counted, as follows : one bear,
one wolf, two wildcats, four deer, one wild turkey, one
sand-hill crane, seven raccoons, and hares without
number.

"Not a bad day's sport!" ejaculated the Doctor,
standing in his favorite attitude with his feet wide apart,

THE BATTUE ON BOKDA KEY. 193

and. his hands in the side pockets of his shooting-
jacket.

" How many did you shoot, Poke ?"

" I think I shot all of them, for I fired ait everything,
only may be I did not kill ; but I contend the sport is as
good if you get the shots."

" What did you kill at your first shot, Lou ?" inquired
Jackson.

" That young buck. Don't you see my buckshot ? they
are scattered over a hand's breath of distance."

" I fired at some ducks, getting up out of the pond,"
said the Doctor.

" What kind of ducks ?"

" There's one of them," he replied, tugging at a mal-
lard drake he had stowed in his pocket.

" Ha ! I am glad to see that ; he is one of the first of
the winter migration. Wait for the big nights, and we
will see sport. Come, boys, off with that wolf's skin, we
don't want his carcase at the camp, and so with the bear,
too, I reckon."

But the negroes pleaded for the bear's meat, and it
was concluded to carry him to camp. So the boats were
pulled up opposite the place where the game was lying,
and while a couple of the negroes were skinning the gaunt-
looking brute that I had so successfully disabled, the rest
carefully loaded the two canoes with the game, and when
the wolf was disrobed, two negroes taking their places in
the stern of each boat, gaily started on their return. We
all followed the canoes, taking the line of the beach, laugh-

9

194 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

ing at the different accounts of the day's adventures, and
the droll remarks of the men, who were in the greatest
glee at the success of the hunt. The shore birds were
running before us, or wheeling over our heads, and Lou
Jackson was telling their names, and how their coming
marked the progress of the year. The sands were hard
and level, just rippled by the sea. The day was waning
in that clearness of atmosphere and stillness of decay
that marks the early fall, ere a leaf has dried enough
to rustle. Mike's ugly face seemed to draw a reflec-
tion from the season; Poke's laugh was as musical
as the waters, and, wearied with the day's exertion, I
scarcely knew how pleasantly the moments were falling,
until now, when looking them over through the telescope
of years.

THE1 ETSTOEY OF AN OLD FRIEND. 195

CHAPTER XIII.

THE HISTORY OF AH OLD FKIBND.

" The poor make no new friends,
But they love the better far
The few their Father sends."

THE night had drawn its curtains when we reached
our bivouac, but the fire made it day between the two
white tents, where our supper was spread, and where,
when supper was done, we stretched ourselves in dreamy
mood, watching the embers glow and listening to the
tale go round. It was my turn to tell a story, but being
of a philosophical frame of mind I narrated a history, and
being of a modest nature was about to preface it with a
few deprecatory remarks when one of my auditors rudely
cut me short by saying :

" Bang away ; never mind the priming."

And the following was the tale I told. It is the history
of one of my old friends :

There are some persons in this world of ours that are
very incorrectly estimated. They are not the talking
people that boast themselves into our notice, nor the
silent people that, with an air of abstract profundity, im-
press us with their powers, while they repress all of ours.

196* WILD SPOET8 IN THE SOUTH.

They are not the showy people, whose dress and equi-
page, house, wife, watering-place, and tight boots, dazzle
us, nor the men in great places in the nation, nor the
very pious men. They, perchance, are very plain men,
and don't obtrude. They have not many friends. They
are composed in manner, and sparse and simple in their
words. If you don't know them you will not hear any-
thing very bad of them, unless some very fashionable
person says it in her manner rather than her words, when
alluding to them. If you do know them, and you can't
know them in a day, you will like them forever. If it
is a woman, her gentle presence has filled the house for
months, providing and directing so softly it was never
known. She has read much, but it was in her chamber ;
she has opinions stronger than any partisan, but she
never expresses them in conversation, only in their exer-
cise. Her quiet eye is on you, but you don't perceive it,
and she knows you before you thought enough of her to
notice her, and yet, for all that forgotten presence, when
the great ills come and sorrow extinguishes the light
in the house, where does the household so surely turn as
to her counsel and her consolation ? If it is a man, his
coming and going and long absences were scarcely noted,
except by those who leaned on him. In his mind are
stored up years of studies and observation, and in his
breast there is a spring of love for simple things and
honest ways, and a hidden honor that makes him a rich
man, though often with scarcely a dollar to spend.
Everybody says he must be rich, for he has everything

THE HISTORY OP AN OLD FBIEND. 197

he wants, though he only wants what is within his reach.
Should you get to know him well, you will find in some
direction or other his mind has gone out in a strong
taste, and hi it he so excels, that his companionship is a
great instruction — a happy, hopeful story, read at the
evening time, mayhap tinted with fancies, and all aglow
with legends, and self-experiences of so rare a kind, you
wondered you did not know him before.

Such characters are sometimes found in society, in the
full sweep of restless, flattering, envious fashion, just
endured, half forgotten, sometimes in literary life, some-
times toiling in some hard handicraft, where the gains
they make are applied to those they love. Sometimes in
the wood, or by the sea-side village.

The friend of whom I am about to speak, and who
belongs to this class, is oftenest seen in rural districts, or
by lakes, or the slow-moving streams of the woods. I
deem it but my duty, for many a lesson taught by him
and hours of quiet companionship, to speak in his behalf
a kindly word, and save him and his family, as far as in
me ties, from that unmerited neglect which seems to be
the fate of the humble and the unobtrusive.

The friend to whom I allude is the Muskrat. Let no
one smile at the name,

" Or mock the short and simple annals of the poor."

His coat may not be of as many colors as a courtier's,
but it covers a kindlier heart ; his house may not be of
as stately proportions as a banker's, but it shelters a more

198 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

tranquil soul. Writers may have slighted him, school-
boys may have pelted him, poets left his name unsung,
and the uncouth boor may have sought to deride him by
naming him Musquash, and other opprobrious titles ; but
this is not the first time in the annals of the world a
similar fate has overtaken modest worth. Pass by their
crude opinions, and let us visit my mentor friend.
'" Down by many a softly-purling brook, whose sinuosi-
ties have unearthed the gnarled roots of oaks and
hickories, and where the school-boy hastes from tasks to
find a shady nooning, the Muskrat builds his nest. His
selection of a home shows his cultivated taste, and gives
a lesson to the more unobservant rustic. By the cloudy
water that lies in the canals, that lead beneath the oaks,
you may know his retreat. There he rests, while the
day is warm, in the quiet enjoyment of his domestic
pleasures, safe from pursuit in the winding galleries of
his earthen fortress, but,

" When the sheep are in the fauld, and the kye at hame,
And a' the world to sleep are gane,"

when the moonshine falls on bridge and reeds, and
twinkling stars are floating on the water, then this gentle
friend comes forth to view. You see him, with his keen
eye and grave countenance, draw himself upon a root,
and with careful fingers arrange his dress and wash his
face. By his side sits a little picture of his sire — a tiny
counterpart, that is destined one day to take his place
among the reeds and by the bridge, and rear the mimic

THE HISTORY OF AN OLD FKIEND. 199

dome upon the lake. After the parent has completed
his toilet he gives one or two caressing touches to that
of his young heir. A moment more they sit, eyeing the
bubbles or floating nuts descending the stream, or watch-
ing, their faces reflected hi the moonlight waters. Who
can say that they do not appreciate the beauty of the
night, or the soft, murmuring music of the woods, or the
fragrance of the air, laden with the odor of calamus buds
and the breath of the birch and sassafras ? Presently,
diving down together, they disappear under the water,
from whence, after a moment, they reappear, each with
several muscles clasped to his breast by his fore paws,
and, resuming their seats on the roots, they eat their
food ^ith the readiness of squirrels, casting the shells
down r:t their feet, which fall on the pile of pearly bivalves
that adorn the entrance to their home. Another pause
follows, while they look up and down the brook.

Are they not comely in their dark-brown coat and
black feet? Does not their soft hair, that sheds the
water, and the strong flat tail, that steers their course,
or flattens their masonry-work, befit well their pursuits ?
Do not their manners well become their place ? Is it
not true they are free from cares and inordinate greed —
that they know their simple duties and enjoy them?

You say they are idle ? Wait till you have seen their
whole life.

Presently the father swims off on the water and
across the brook. We may not see him go, for only his
head is above the surface, and his tail floats like a

200 WILD SPOKTS IN THE SOUTH

rudder. By the wake in the water, we may tell his
course, long after his round head is lost to view, and his
child is following him close behind. They are bound for
the low reeds on the other shore. There the calamus
lifts its waving wands and spicy buds, while beyond the
waterpad's broad leaf floats on the surface, and their white
and yellow lilies stud the waters, and from the sandy
edge of the channel the osier's round tapering wand,
the bayonet flags and the sedge grass, appear above the
tide and point the way the current flows. This is the
playground of our friend. You may see him here when
the moon is full, pulling the roots of the lilies, or the
long eel-grass that is groAving beneath. You can hear
his quick splash and dive, and by the rattle of the cat-
tails and the shaking out of their floss you know he is
chasing off the wild duck's brood that intrude on his
gardens. On the shore his paths are running hither and
thither, wherever a better grass can be found, or the
seeds of grains that have come down with the freshets
have taken root, and on these grounds, which he is often
compelled to cross, a deep hole is dug down to the water,
and connects with the brook, in which he will take
refuge if disturbed. At length, when the morning star
shines dead, and the cock's loud clarion comes from the
farm, the provident botanist bears away for his home,
with his arms full of grass and roots to lay up for a day
of need.

It often occurs that my friend has selected for his resi-
dence, being allured by the wild beauty of the scene,

THE HISTORY OF AN OLD FBIEND. 201

some lake whose shores do not present suitable accom-
modations for shelter. Either they are so rocky as not
to be pierced, or they are so low as to be liable to be
submerged with the spring rains. No more discrimin-
ating judge of the security of such shores can be found
than my friend. No scenery fitness will tempt him. If
there is any liability of danger on shore he goes out to
the centre of the lake, or to a point in the lake from
which he can readily obtain good grass, and then he
builds himself a house. Sometimes he takes the end of
a half-submerged log as a proper foundation. At other
times the bottom of the pond, and yet again he will take
a mass of weeds as an anchor, and construct a house that
is to last for years on this slight support. His bricks are
eel-grass and twigs ; his mortar is mud and clay ; he is
his own architect, laborer, builder, contractor and
upholsterer. Gradually the house progresses, without
shaped like a dome, and within divided into many cham-
bers. The door is beneath the waters, and so nothing
but a diver can enter it, and being built on the open
water, and at a distance from shore, nothing will attack
it from above. It is formed and fashioned with a preci-
sion that no science could excel. In and out is the strong
eel-grass woven, and the clay that covers the walls is
patted down with many a sounding thwack from his
broad tail until it is as smooth as a plaster wall. At
length winter comes and bridges the lake, and makes an
easy access to the house for the wolf and the bear. How
is the Muskrat to save himself from their snuffing noso

9*

202 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

and strong claws? The 'careful student of nature lies all
the freezing night by the side of his house, and ever
and anon with his tail spatters the water over the dome,
until finally the house is massed in ice so thick that none
but the summer can break it. And within, in liis goodly
chamber, lined with the river grass, the plumage of
ducks, and the soft silk of the silkweed, my friend lies
with his wife, safe from enemies, from want, and from
cold, and reads me a lesson of skill and providence I
have not yet followed.

In some lakes I have seen as many as thirty of these
little domes rising about three feet from the water, and
resembling an Indian village. When the nights are still
in autumn, the inhabitants of this modern Venice will be
found lying about on the lake, chasing each other
around the houses, or playing tag on the open water.
They lie on the surface, with their tails slightly arched,
which is a sign of watchfulness, and by a quick motion
will disappear so suddenly that even the hunter's shot is
ineffectual to stop them. One old beadle will now and
then be seen mounting one of the houses, and with
an august dignity survey the surrounding shores, and
when well satisfied, will dive down so softly as not to
leave a ripple ; but if, perchance, he should see some
cause of alarm, he leaps back with an angry plash, and
the whole tribe disappear in an instant. Should you be
tempted to fire a gun at some impudent member of the
colony, before the bright flash had faded along the shore,
every one will have disappeared from view. You may

THE HISTORY OF AN OLD FRIEND. 203

wait hours for another shot, and though the pond is full
of them, you will never see one. Once in a while an old
sentinel will float to the surface, and the point of his
nose, about the size of a chesnut, will be exposed while
he breathes and takes a view, and after a moment of
watchfulness, it will be so quietly withdrawn that even
if you see it you will not suspect it to be one of your
prey.

A long time ago — I remember the woods and waters
were very bright in color then, for I was a boy — there
lived one bachelor Muskrat in a small pond not far
from my home. After watching him some evenings, I
set a trap to catch him, baited with a rosy Spitzenberg.
Early in the morning I was at the pond ; the trap was
sprung, and peering into it through a small hole bored
in the end, I saw crouched .in the corner an animal with
long whiskers and bright eyes, that appeared to my
happy vision as big as a polar bear, but by the musky
smell I knew it was my friend the Muskrat. If the
woods and waters were bright the night before, they
glowed with fire now, and the sun rose in the east. I
carried my prize home in the trap, and tying a string to
his leg, after getting somewhat bitten in the operation,
secured him in the shed, and tried to tame him, but
quite unsuccessfully. He refused to eat apples or cake,
though always ready for a piece of my finger. "When I
could watch my captive no longer, I went to bed to
dream of him, while he, cutting the string with his sharp
incisors, gnawed a hole in the door of the shed, and made

204 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

his escape. I followed his track the next day in the
light snow that lay on the ground, and it led in a straight
line to the pond from whence I came. I set my trap
again, but though I tempted him with the rosiest of
apples, he never was induced to enter. At this time the
pond in which he resided froze over, and gave me an
opportunity of getting out to the centre, where he had
built for himself a dome as classically correct as the Pan-
theon. I confided my secret to a comrade, and we con-
sulted an old work of the Northwest Fur Trade, and
there learned the Indian manner of catching these ani-
mals. We accordingly provided ourselves with a small
net, and going down to the pond with a pickaxe, when
school was out, we commenced a regular siege. First we
cut four holes in the ice, at opposite sides of, and close by
the house ; then with bent sticks I pushed the corners of
the net through the holes, and my comrade fastened
them at the four corners, thus stretching the net beneath
the house in such a manner as to prevent the animal
diving down in the water. By the time this advance
had been effected it began to grow dark, so I hastily
with my pickaxe cut a hole in the top of the house and
looked in. There was nothing there but the materials
for a warm bed, that had been occupied not long since.
I pulled away the partition that divided the interior, but
could see nothing. I put my hand in to feel, and was
rewarded with a gripe from an admirable set of incisors
that have left their impress on my hand to this day, and
pulling out my arm, I pulled out my captive of the night

THE HISTOBY OF AN OLD FKIEND. 205

before, who immediately, amid the laughter of my
unsympathizing friend, scampered to the shore, where
the ice had left an open margin of water, and dived
beyond pursuit.

This bold burglary on our part evidently caused much
alarm and uncertainty in the mind of the proprietor of
the house. For the next morning, when I returned with
an eel-spear, intent on warlike deeds, I found that, after
putting a few armfuls of mud on the broken dome, his
ratship had changed his mind, and, leaving the house
altogether, had made his exodus to a safer land, under
the waters of a neighboring stream, to which I followed
his trail, and where I trust he still lives, undisturbed by
marauding boys.

The Muskrat is no noisy roisterer. His ways are
gentleness, and he only frequents the most placid scenes.
He abhors the noisy rapids of the river, the clank of the
wheel, or the fashionable highway, but where the stream
has the softest tone, where the birch droops lowest,
where the leaves in autumn lay in yellow and crimson
wreaths upon the eddy, and the fish-hawk from his emi-
nence can scarcely see the perch that turns his golden
bars to the sunlight, so hid in foliage moves the water,
there my friend finds a favorite bank, and may be seen,
even in the day-time, plying his busy feet, or mounting
some stone or slanting root to view the disrobing year.

To this unfrequented place, when troubled by the cares
that oppress, or those greater cares that may oppress, I
often come to hold counsel with my friend. I hear the

206 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

•waters croon, the leaves whisper, the wood-thrush warble
his low chant, and I forget to listen to that inner voice
complaining. I see the bold plunge of the kingfisher div-
ing for his prey ; bright eyes are peering at me from bush
and hole, cautiously at first, familiarly afterward; the
leafy vault above me dazzles the eye with a confused
motion of waning, glimmering brightness, and catches of
sunshine come and go athwart the foam and on the
flowers, and I do not see the cold, hard faces that were
staring at me but now. I drink the water, I smell the
odor of the moss, I lean my face against the cool beech
trunk ; every sense is drinking in the religion of nature,
and the soul, forgetting itself, goes up in the million-
colored, million-formed works of creation, through their
instincts, their changes, and their birth, to that pervad-
ing essence that made them all and guides them all, and
placed me among them all — a very little thing in this
wonderful place. And then comes forth the Muskrat ;
he swims out to an apple you had tossed in the stream,
and, smelling it an instant, takes it in his mouth, and
bears it away to yonder stone. He sees you now; a
moment's pause ; he is watching you ; perchance he sees
that softening heart that has come over you with the
teachings of the hour, and therefore he does not fear
you. He goes on munching his apple, while his whiskers
move up and down with every movement of his grave
cheek. His keen eyes wink with satisfaction. When he
has finished his meal he passes his hand over his face, and
dresses his robe a moment. He looks up the stream and

THE HISTOEY OF AN OLD FRIEND. 207

down, but there is nothing there save a flock of wood-
duck, halting for a day on their southern migration. He
looks at you ; do you see his contentment, his happy face,
his honest ways — just enough of labor to provide him a
home — just enough of leisure to learn the world his God
has made ? He moves into the water, and, bowing low
his head to his now cheerful friend, he bids the day and
you good night.

When I had finished my history, I looked around upon
my auditors, and found that, with the exception of Lou
Jackson, they were all asleep.

208 WILD SPOKT8 IN THE SOUTH.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE DROWNED LANDS.

" Seekest thou the plashy brink

Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide,
Or where rocking billows rise and sink

On the chafed ocean's side?
******

" And soon thy toil shall end|

Soon shalt thou find a summer home and rest,
And scream among thy fellows — reeds shall bend

Soon o'er thy sheltered nest."

BRYANT.

FOR some time past, on the main land, we had been
noticing the signs of the departing year, and at Bonda
Key these indications became more marked and numer-
ous. The air had not lost its balsam or the leaf its color,
yet there were other shadows on nature's dial slighter in
appearance, but as true in reality. The ear missed the
whir in the evening air of those summer insects, whose
short lives had already terminated. The eye saw a clear-
ness in the atmosphere that brought objects several miles
distant apparently near at hand, and sometimes elevated
them about the horizon. Some birds that wore in sum-
mer the livery of the rainbow had apparelled themselves

THE DROWNED LANDS. 209

in plainer garments, and from day to day new arrivals
among migratory tribes of the air would recall tie mind
to those northern hills where the jagged pine and
lichened rock were already grey with the first flurry of
snow. "We were all standing one morning at the " creak
o' day," on the island, watching the first effects of the
sun before its rising, and noting the little indications of
the progress nature had made during the night. Thus
travellers at sea will come forth early in the morning, and
for a few minutes scan the ocean and the ship, and note
the bearings and the winds before they turn to the regu-
lar thoughts and occupations of the day.

" See those ducks coming ?» said Jackson.

"Where?"

" Close by the main land, low down."

" Yes ! they are coming this way, too."

" Teal," said Mike.

" How do you know that, Mike, have you seen that
flock before ?" asked the Doctor.

" By their flyin' ; you couldn't throw a picayune
edgewise through the flock."

The compact body of birds that seemed when first in
view a fleck on the red sky, gradually extended in size
until they swept high over our heads, with a sound like
a strong wind in a pine wood, keeping well toward the
outer side of the island.

" Jist think of them air critters bein' hatched among
the icebergs !"

" But think of their all going back again next spring

210 WILD SPOET8 IN THE SOUTH.

to the very spot they were born on," replied Miss Jack-
son.

" I trust they all won't get the chance," said the Doc-
tor, looking the way they went with covetous eyes.

"Wall, that's easy enough done with the chance
they've got, stuck up higher en a meetin* house, a pros-
pectin' over the country ; they'd be booby birds to for-
git their own trail. The rub was to 'eve done it the fust
tune, when it was all strange like."

" They are always piloted by some old bird that has
been here before, I think," said Miss Jackson.

" How do you know that, Miss Wiseacre ?"

" By seeing the flock come straight for some favorite
feeding-ground, where they will always alight at nearly
the same time every year. Now had there been no old
bird piloting them, they would have alit in open water
and found the feeding ground subsequently.

" I shot in a flock ones't in the spring-time and winged
a young black duck," said Mike, pushing up his cap from
his face and spreading his arms out on the muzzle of his
rifle. " I tuck the thing hum and penned it up with the
tame ducks, and so I kept it all summer. When fall
cum the diver ducks kim fust, and then a purty considera-
ble show of teal, but he didn't scrape his foot to them or
say one word. But airly one mornin' I heerd that duck
sittin' down by the bayou, quackin' away as ef he had
the pip in his gizzard ; (there comes a row o' black ducks
now.) Wall, I couldn't see what 'twas that bothered
him. I looked all around ; et was comin' on mornin'

THE DROWNED LANDS. 211

like, and things out was quiet, and every minit or so he'd
set up on end, and stickin' his bill up like a musket would
quack three or four times. As I looked, I seen a tearin'
big flock of black ducks cum. from the north, high up ;
they bore around when they got over the cabin, and pre-
sently landed down by the side of the wounded duck,
and sich a goin' on and duckin' of heads and gabblin'
you never heered in all your born days. It was all as
plain as a bear's track. The wounded duck was waitin'
for its friends ; it knowed jist when it was time fur 'em
to come to the very minit, and sot out there to stop
them."

" And I presume the noises they made were mutual
inquiries after friends and the compliments of the sea-
son," said the Doctor.

" Asking if there had been much ice in Baffin's Bay
the past year," suggested Lou Jackson.

" There comes another flock," said Jackson, pointing
to the horizon.

" There's a grist of »em," said Mike.

" See how they swerve one way or another ! Look
how fast they grow in size ! There must be ten thousand
in that flock ! All night they have been travelling and
yet not weary !" exclaimed Miss Jackson as the flock
came pressing on in a hugh irregular shadow, soughing
like the wind, and keeping straight south.

" Oh, you beauties !" ejaculated the Doctor, looking up
at the passing mass of beautiful intelligent life overhead,
with his mouth wide open and his body gradually lean-

212 WELD 8POKT8 IN THE SOUTH.

ing back to permit him to see as they passed, until his
round little figure nearly lost its balance.

" Thou shall not covet, Doctor."

" Mike, can we get some of them ?"

" Reckon."

"I think there are a good many on the Drowned
Lands," said Jackson; "they have been coming on
pretty thick, lately."

" Then let us try them. I don't think the Doctor will
look earthward again, unless it is to shoot ducks."

A laugh followed, and the party being of one accord,
it was arranged that we should spend the day in the
marshes, taking a supply of food to last till night. So we
walked back to camp, Miss Jackson and the Doctor
chatting away about some theory of the Doctor's upon
the cause of the variation of the plumage of birds, which,
like most theories, was all wrong. The moment our
intentions for the day were announced, the camp was in
a hurry; the idlers bestirred themselves with double
zeal ; guns were examined ; boats made ready ; ammu-
nition bags, that had not been used in a year, were over-
hauled and filled ; and at length, when the sun arose,
our breakfast was ended, and four boats were all equipped
and manned with two negroes each, ready for the sports-
men. The boats were all dug-out canoes, made by the
negroes from cypress logs, but their graceful shape and
high sharp bow and stern made them resemble the
Indian bark canoe, or the Canadian pirogue. Mike had
his neatly arranged, and a beautifully tanned deer-skin

THE DROWNED LANDS. 213

was spread in the stern. The negroes, with their sinewy
arms and hairy breasts bare, sat at the oars ; they were
the handsomest negroes on the Jackson place, but would
generally run away to the woods when their master was
off; so to obtain some use out of them they were always
taken along on the marooning excursions. The boats
lay with their sterns on the rocks, waiting for Miss Jack-
son. Her father took his seat and pushed off, calling out
as he went —

" Come, Lou, hurry up. Who will you ride with ?"

She stepped down to the water's edge and into the
Doctor's boat. Push off! Away they go, moving on
the water like shadows, so little ripple do they leave
behind. The shore recedes, the camp-fire smoke lessens ;
Rose can just be seen by the beach with her hands on
her hips, watching the lessening fleet ; the hounds' com-
plainings come fainter and fainter ; islands are passed ;
new vistas open to the eye with tropical vegetation ;
gaudy birds on the sandy points ; low swathing mist in
patches on the water, and no wind to drift it away.
How luxuriantly calm ! The land seems all afloat !

Jackson was in the lead, and we all followed in a line
after him. Presently Mike's boat shoots ahead, a feather
of spray at its prow, and the sweat guttering on the fore-
heads of the oarsmen. Yowler's head was lying over
the edge of the canoe. Mike had a paddle in his hand,
steering, and I saw the deer-skin that decorated the seat
had been left behind.

" Where away ?" called out Jackson, resting on his

214: WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

oars, as we rounded a point where numerous openings
and bays presented to view, and the boats glided to-
gether.

"Any way is beautiful enough," answered the Doctor,
in the highest tone of enjoyment, chanting away
snatches of songs, and Lou Jackson joining the chorus.

" Hi, you Scip, you pull a baby oar."

" Git out a de way dat air clam-boat I"

" Row brothers row,
The stream runs fast."

" That song isn't true in fact or music, Doctor."
" There goes Mike ; he will show us the way."
" The old rat, he has stolen the march ! Give way, boys 1
All together !" and the boats filing off followed in the
wake of Mike, who was making for a level shore about
two miles ahead, where the bushes grew so dense you
could scarcely see the land. As we approached, we
could see no passage beyond, and even Mike seemed
uncertain, for he steered along the beach a hundred
yards distant, examining carefully, the bushes that grew
close to the water, colored with red hawberries, and
spiked with cactus of several varieties. After skirting
the shore in this manner for several hundred yards, the
prow of the hunter's canoe was turned shoreward ; ours
followed the leader. The boatmen bent to their work
and the boats flew.

" Trail yer oars !" called out Mike.

The negroes threw their oars from the rowlocks, let-

THE DEOWNED LANDS. 215

ting them float by the side of the boat. Mike's canoe
dashed into the bushes and disappeared. Ours followed
one after the other, and when we lifted our heads from
the crouching position we were compelled to assume, the
boats all lay floating together on a large lake completely
land-locked, and cluttered up with reedy islands and
bogs of coarse grass, with here and there an osier nod-
ding among lily pads or floating scum.

With the first exclamation of delight from the negroes
there was a rush in the water at one side, and twenty
wood-ducks, that had been under the edge of the bushes,
took wing so near us we could see their scarlet eyes and
hear their piping cry ; at the same instant came the
pleasant and long remembered quack ! quack ! quack ! of
the black duck, as a dozen of these clergy of the marshes
beat upward from the grass at our unexpected coming.

I fired at one of the wood-ducks, and so did the Doc-
tor. Jackson banged away at the others ; but as usual
when in a hurry, there was not a bird killed, though a
dozen or more arose from neighboring shelters at the
cannonade, and after one or two circuits settled down in
the grass beyond.

" Oh, Doctor, how could you miss that beautiful
drake ! I will shoot the next one myself," said Miss
Jackson.

" Yon see," replied the Doctor, rather humbly, " they
were too near when I first fired."

" And when you next fired, they were too far away,"
said Miss Jackson.

216 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

** You need not say anything," said the Doctor.
" Why didn't you kill some of those black ducks ?"

" Gun hung fire."

" Pooh ! what nonsense 1"

" Come, no recriminations, load up I"

" How shall we shoot ?"

"Each boat is to paddle its own way through the
reeds, and shoot what rises, and so we will get a good
many passing shots overhead. That's so, isn't it, Mike ?"
•• " I reckon."

" How will we come together again ?"

" Thar's an island clare up to the eend of this water,
and it's got one cabbage-tree on it, I reether think the
biggest cabbage-tree north of Tampa Bay. We might
come together thar."

" Amen !" said the Doctor. " Now let's start. I am
on warlike deeds intent."

" Quack ! quack ! quack I" sounded close by us, and
one of those wayward ducks that sometimes, against all
rules, skulks behind his comrades, got up near us. The
Doctor was standing up at the time, and fired, but from
the rocking of the unsteady canoe he missed, as before.

" What a shame, Doctor ! I shall not ride with you."

" Try him, some one."

" He's too far away !" said Jackson, with his gun half
way to his shoulder.

" Shoot him, Mike !" said Miss Jackson, turning to
where the hunter sat in his canoe.

Mike passed the back of his hand quickly across his

THE DKOWNED LANDS. 217

forehead, as he was wont sometimes to do when m earn-
est, and raised liis rifle to his shoulder. A second of
pause, and the crack of the piece sounded. The duck
had arisen perpendicularly until it had reached a height
that gave it free passage over the reeds, and then taking
its direction, was bearing away in a straight line, gra-
dually decreasing in size as its velocity increased. At
the report of Mike's rifle it fell over and over, striking
the water with a splash, while in the air where it was
flying one or two feathers floated away on the wind.

" "Well, done, that !" cried Jackson.

Lou said nothing, but her kindling eye rested on the
marksman, while a smile lit her whole face, and the party
separated for the hunt.

The Drowned Lands were formed by the sea banking
up with a sandbar the outlet of a stream that ran through
a low country. This natural dam flooded the lowlands
on either side for several miles, and the soil being sandy,
with a slight deposit of alluvial matter from the descend-
ing fresh waters, many varieties of grass and aquatic
plants sprang up, and formed attractive food for the
myriads of water-fowl that here passed the winters.
Patches of cane grew on the marshy land not yet covered
with water. Osiers and rushes sprung from the shallow
water, and a long grass, with a tassel like the onion,
opened its crown and scattered its oily seeds over the
water. Now and then a floating log, or some still living
bulb that had come down the stream had taken root in
the shallows, and formed an island, on which rose one or

10

218 \VILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

two trees, and a rank vegetation of vines and grass. On
the dead upper limbs of these trees the ahnega and other
species of cormorants could be seen all the day patiently
watching for their prey in the shallows. Fancy could
not picture a more suitable home for the water-fowl,
whose food wras abundant in the matted grass and succu-
lent weeds, and who hid in bending rushes for better
shelter from the northerly winds.

Up this extended marsh our boats gently floated, each
one following the openings that seemed best, and diverg-
ing so as to form an extended line. The negroes shipped
their long oars, and used only the paddle, in order to
move with greater stillness, and to pass through the nar-
row openings. As we advanced, I soon lost sight of the
other boats, but from time to time could tell their posi-
tion from the report of their guns and the rising of the
ducks they disturbed. I had changed positions with the
men, taking the bow of the boat, and letting them pad-
dle in the stern.

" Dar, Maussa, black duck !" whispered Scipio, after
we had paddled a short distance, changing with a wave
of his paddle the direction of the canoe, and pointing it
toward a mass of reeds that lay twisted and broken
together, as though some wind had twisted them off half
way up.

I pointed my hand inquiringly to the reed». Scipio
nodded, and the boat floated up noiselessly as a fish.
"We were close by them, and no sign of the game, save
a feather or two on the water. The neighboring tufts *>f

THE DROWNED LANDS. 219

grass shut out the wind, and it was warm and still, like
summer in the grassy bower, while bright little fish darted
aside on either bow of the boat. Then came a flopping
so and, a rattle of the reeds, and the brazen cry that so
many thousand times, in a thousand hearts, has sent the
blood leaping with its old memory-haunted tone,
" Qua-ack! qua-ack ! quack!" Some notes in this world
are clearer, and some more rhyming, but there are few
that when repeated, even far away, will so picture to the
mind, in the twinkling of an eye, the extended reach of
sedge, the downy reeds, glassy water, and yonng hopes,
with which it is so intimately associated.

"With the alarm cry two ducks broke forth, scattering
the floss of the cat-tails in clouds about them, their long
necks stretching out as though straining to be away. I
aimed at the drake as he poised himself to bear away,
and with the report of the piece he fell, head and wings
pendent, with a splash on the water — a dead shot, I knew
by the way he came down. The duck had gained some
distance by this time, going straight away, as if terror
chased her. No fear of her escape ; the success of my
first shot gave me confidence, and I knew the power of
the little Mullen gun I held at my shoulder. Canny John
Mullen, in his grim little smithy in Ann street, working
away with his brogue and cunning hand — how often I
have thanked him when he never knew it! "Quack!
quack !" The sound was faint from the distance when I
fired, but the duck rolled over and over, with its wings
spinning, till it was lost to sight.

220 WILD 8POKT8 Iff THE SOUTH.

" Yah ! ha ! ya ! Maussa ; good shot. Did you ebber ?
Well, now, I give up — dat beats dis child !"

"We paddled on, and found the first duck dead, and
and the second with both wings broken, and easily
secured. While loading, four ducks came flying over
from the direction of the other boats. I hastily poured
in some loose shot, and crouching down in the canoe,
capped my gun, while I watched the birds approach, and
when they were so near I could see the mottling on their
breasts, arose suddenly to my feet. Scared by my sud-
den appearance, they breasted the air, swerving off to
the right and left. Ho ! what fair shots ! I could have
killed them with a pistol. The first ban-el brought two,
the second one, and the other bird departed sadly
frightened.

Thus we passed on, getting fair shots every fifty yards
at small bunches of ducks that arose from the little
lagoons, and an occasional long shot at some passing bird
that had been frightened from his proper feeding-ground
by the incursion of the hunters.

At the same time that the game was abundant, the
scenery through which its pursuit was leading us was
strikingly peculiar. The level waste of sedge extended
beyond the vision, waving in the wind. The constant
opening and closing of watery passages, the little reed-
locked lakes, the tortuous coiirse we were obliged to
follow, the sameness of the grouping of the reeds and
little islets, repeated over and over again till the mind
was all afloat as to locality and distance ; the weird trees

THE DEOWNED LA2JDS. 221

with their dead and naked arms, and the occasional mass
of broken reeds and matted drift-wood that in the sum-
mer had formed the alligator's lair, all contributed to
impress the mind with a feeling of strangeness and soli-
tude. The wild birds, too, were unwontedly familiar in
their demeanor. Marsh hens ran over the drifts before
the boat, and gulls came screaming around us.

About three miles from where we had entered the
Drowned Land, we came to the edge of open water, and
found a large lake. Before entering it a glance ahead
showed the further end of the pond literally covered with
ducks. It was impossible, being on the same level, to
tell how many there were, but from the extent of their
front line they were very numerous. A hurried council
of war was called to decide how they were best ap-
proached, and after two or three plans had been pro-
posed and discarded, it was settled that we should try
and paddle around on the further side of the pond so as
to be near the flock, and then take our chances of their
coining over us, as they probably might when alarmed
by the firing in the other boats. So with much care as /-
to the noise we might make, and some self self-control in c\
not firing at single ducks that would rise close by us, we
ultimately got around the flock, so as to place them
between us and the other boats. We pulled our canoe
into the thickest of the grass that completely sheltered
us, and from where I sat I could see the ducks lying on
the open water, moving hither and thither, and diving
down for the eel-grass below the surface. I immediately

222 WILD SPOET8 IN THE SOUTH.

recognized them as the same flock of teal that came over
at the early dawn. It was a beautiful thing to see so
much graceful life so bountifully supplied and protected
by its own instincts in the solitude.

Away down the marsh came the frequent boom ! boom !
of my comrades' guns, but it did not seem to interfere
with the comfort of the ducks, who still fed on, though
keeping out of shot from where I sat. Soon the report
of the guns coming nearer caused the ducks to crowd
together with all their heads up. There was a long
pause, and then a negro's voice sounded close by :
" Maussa Jackson, mark !" followed by the clear ringing
of a double short, and at the sound up went my flock of
ducks. Three or four arose first, and then the whole
mass cleared the wrater ; and the beating of their wings
on the surface was like a long continued roll of thunder.
I had no conception, before they rose, of their great mul-
titude. It seemed as if they could be counted by
tens of thousands. When they had attained a sufficient
height to overlook the meadow, they wheeled like the
line of an army, and apparently catching sight of the
other boats, came with the bright linings of their wings
turned to the sunlight, and their countless pinions hurt-
ling through the air directly over the place where wo
•were concealed. I had given Scipio, as a reward of
merit, the musket I had brought with me, directing him
to take his own time, and fire as he chose. He, how-
ever, could not wait for the best shot, but fired as one
wing of the army wheeled over us. The aim was not a

THE DROWNED LANDS. 223

bad one, for a dozen ducks fell at the shot, and several
more at intervals came slanting down from the flock.
The effect of this unexpected attack drove the wing of
the flock into the main body, clustering them together in
a compact mass, when I fired both barrels. My stronger
shooting gun bored a hole through the black mass, and
twenty-seven ducks fell on the open water, and two or
three went down aslant into the reeds. Three and a
half dozen ducks was the contribution that one flock
made to our booty. I still looked longingly after them
as they went floating around the horizon, like banks of
minute flies that wave at midsumer from prominent
points on the shores of Great Lakes, undulating with the
wind. But they passed away in the dim horizon, pro-
bably being unwilling to make another trial of the
Drowned Lands after so unpleasant a reception.

Hardly had we secured all our ducks, after re-shooting
the winged ones, before the Doctor's canoe burst through
the reeds.

" Hulloah !"

" Hulloah !»

" How many birds ?"

" Ah ! plenty. Talk of hunting !" said the Doctor,
" this is my hunter's pai-adise. A good boat to row you,
and boys to pick up the game; no running yourself
out of breath, or heavy pack on your back !" And the
speaker took off his slouched hat, and rubbed his curly
hair and shiny face with his handkerchief till it was all
a-glow, laughing the while with his low musical voice.

224: WILD SPOKTS IN THE SOUTH.

" How many ducks, Miss Jackson ?"

" Oh, ten for rue, I believe ; but they are beauties.
Paddle up closer, boyg, and let us see."

" Hulloah ! where did you get all those ? Great is
Diana, but that is a pretty sight !" exclaimed the Doctor,
leaning over to look at our ducks, that were neatly piled
up on one of the seats, with their breasts up, and their
heads hanging one way.

" These are out of the flock we saw come over to-
day."

" I thought so ; they just got up here, didn't they ? It
was a noble flock — blue wings, all of them."

" Oh ! there are your ducks. Why, you only have
ten altogether. Where are those you shot, Doctor ?"

" Oh, I didn't care to shoot. Miss Lou, here, is a
pupil of mine, and I like to let her try."

A suppressed nasal explosion from one of the boys in
the Doctor's canoe informed me, if I had needed the
information, that the Doctor was not a very true hand
with the ducks, and that the lady was doing all the
work.

" Well, there is the Palm Tree Island, I presume, not
a great way ahead. Is it time for lunch ?"

" Yes, I think so," said Miss Jackson, " if appetite is
any test." *

" Try some cold tea," said I, extending the bottle of
that refreshing hunter's beverage.

" Ah !" said she, after a long drink, " that is a spring
in the desert."

THE DKOWNED LANDS. 225

" Let me try a little of that spring in the desert," said
the Doctor.

" Not till you tell me one thing," said I, getting pos-
session of my bottle. "How many shots have you
missed ?"

" Will you give me the tea, then ?"

"Yes."

"Honor bright?"

"Yes."

" Ten ! Give us the tea."

" Ha ! ha ! you are looking at Miss Jackson when you
should be at the ducks."

The boys took the direction of the palm tree, and we
paddled on together, getting up two or three birds. It
was a pretty thing to see Lou Jackson shoot. She had
a light double-barrelled gun, the same one she had used
on the deer-hunt, and when the duck beat up to the level
of the tall grass and poised for his flight, she fired with
such accuracy that the bird generally fell in a shower of
feathers, amid the Doctor's laughter and merry jokes.
He did not pretend to shoot unless there were three or
four ducks rising together, and then he generally fol-
lowed their flight, with his gun to his shoulder, until,
when a long way off, he would finally say " Too far,"
and taking his gun down again, give a sigh of relief, and
look around for some more game. On reaching the little
island we found Mike was there before us, and the
negroes had landed the provisions and prepared our sim-
ple meal. Yowler sat on the narrow beach, evidently

10*

226 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

more melancholy than usual at the unaccustomed nature
of the sport, and seemed reflecting upon the worthless-
ness of birds as compared with deer and panthers. "Wag
ran around the limited extent of land several times with-
out anything but a solitary snipe that went skapeing
away, and then returned, to worry Yowler. Jackson
soon came in with a couple of score of ducks, and we
learned from him that the great body of the winter ducks
had not yet come on. There were no geese, and no brant,
and he said, what was easily credible, that late in the
year a good sportsman could kill four hundred ducks a
day.

" But I will tell you what it is, I have seen English
snipe flying over, and as we go home we will try some
of those low islands outside, and get a dozen."

" Much walking ?" suggested the Doctor.

" No ; you can shoot from the boat."

"I believe I am somewhat of a shot on English
snipe," said the Doctor. " I remember once killing a
dozen."

" You didn't have Lou Jackson in the boat with you,"
I replied.

'* No, something a great deal worse — you were with
me."

"No, never — not when you killed a dozen English
snipe."

" Yes, I shot them all at one shot on the beach."

" Fudge ! those were Yellow-legs."

" May be they were, but they were just as good."

THE DROWNED LANDS. 227

" Doctor, try a piece of hot venison steak, or some
cold bar ?»'

" No bear for me ; I would be thinking all the tune
about his ugly teeth when he was shot."

" It is not his teeth, but my own, I am afraid of," said
Miss Jackson, laughing ; " give me some corn-bread, if
you please, Mike."

" What are we to do with all these ducks ?" said the
Doctor ; " we can never eat them."

" Yourn ?" asked Mike.

A laugh.

" No, ours ; those defunct, and those that are to be."

" Never fear, a camp of fourteen people requires some-
thing more than Indian com."

" "What are you toasting there before the fire, Mike ?"

" Breast of crane."

" Let me try a piece !" asked Lou.

" Sartin ; it's better en deer's meat," he replied, hand-
ing over a strip on the end of his toasting-stick.

" See de ducks !" exclaimed the negroes, less busy
than we with their dinner, as a long train of ducks camo
floating over, pencilling the clear sky.

" Those are mallards," said Jackson.

" How can you tell so far off, father ?"

" By the shape and color, I think ; I can hardly tell
how. They would be black duck, if they were not
lighter in complexion. Am I not right, Mike ?"

" Reckon," replied Mike, following the passing cloud
with his eye till they faded away, and then continued,

228 WILD SPORTS m THE SOUTH.

musingly: "Some takes kindly to that kind o' larnin'.
Some kin tell what kind o' duck is comin' by the sound
he makes beatin' the air. Thar was Picardo, Picardo
Duck Legs he was called, because he had bow legs.
Wall, that man lived in his canoe, and he could tell what
a duck was a-goin' to do jist by the waggin' of his tail.
He had lived on duck-meat so long he could smell a duck
like a pointer dog. Thar's the natur' o' man ; when God
gives him a callin' he's bound to go it, or be a lazy cuss
ever arterwards. Duck Legs was no a'count on shore,
but it larnt a man somethin' to paddle a canoe with
him."

" Come, boys," said Jackson, lighting his cigar, " it's
high noon now, and there are seven miles from here to
thte open water, and seven more to Bonda Key, and two
dozen snipe to kill on the way."

" And some more duck before we leave here," said the
Doctor.

" Mind your bearings now, or we will get lost here.
There is no palm tree to row back to."

" Take the range of this palm-tree, and sunset ; purty
good marks, both on 'em," said Mike.

"All aboard!" cries the Doctor. "Push off!" and
away we went, or at least the three boats went, leaving
Mike watching- our departure, smoking away at his
cigarette, seemingly as unconscious as his hound that sat
beside him.

There were some good shots made, as we returned, at
the various bunches of ducks that were hid away in the

THE DEOWNED LANDS. 229

close coverts of the reeds, Lou Jackson, in particular,
firing very exact, although her gun was so light that the
game sometimes refused to come down. We were a
good deal together, as we were paddling more to return
than to get game, and only shot those birds we saw on
our way. Once, while paddling fast, a wood-duck drake
arose from an open pool, uttering his wheezing cry of
"Oh hee!" "Oh hee!" as he stretched away. Lou
fired, and at the shot he staggered and sunk for a mo-
ment, while a dozen feathers floated away, and then he
rose again.

" Stop ! stop !" she cried, as I raised my gun to shoot,
" I hit him ! I hit him I"

But the duck didn't fall, and continued his flight until
lost in the distance.

" Oh, what a fool I was ! I forgot all about I had
another barrel ! And why didn't I let you shoot ? But
I thought, to be sure, he would fall."

" "Why didn't you shoot, Doctor ?" I asked.

" Oh, I thought he would fall, too."

Sometimes we would come across a floating log sur-
rounded by feathers, and worn smooth by the tread of
the wood-ducks that would sit here half the day pluming
themselves by the mirror of the water. The hazel-
breasted drakes here displayed their Tyrian plumage and
elegant shapes to their dove-eyed consorts, and scolded
away the little bitterns that alone could compare in
beauty to themselves, and who alike with them inhabited
these great morasses. "We sometimes would suddenly

230 WILD SPORTS EN THE SOUTH.

float on one of those happy families, dozing away the
sunny hours, and they would arise, when we were close
upon them, in the greatest disorder. The ringing of a
half dozen shots, the fall of the game, the shout and
laugh, would end the scene, and break upon the stillness
of the solitude with a burst of fun and activity all the
wilder for being so rarely heard in the marshes.

We had almost reached the confine of the open water,
when Jackson fired at a black duck flying overhead, and
it fell in the water, wing-broken, and immediately dove.
He commenced, with the assistance of the Doctor's boat,
to look for the game, probing with his paddle the bunches
of floating sedge near by, while I, lying a little further
off, was watching their search. While thus engaged, I
happened to notice under the water a duck swimming
toward the surface ; it was the wounded duck trying to
escape. I saw a bill protruded from the water, the duck
in the mean time keeping his head and body completely
hidden. I leaned over my boat and caught the nose of
the cunning fellow, bringing him above water amid the
shouts of the negroes who witnessed the trick.

Being joined by Mike, who had turned aside to get
some roots with which to color deer-skins, we all passed
through the narrow outlet of the marsh, and turned to-
ward the low islands, where it was said we could find
snipe.

• " Round that grape-vine point !" called out Jackson,
as the headlands we had passed in the morning again
opened to our view.

THE DEOWNED LANDS. 231

The paddles had been exchanged for oars, and with
long, measured strokes, keeping time to the song of the
oarsmen, the lithe boats skimmed the water toward the
low islands Jackson had indicated to us. On reaching
the shore we found the land was marshy and wet, and
about half the area overgrown with flags, now blown
down by the fall winds.

"Not a bad place; is it?" said Jackson, looking
around the island. •

" By no means ; see these little red-scummed puddles,
and bare spots of mud ; they'd make a snipe's bill water."

" Escape ! escape !" shrieked a snipe, as he sprung
into the air a few yards in front of us, tacking from side
to side, and settling again on the further side of a little
pond.

" There, I told you so ! Hold on now till I draw my
duck shot. Lou, are you ready ?"

" Ready as I will be. I am going to rely on the Doc-
tor."

"I will take a little fine shot, then. I follow your
lead, Jackson."

" Mike, are you ready ?"

" Yes, I reckon, 'Ijout, though I don't see nothin' to
shoot here."

"You just keep even, and we will see plenty to shoot.
Send out your dog, Doctor."

" Hi on, Wag ! Hi on !" but Wag seemed to suspect
some trick under such unaccustomed attention, and
skulked behind his master.

232 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

The first step ahead sprung another snipe, and, being
intent on the game, I shot it as it balanced.

" Hulloah ! give a fellow time," said the Doctor.

" That bird flew right in the way of the shot !" said
Mike, his eye kindling, and his mouth expressing a great
deal of doubt and curiosity.

" Have you ever killed a snipe, Lou ?" said I, the
formality of the family name having been gradually
dropped, on all sides, as the freedom of our hunting ex-
cursions brought us into closer intimacy.

" Yes, two ; I never had much opportunity for such
game, and never learned to shoot them on the
wing."

" Now is your chance, then ; there goes a shot."

Two barrels were discharged, one by Jackson, and one
by the Doctor, but the birds went off.

" There, I know I can do better than that," remarked
Miss Jackson, looking at the bird skimming over the
ground.

" I'm sure you kin," said Mike.

" Escape !" " Escape !" " Escape !" croaked out three
birds, as they launched away from before us. Miss
Jackson fired a double shot, and one bird fell.

" Well done, that !"

"Escape!" croaked another bird, as it rose on our left
among some flags. Mike, who had been watching the
hunt with great interest, ejaculated, " Wall, I'll take a
turn now !" and, aiming with his rifle, fired. The bird
fell as if knocked by a ball-bat, and Mike on going up to

THE DROWNED LANDS.

•

it said, as he lifted it up by its wings, " Knocked into a
grease-spot !"

There was a universal laugh at the quaint figure of the
hunter, in his buckskin suit, and the air of derison with
which he picked up his fragment of a bird, and held it
at arm's length.

"Wall, ef anybody had told me that I would have
ever gone a-birdin' with this ere old rifle, I would, hev
told that body he was a fool !"

Wag seemed to have got somewhat in the mood of
hunting around, inspired by our shouts and firing, and
ran about hither and yon, springing the birds up before
us like a cocking spaniel.

" There !" Lou called out to the Doctor, as the dog got
up another bird, " I told you that dog had a great deal
of intelligence ; this is the very first tune, would you be-
lieve it, he has ever been hunted over snipe."

" I can certainly credit it," answered Jackson, drily,
as he capped his gun.

Away went another snipe, right before the Doctor,
who banged away with both barrels, and brought down
the bird.

" There, I killed him ! Fetch him here, Wag ! Fetch,
good dog."

Wag ran for the bird, but, instead of bringing him in,
picked him up and ran away with might and main, pur-
sued by the Doctor, shouting at the top of his voice, amid
peals of laughter. The race was a short one, for the
Doctor's figure was not adapted to running, and the

234 WILD SPOET8 IN THE SOUTH.

•

island was wet, and full of little quagholes, in one of
which the Doctor fell, and was unable to move a single
step, and Wag, deliberately lying down on the other
side, ate up the prize.

" Oh, Poke, what an invaluable dog !"

" Hold your tongue, will you, and help me out. Throw
me a piece of stick to stand on. You, Scip ! you lazy
negro, bring me an oar. I am all out of breath ;" and
he polished his face with his handkerchief, as if the true
remedy for his misfortune was in active friction.

" Escape ! Escape !" said two more snipe, getting up
right by the Doctor. Bang ! bang ! and they both fell
at the shot.

" Hold hard there, don't shoot over me that way ; just
think, I can't dodge !" cried the Doctor, waving his hand
energetically toward us.

" That proves your valor in the face of danger. There's
Scipio with a log. Now, altogether — that's it! "Why,
Doctor, you look as though you had high top-boots
on!"

"Never mind, it is clean mud," he replied, good-
humor edly.

Wag, seeing himself unnoticed, came in to where wo
were standing. But, alas for his hide ! Jackson caught
him, and administered to him. such a castration, all the

O '

while holding him up by the tail with one hand, while he
applied a stick with the other, that Wag retired from
the active pursuits of the chase to the more dignified re-
tirement of private life under the seats of one of tho

THE DROWNED LANDS. 235

canoes, where he disposed of the remains of the dinner-
basket before our return.

" Now we are all ready, let us form in a line, and beat
down the island regularly," said Jackson, the ardor of the
hunt awakening him from much of his ILstlessness. " Fall
in, boys ; one of you walk between each of the hunters."

The long, irregular line being formed, it stretched
nearly across the island, and we advanced, sinking in the
soft mud occasionally, but oftener finding a sandy bot-
tom, with pools of water. The snipe were abundant ; we
could see them sometimes on the ground in couples, on
which occasions the Doctor would always fire with pretty
certain success. Most frequently they arose singly,
uttering their peculiar harsh cry, and were tumbled over
by one or other of the party before they had gone five
yards, amid the shouts and gufiaws of the negroes.
Mike, occasionally, when a bird got up at a little distance,
would make " a grease spot " of it with the same shame-
faced look as he had when he picked up the first one,
apparently doubting if he and his rifle were in respectable
business.

Lou shot well, after a little practice, and she trod over
the flags, with her eye fixed ahead of her, with that
earnestness of look that a person attains never so greatly
as when watching for upspringing game that he feels
confident he can hit.

" Mark !" called Scipio, as a snipe launched in the air
from our feet, the brown and hazel pointings on his back
glittering like soldiers' bayonets at the charge. The first

236 WILD SPOUTS IN THE SOUTH.

spring he makes seems to toss him twenty feet in air, and
then a pause, as he collects his wings to strike out on
that erratic swinging motion that is his safety and beauty,
lie eyes the array of pursuers behind him, and hears
their strange talking ; he sees before him his accustomed
haunts and oozy swales, and hears the rustling of the
reeds that shelter his mates. In the pride of swiftness,
rings out his exulting cry, the same that had made vocal
the great morasses of the Coppermine River, where he
was nested, and the same by which, through the ghostly
night, in the upper air, from front to rear, had kept in
rank the long flight of his kindred in their semi-annual
migration — " Escape !"

Pang ! rings the clear shot, and over falls the wild bird
among the sedge.

" Golly ! Missa Lou, yah ! ha ! he dead !" shouted one
of the negroes. " Makes dis child piccaninny agin to see
his young missus wake 'em up so !" said Big Sam.

"Mark! Mark!" "Escape!" "Escape!" Two more
snipe sprung up, followed by two shots, and they fell
ahead of us in the grass, and then there arose three or
four together. The island seemed to be full of them,
and when raised, they would dodge about in long irregu-
lar circles, calling up others from the grass, until they
collected in whisps above us, and bore away to some
adjoining islands.

It was difficult to keep the line regular, for the negroes
were full of excitement in picking up wounded birds,
and seeing others spring beside them. Indeed, we

THE DROWNED LANDS. 237

wanted no dogs, for every bird on the island was raised,
and there was so little heavy grass we lost no dead ones.
Occasionally we would start one of those heavy grey
herons that frequent such marshes, flapping up heavily
from the grass, and casting his keen eye back over his
shoulder at the intruders; and twice we started that
tiny prince of the heron tribe, the smallest and most
beautiful of all the genus Ardea, called the Least Bit-
tern in the books, but which the people sometimes name
the Tiger Bittern, from his brindled coat and wild eye.
"We shot them both, and Lou, wrapping them carefully
in her handkerchief for preserving, stowed them away
in one of the pockets of her hunting iosey, as she styled
a close-buttening canvas jacket she wore when camp-
ing out.

At last the point of the island Avas reached, and while
the men were sent back for the boats we sat down on
the beach and counted out thirty-six snipe. Taking some
willow switches, we ran them through their bills, care-
fully smoothing down their ruffled plumage and washing
off the occasion mud, and made as beautiful six bunches
of game as ever delighted a fowler's eye. Even Mike
consented to praise, with the reserving clause that we
had wrasted too much powder and shot on them. How
graceful they looked beside the green-headed mallards,
and the dusky ducks that were piled knee deep in the
boats.

"A glorious day, well spent," said Jackson, as the
island on which we had been shooting dwindled in the

238 WILD 6POKT8 IN THE SOUTH.

water, red with the reflection of the sunset, and Bonda
Key opened its headland of stately verdure.

" Ay, it is !" responded one and all ; and the boats
flitted along the glassy waters side by side, the shadows
fading and brightening with the glow of the sky, or the
twilight of the shore, as one and then the other opened
in the west. The hunters stretched their weary limbs in
listless attitudes, and their heads swayed to the spring-
ing motion imparted by the oar. Miss Jackson sat in the
bottom, trailing her hands in the water on either side of
the boat, while the oarsmen sang, with deep voices and
perfect time, the great old negro boat-song :

" Gen'ral Jackson mighty man,

Waugh my kingdom, fire away !
Fought on sea, and fought on laud,
Waugh my kingdom, fire away I"

THE SKIN OF THE TIGEB CAT. 239

CHAPTER XV.

THE SKIN OF THE TIGEE-CAT.

" A dragon's tail was flayed to warm
A. headless maiden's heart."

A NUMBER of days flew by at our island home in tho
simple pleasiares nai'rated in our last chapters. The
cheering cry of the hounds, as they scoured the islands,
the ringing shots in the marshes, now a long exploration
in the canoes through the winding channels of the archi-
pelago, and again some expedition to the uttermost keys,
where the pelicans, dressed themselves on the sandy
points in lines like soldiers, and strange sea-birds, excited
our wonder and admiration, were the daily amusements
of the party. Once in a while the members of the hunt
would branch off, and while one party pursued the chase,
another would make an excursion to the mam land, or
fish in the rivers. The weather had been constantly
clear. One cloudless day would follow another with an
exhilarating yet motionless air, that seemed as if nature
had exhausted her prodigality of production, and then,
breathless, had paused to dream.

Once in a while Mike would disappear, and be gone

240 "WILD SPOKTS IN THE SOUTH.

for a day or a night, but as lie never made any remark on
what he saw or did, no one seemed to take any note of
his incomings or outgoings. One evening, after he had
returned from one of these lonely excursions, I was sit-
ting by the willow copse on the shore, casting with my
line into the channel after some large fish I had noticed
were breaking the water very near the shore. The
negroes were getting supper ready, and Lou Jackson
came walking down to the beach, where Mike joined her,
and they came toward the boats on the other side of
the willows, and so near I could hear their conversa-
tion.

" Miss Lou, I've been a wantin' to see you."

A pause followed.

" That is, you don't see me every day."

" Yes, oh ! yes ; but then it aren't every time that a
man wants to see. I mean it aren't — I mean sometimes
a man wants mighty bad to see some 'un, and talk to 'em,
an' sometimes I want to see you more an' others."

" Well !" said Miss Jackson, moving on slowly toward
the boat-landing.

" End ef I was the Doctor, I could say anything, and
talk right through a board fence ; he's oncommon nice at
talkin', he is," said Mike, looking earnestly at his partner's
face, who looked seaward, but did not reply to this expres-
sion of opinion. " Thar's somethin' I want to say, Miss
Lou," continued Mike, " end I'd a leetle reether say it
to you than to any o' them folks there, for they wunt
believe it, they wunt."

THE SKIN OF THE TIGEE CAT. 241

" Well, Mike, what is it ?"

" Wall, it's this hyur ; you'd better get yer father to
quit that plantation of his, and move up the country a
leetle, or else down to Tampa, fur things ain't all right
'bout hyur."

" What is there wrong ?"

"Wall, there's somethin' wrong with them copper-
head snakes, the Injins. Yer can't see it yet, but things
aint right, and yer all so far away from everybody at
the house that no one kin help you. Yer negroes aint
worth nothin' of any 'count in case of difficulty, and
yer father aint over liked in the swamp. Thar's nothin'
wrong yet, and may be won't be at all, but they are jist
like painters^Tmd yer don't know where to find 'em."

" Why, what have you seen wrong ?" said the young
girl, stopping by her boat, and looking at Mike inquir-
ingly.

" Nary a thing, only them fellows have been down
here, and I don't like it."

" But they come to the house, why not here ? You
are harsh in your opinion of them."

" Because they have nothin' to call 'em here. They've
been about without showin' themselves, and that's sus-
picious. They knew we were here, for they can see our
• trails all about, yet they didn't stop, and they tried to
leave no trail themselves, and that's a bad sign. 'Twunt
do any good to say so to your father, but you kin -make
him do what's safe, end so I tell you.'*

" Thank you, Mike. I believe you know better than

11

24:2 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

any one about such things, but I do not believe father
would leave now, and I can't make him without a
stronger reason than you have given."

*' Wall, look out ; and the time to look out is jist when
everything is oncommin pleasant, for that's the blind with
these sarpents. Thar's somethin' else I want to say,
Miss Lou," continued Mike, after a pause.

Miss Jackson looked at the hunter as though inquir-
ing his wishes. She leaned against the prow of the canoe
that was hauled up on the beach, but did not say a
word.

" "Wall, I was goin' to say that — that — wall, thar haint
been ninny Tiger-cats in Floridy, and ef tjur hadn't been
any, I reckon I would hev got that one rctfyou, fur you
know that ef a man — ef a man likes anybody — as much
as"—

Mike here made a long pause. Lou Jackson had
gathered up her cloak from the boat that she had ap-
parently come down for, and turning* slowly toward the
tents, seemed moving away.

" Don't go yet, Miss Lou," said the hunter, beseech-
ingly.

'•' I am in a great hurry," said the girl ; which, if so,
was the first time she had been in a hurry since coming to
the island.

" "Wait one minute," besought Mike, brushing his hand
across his forehead ; " here's the Tiger-cat skin you once
said you wanted," unfolding, as he spoke, from under his
hunting-coat, the flowing robe of an animal gracefully

THE SKIN OF THE TIGEB CAT. 243

patched with yellow and black. " It's tanned as soft as
store-goods," he continued; "I shot it this day two
weeks, and an Injin woman tanned it for me."

" Thank you, Mike ; that is the prettiest skin I ever
saw," leaning her face down until it was hidden in the
glossy folds of the robe.

" Wall, it is ; but I wish it was a heap purtier for
you."

Miss Jackson moved on toward the camp slowly, but
Mike stood with his hand leaning on the prow of the
stranded boat. She had gone a few steps, when, con-
scious that he Avas not following, she said :

" Come and see how they will admire it at the camp ;
that is the greatest trophy of the year !"

" No, it isn't no trophy," said Mike, in an extenuating
tone, not moving from his place ; " it is the best I had to
give you, Lou Jackson. I'd give you anything you'd
ask fur." His deep voice quivered as he spoke.

"Thank you, Mike, thank you!" said Lou, turning
hastily to the hunter and seizing his hand, " it is every-
thing I want !" and then as hastily dropping it, as
though frightened at her own eagerness, she walked
rapidly toward the camp, bearing with her the skin, and
leaving Mike standing by the boat, with his eyes fixed
on her receding figure. His stalwart frame was bent,
and with the breech of his rifle he ground a hole in the
heavy sand. A dog, one of the wandering curs from the
camp, coming to the water's edge, set up a doleful cry
near him.

244 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

" Shut up, lhar, or I'll send a ball after y0u, and let
the bark all out the wrong way !" he said, and tossing
his rifle in the hollow of his arm, strode away down the
bay. The words that he had been pondering over, it
may be for months, had remained all unspoken ; the very
robe that he had taken, with leagues of walking and
weeks of waiting, that he had ornamented with all the
taste of the woods, had only procured him a moment's
gratitude, and the bold heart that for years had been
unmoved by a life of peril, by ceaseless nameless dangers,
by night and day, was frightened into hesitation and
silence by a young girl.

The sun had gone down, the shadows lengthened on
the long sandy reaches ; it greAV dark almost in a moment.
Mike disappeared in the dusk, while from the knoll where
the fires were lighted Lou Jackson was watching the
way he went.

SUPPER. 24:5

CHAPTER XVL

SUPPEE.

La decouverte d'un mets nouveau fait plus pour le bonheur du genre
humain que la d^couverte d'une £toile. — BRILLAT SAVARIN.

WHO is there, accustomed to American rural scenery,
that cannot remember the summons that calls to dinner
at the country farm ? A stout housewife, when the sun-
dial points to noon, walks out on the lawn, among the
inverted milk-pans, where lies the house-dog stretched
under the locust trees, and, turning her face toward
the harvest-field gives a long, winding blast on the horn
that wakes the echoes down the orchard, and over the
meadow, and all along the hills, calling the farmers to
their noontide meal. The watch-dog howls at the sum-
mons, and the workmen by the brook, and in the sultry
grain, toss their cradles by and turn homeward, the
heavy oxen saunter away in couples, and the horses are
unhitched and fastened in the shade by the trough of
corn. The farmer, with his stalwart sons, and "the
hands," crowd into the kitchen, with their necks bare to
the pleasant wind, and the sweat of their labors on their
brow. The laugh is light, the words are gentle, for they
are confined to the simple subjects of the crops, the

246 WILD SPOET8 IN THE SOUTH.

weather, and the farm news. The goodwife is at the
head of the table, and pours out the tea or milk ; the
daughters sit among the men, coming and going as
occasion requires to bring water, or bread, or pie. Their
attire is plain, their manners are simple and frank. Be-
fore the old man there sits a huge dish of stew ; it is
made of potatoes, carrots, chicken, and large squares
of boiled fat pork, and he helps it out with no niggard
hand, and when he has finished his own portion, he quaffs
a huge cup of cider, and leans back in his chair with a
great sigh of satisfaction, to wait till his youngest
daughter, with brown hair and blue eyes, just opening
into womanhood, brings his pie. The brass candle-sticks
on the mantle-piece are filled with asparagus boughs, the
oaken floor is polished with scrubbing, and the tall
clock in the passage-way strikes one as the meal is ended.
There is another dinner scene that may be as often re-
marked in America, and equally characteristic of another
class of eaters. A bell rings, or a jangling gong shocks
the ear and benumbs every nerve of the back, while five
and forty men rush past the waiter that is beating his
brazen drum, and sit down to a large hotel table. There
are spread on this table various small articles of food or
ornament, such as celery, oranges, and figs, which are
immediately seized, and presently every person who has
evinced agility congratulates himself on having piled by
the side of his plate a selection of these fruits and desserts.
"Waiters then hand every person a dish of soup, of that
consistency that is supposed to be proper to nourish per-

SUPPER. 24-7

sons in the last stage of disease. In a moment after, the
soup dishes are snatched away, and the guest is informed
he can have his selection from any one of almost every
kind of beast that walks the earth, or fowl that flies tho
air, or fish that swims in the water. Being a temperate
man, he orders roast beef, and in a moment is supplied
with a large slice of overdone, brown roast beef, flooded
with a light-colored gravy, a small dish of potatoes is
slammed on the table beside him, and a plate of macca-
roni. He takes a spoonful of potatoes, but finds them
very watery, and filled with darker colored lumps of un-
mashed vegetable. He hesitates, and tries the beef; it
is tasteless ; he tries the maccaroni, and small streams of
water run out of the pendent pipes as from a disconnected
engine hose. The bread is dry and cut in small oblong
pieces. He wonders what there is better cooked, and
if he is a stranger, he probably looks at his neighbors
to see what they are eating. • The upper end of the board
is occupied by ladies, that have effected their entrance
to the dining-room by some side-door, and they are ar-
rayed in all the colors of the rainbow, and the glitter of
ornaments, and seem to be busy talking loudly and look-
ing along the table. The long rows of gentlemen are
busy, without the interchange of a word, eating rapidly
of everything that is placed before them. While our
guest is remarking these things, his plate is taken away
by the waiter, and he notices the gentlemen are all eating
dessert, or leaving the table, having finished their dinner.
The waiter asks him what he will have for dessert. Ho

248 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

demands to know what there is to have. The answer is
given so rapidly, it sounds as follows :

" Ap pi — pi-p — mi pi — ca pi — rat pi !"

The guest gets confused, mildly inquires if they have
any fruit.

" Yes, sah. Apple dumpling, sah."

" Very well ; I will take an apple dumpling."

" Hard or soft, sah ?" referring to the sauce.

" Oh, soft, of course ;" referring to the dumpling.

The dumpling is dashed down in front of him, as hard
as a cocoa-nut, and flooded in soft sauce, while the waiter
disappears down the table, gathering up the plates with a
clatter, and the room is deserted by all but the wonder-
ing observer, who has not yet acquired the local rapidity
of eating.

Once more an American table looms up before me
through the mist of hungry years, as I have seen it a
thousand times. A low frame-house, with a porch half
covered with the trailing arms of morning-glories and
columbines, stands on a knoll of a western prairie. That
prairie is browsed by deer in thousands, and game birds
of the choicest kind feed on it in countless millions. The
river winds along the valley, teeming with fish, its banks
margined with water-cresses and dock, and shaded with
plum-trees and fruit-bearing vines, while from his cabin-
door the settler can see a hundred cattle cropping the
wild grass.

Noon-time arrives, and the head of the house comes
in from the ploughing to his meal, and finds the same

SUPPER. 24:9

food that was spread before him at breakfast, and that
he will have for his supper, and has had at all his meals
for a month past, so he should love it well. It consists
of tea, Indian corn bread, and fried pork. The pork is
cut in small slices, and fried until quite brown, and the
bread is sopped in the gravy. There is no attempt at
grace of service to make amends for the rude cookery,
no white cloth to hide the table, no dainty pat of butter
on a grape leaf, such as tempts the eyes as well as the
palate in the Tyrolean chalet ; but it is the plain simple
medicine to cure a hungry stomach, administered with-
out any sweetening.

The refinement of a family is nowhere so quickly seen
as at a table, and nowhere do men's sensual selfish
instincts become more prominent. There is the centre
of the family after the day's wandering, there its first
meeting after a night of forgetfulness ; there we give
hospitality to the stranger, there the tongue is loosened,
the wandering thoughts called back, and the heart is
warmed into expression by generous wine. The feasts
of Lucullus were celebrated for their wit, according to
the fashion of the day, and the simple suppers at the
Mermaid were the signals for the intellectual tournament
of England's greatest minds. " He has eaten with me,"
is the Arab's talisman to protection, and the Christian
has made a supper the emblem of his religion. Then
what constitutes a supper, even the simple half of a
meal, being the food and its preparation, apart from its
physiological bearings, is worthy of thoughtful study.

11*

250 WILD 8POKT8 IN THE SOUTH.

As to that other half of a dinner, the people that are to
sit around it, they being chosen only on festive occasions,
to them I do not allude. Equally important to a man's
physical being, as to his moral health, is the character of
his food. It may be insufficiently cooked, crude, and indi-
gestible ; it may be overdone, sodden and heavy ; it may
be dried to a chip, until the nutritive juices are evapo-
rated, or it may be fried to an oily mass that requires
the strongest stomach to analyze. Then, again, the food
that was originally ample and rich may be so wasted by
the culinary process, that what was once abundant is
prodigally reduced. One or the other of these faults
universally affects nearly every dish that is placed on the
American tables. To avoid such evils, and cook suffi-
ciently without wasting, and in the most economical
quantities, is a high art of life, and one of the simplest
and most overlooked. It is slighted by the intelligent,
and left in the hands of the ignorant, and those whose
duty it was to govern are punished in health and pro-
perty for their own neglect. Almost every one can
remember having eaten of simple meals that were as
good as any king's ; sometimes they were found at a pri-
vate table, where white hands, that were dear to him,
have spread the cloth ; sometimes they have been served
in some out of-the-way Gallic auberge, when the hungry
traveller was even doubting if in a place so destitute he
could find anything to eat ; and again it may be, they
have been spread in that chief of all hostelries, that reck-
less home 6*f self-reliance, the camp beneath the green-

8UPPEE. 251

wood tree. Oh, dear beyond all cafes, and green when
Verey's shall be forgotten, is that spreading blanket-
cloth, those bark platters, and flashing fires, by which so
many meals have been cooked and heartily eaten. Don't
laugh, Epicurean, who reads these lines in a big city,
where for years fancy cooks have manufactured spiced
dinners at Midas prices, and do not say it was only the
appetite, and not the dinner, that was marvellously good.
Though it is easy to cook when you have skillet and spi-
der, bake oven and basting spoon, griddle, pan, sauce-
dish, pot, skewers, rotary jacks, earthen dishes, and a
double acting patent kitchen range, yet still there are
more good meals cooked in this world without them
than with them, and this reminds me of the last dinner
we had at our camp on Bonda Key.

There had been a long hunt that had lasted from day-
break till almost sunset, and we were tired and hungry,
and a certain feeling of approaching separation had come
over us that made exertion necessary, and so we went to
work with a will to cook a good meal. It is true, our
utensils for cooking were few and simple ; they consisted
of one iron kettle, one tin coffee pot, and a dozen tin
cups — a small batterie de cuisine for a legitimate cook,
but they were ample for us. The fire had been burning
for a week, and thus there were plenty of hard coals.
The material consisted of some Indian meal, bear's meat,
venison, wild ducks, wild turkey, red-fish, turtle eggs, and
Bnipe. The cooks were Mike, the Doctor, Lou Jackson,
and myself ; the scullions were all the negroes of the island.

252 WILD SPOBT8 IN THE SOUTH.

" Poke, you attend to the birds, will you ?" I said,
handing over a bunch of snipe that Rose had just picked
as clean as apples, and that were all nicely drawn, and
had their bills stuck in their breasts as though trying to
plume their lost feathers. • •

"No sir," replied the Doctor, emphatically; " any
body can cook snipe, I am going to attend to the side
dishes — Us entremets, vol-au-vents, and the pdtes."

" Nonsense ! there are no side dishes, and plenty of
substantial food that can be roasted," interposed Jack-
son.

" Yes, yes, Doctor, give us an entremet.

' Of candied apple, quince, and plum, and gourd,
With jellies soother than the creamy curd,
And lucid syrups tinct with cinnamon.' "

" Wait awhile," said the Doctor ; " I will show you a
dish that will make you forget poetry."

As he selected a couple of flat stones, and commenced
pounding up some biscuit that were so hard they had
been declined by all the party since the commencement
of the hunt.

" You, Sam, bring me a fork," said Jackson, as he
approached the fire with a square of the loin of bear's
meat, nicely cut for roasting. The fork was produced,
which was a stout branch of green wood, and carefully
pushed into the sand at such an inclination that the meat
would be betwe.en the fire and the wood ; the roasting
piece was carefully impaled thereon, and in a little while

SUPPEE. 253

was hissing away before the heat as musically as if in a
Dutch oven.

Mike had, in the meanwhile, plucked a pair of young
black ducks, fastening their wings to their bodies with
little sassafras skewers so they should not get burned,
and tying them by their legs to long strings, hung them
near the fire on high sticks. They looked like bales of
cotton, or like horses when they are suspended by tackles
to be hoisted on shipboard. The strings being then
tightly twisted, gave a rotary motion to the birds that
presented every side equally to the fire, and prevented
them from burning. A few fragrant leaves, and a dozen
oysters being stuffed in each one, answered in the place
of dressing.

Lou Jackson prepared the corn-bread as only a South-
woman can, and it was laid on a flat stone that had been
carefully selected, and had served for this purpose for
several previous dinners, and it would have been a plea-
sant amusement to see the white dough gradually becom-
ing mahogany brown before the fire, had we not each
been busy with the more delicate duties of the
kitchen.

I made the boys cut some long wooden skewers, and
Rose, having cut a deer's liver in small square pieces, an
inch in diameter, we impaled a half dozen of these little
cubes on each skewer, and stuck them up before the fire
at a safe distance from the coals. A piece of bear's fat of
the same size as the piece of liver was stuck on the top
of each skewer, so that as the heat of the fire gradually

254 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

melted it, the liver was basted by the dropping fat, -with-
out any further attention being needed. Next a redfish,
with its scales left on, but carefully drawn, and wiped
dry, was rolled in green leaves, and buried deep in the
hot ashes.

Poke, by this time, had completed his ship-biscuit
powder, and been to the beach with Pompey Duffield
Sah, from whence he returned with two large bivalve
shells, resembling gigantic clam-shells, which had been
left by the waves on the beach, which he carefully
washed, and greased with bear's fat, and then sprinkled
with his ship-biscuit powder.

" That a poultice you are going to have there, Doc-
tor ?" said Jackson.

" No, gruel," I suggested. Poke maintained a scorn-
ful silence, continuing his labor and making another trip
to the beach with Pompey, from which they came with
the tin pan full of oysters, which he proceeded to divide
equally among his four half shells. When the shells were
full, he sifted the balance of his ship-biscuit over them,
and placed them in front of the fire.

" Scolloped oysters, by the moustache of Soyer ! Doc-
tor, you're a genius," said Jackson.

Lou Jackson made the coffee by boiling the water in
the tin coffee-pot, and then tying up a sufficient quantity
of ground coffee in a canvas bag, placed the bag in the
pot which was kept simmering over the coals. Mike
had cut several slices of venison, and laying them across
two iron ramrods as a substitute for a gridiron, was caro

SUPPER. 255

fully watching them cook, from time to time giving the
ducks a twist, that made them revolve on their gallows
like martyrs suffering two of the extreme penalties of the
law at one time. Jackson set up the snipe as sentinels
around one side of the fire, and the iron pot was hung
over the coals, and in it was placed bits of bears' meat and
venison, the breast of cranes, pieces of ship-biscuit, and
all the little odds and ends of game, which, being fit for
nothing else, seem especially intended for making a stew.
To this was added a wild pepper or two, and some green
leaves and roots that the negroes had gathered, and
every time the water bubbled a savory smell issued forth
that mad > one entertain a more lenient opinion of Esau,
in spite of the thousands of years of misjudgment that
have been visited upon him. And lastly, as a crowning
honor to the meal, a pumpkin was produced; a real
golden pumpkin, with its honest ochre face wrinkled
into lines of swelling rotundity, and suggesting the rows
of rustling corn, among which it had obtained its ple-
thoric shape. The boys had brought it from the planta-
tion in the boat, and though some might say " there is an
article that will bother these improvising cooks," it was
hailed with exclamations of delight and welcome. A
plug was cut in its upper side, where the stalk joined the
fruit, and when the piece was taken out it formed a
cover to the interior cavity, to which the short stalk
answered for a handle. The seeds were carefully
removed from the interior, and in their place was poured
as much heavy brown sugar as would fill the cavity,

256 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

when the cover was restored to its place, and the em-
blem of plenty was seated in front of the coals, where
his jocund face reflected the bright flames, and the sim-
mering viands that were cooking beside him with a
pleasant glow, like that which shines on the countenance
of an old patriarch, when down the Christmas table peer
the bright eyes of long lines of merry grand-children.
The turkey-hen had been in the meanwhile transfixed on
a stake, with its maw crammed with chestnuts, and was
clucking out its despite against its warm roost, vaporing
out its savory humors, while Rose was squatted behind
it, screening her face from the fire with one hand and
basting the bird with the other as the fire blistered its
tender skin.

" Now for the omelette !" exclaimed the Doctor, turn-
ing away from a long survey of the various articles of
food that girdled the fire ; "bring me the eggs,
Sam."

Sam approached with a grin on his face, and his hat
full of soft shell turtle eggs that had been procured from
the sand.

" You'd better roast them in the hot sand instead of
trying to make omelette," I suggested.

" Or bill them in the stew," said Jackson.

" No, gentlemen, an omelette soufflee I have decided
upon. If you want some in the stew I can spare you six ;
they will be as hard as bullets by*he time the stew is
done ; but I must have an omelette ; I am really suffer-
ing for an omelette ; and he began breaking open the

SUPPEE. 257

little round eggs in one of the tin cups, singing all the
while, with a merry tone —

" Who can help loving the land that has taught us
Six hundred and eighty-five ways to cook eggs."

When they were all broken he set one of the men at
work to beat them up with, a bundle of switches, and
turned his attention to tasting the stew, that was being
seasoned from the contents of the mess-box, and tasted
by all the persons who expected to eat therefrom. Each
one gave his opinion, and each one was finally satisfied ;
the Doctor threw in six turtle eggs for my satisfaction,
and allowed an additional pod of red pepper for Jack-
son's decided taste for spices, while a fox squirrel, that is
a dry kind of gymnast for cooking alone, was quartered,
and thrown in to complete the mess.

" Round about the caldron go,
In the poison1 d entrails throw ;
Double, double, toil and trouble,"

began the Doctor in a declaiming voice.

" Hold your tongue, destroyer of appetites !" called
out Lou Jackson ; " don't mix bad ideas with the stew ;
that is worse than putting in tough meat."

" Poetry, ma'am, is never out of place," answered the
Doctor, gesticulating with the forked stick with which he
was stirring the stew.* "Poetry is salt to life's omelette;
poetry is the poor man's gold — the coffee to a dinner.
— You Sam, twist the ducks ; don't you see they've

258 WILD SPOUTS IN THE SOUTH.

stopped ? — Poetry ma'm, is suggestive of dinner and din-
ner of poetry, for

" When the oldest cask is opened,

And the brightest lamp is lit,
When the chestnuts glow in the embers,

And the kid turns on the spit ;
Then then the story is told,

And the rhyme so bold "

" Doctor, your pates are burning."

" Dear me, what a miserable operation ! Ton Sam,
why didn't you see that coal snap ?"

" Didn't like fur to stop maussa's speech."

" Ha ! ha !" laughed Jackson, " you had better get tho
plates ready, Scip ; where are the plates ?"

" All here, sah," said Scipio, bringing in a dozen or
more pieces of white birch bark neatly rounded and
smoothed with the knife ; and behind him came Csesar
with the tin cups all brightly scoured. Some of the men
had reared a wooden table when we first came to tho
island ; this unusual luxury for a camp was elevated about
two feet from the ground, and formed a convenient cen-
tre for the family that sat around on the sand where
fancy dictated. The plates were arranged on the table,
one to each guest, and a pile in store for other courses,
for it was a thing unknown in this camp of plenty
to use a plate the second time.

"Turn the pumpkin, some one; don't you see it
browning."

SUPPEB. 259

The Doctor paused while measuring a handful of
sugar for his omelette to see the cooking progress. Rose
basted the turkey, ejaculating from time to time, " Gi,
he hot." Mike sat like a Turk on his crossed legs, gra-
dually withdrawing the venison steak from the heat, and
Jackson, who never gave himself much concern about
the dinners, stood overlooking the cofiee-pot. It was a
pleasant dinner in cooking, and when it was announced
by universal acclaim that it was done, we all felt that we
had earned our appetites.

First came out the fish from his hot bed, a black steam-
ing mass, that bore more resemblance to a sacred croco-
dile embalmed in the pyramids than to an article of food ;
but as one by one the wrappings of wet rags and leaves
were removed, bringing with them the skin and scales,
and his fishiness was gently rolled over on a piece of
clean hollow birch bark and placed on the table, white,
flaky, and steaming hot, a universal ha! from the con-
vives heralded the success of our first course. To talk
of boiled fish, where half of the peculiar flavor of a
trout is left in the water, or sole au gratin that is
smothered in sauce and mushrooms, is a mark of grati-
tude for past enjoyments and the dinners we have eaten
at Mackinaw or at Magny's, but if the nostril has ever
inhaled the pure steam, the condensed just liberated
essence of a cold water fish, baked in the ashes, or the
tongue ever moistened under the first pure morsel that
entered the mouth, he will forget those artificial combina-
tions that have hitherto deceived him, and believe only in

260 WILD BPOKTS IN THE SOUTH.

the simplest cooking as the best. The fish was soon dis-
posed of, and Mike handed over his venison steak, hot
and rare, just cooked enough to make it tender.

"Ah! Mike, you rascal, it's not the cooking that
makes that venison so tender; you have had the selec-
tion of the whole deer," said Jackson.

" Would you have me take the heels ?" asked Mike,
sarcastically.

And thereupon there arose a great discussion between
them as to the safest cut from a deer, as Jackson had
some of the old yeoman's ideas of venery, and Mike was
in no wise a stranger to this, one of the most considered
arts of woodcraft.

" Hi, dogs !" called Lou, as the hounds crowded
around her for the scraps of venison tnat we had not
eaten, and licked the hand that fed them. " Down, Jip !
back, Boz ! back Lady ! Bring the turkey, Rose."
" " And the bar," said Mike, tossing his wooden platter
into the fire and taking another.

" And the oysters," said the Doctor.

" And some corn bread," said another.

" Ho ! for a boar's head and a flagon of wine, and we
would make a royal carouse !" cried Jackson.

" Were we kings, we would not have hunter's appe-
tites," said I.

" And might have the gout," intimated the Doctor.

The turkey was placed on the table, flanked by the
piece of bear's meat, and between them the oysters, and
my brochets of liver. The corn-bread, brown and smok-

BUPPEE. 261

ing, was broken up and piled on the board. And, finally,
the tin pan, the only tin pan in the company, was half
filled with the savory stew, and put under the Doctor's
nose, to his evident satisfaction, and his face broadened in
spite of himself, as the delicate fragrance of venison, eggs,
bird, and bear's fat, mingled with chestnuts and savory
herbs, ascended to his nostrils.

Hunting-knives were applied with vigor, and, after a
short interval of busy silence, there was nothing left on
the board but a portion of Bruin's carcass, the stew, and
one half of the turkey-hen, and these would have
stood but little chance, had not there been the remem-
brance of the ducks and snipe that were still by the fire, .
not cooking, but just smiling, as the Doctor expressed
it. The stew had been pronounced good, but not as
good as it will be to-morrow morning, for a stew is like
wine, and improves by keeping, and a gentle cooking,
oft repeated, makes it more grateful still.

"Now, Doctor, I think the time has come for the
game," said I ; " don't you ?"

" I do. Let the game be served," said he, with a wave
of his hand.

" You will have to serve it yourself, then," replied Lou.
" Rose is eating among the men ; just hear them laugh !"

The loud, clear notes of the other party sounded from
the farther side of the fire, where they were discoursing
huge pieces of venison and bear's meat with a series of
cachinnations that resembled the morning rejoicings of a
gang of turkeys.

262 WILD SPORTS rsr THE SOUTH.

" You Rose ! the coffee !" shouted Lou ; but the girl
did not hear, and Lou had to bring the coffee herself,
with the Doctor and Mike bearing the ducks and the
snipe. The birds were laid out in state on bark platters,
and the coffee, after first removing the bag of grounds,
was carefully poured out in equal portions, in the five tin
cups that ornamented the table.

Now, there are various kinds of wild ducks, and with-
out referring one to the natural histories, under the head
of Aves, the reader to count the varieties need only to
recall to his recollection the various sensations received
from eating them. Sometimes they have been tough —
leathery tough, these were the Old-wives ; it is generally
only the young wives that buy them ; others there are
that taste like mackerel, these are the fishy ducks ; others
that are dry, like corned beef, these are Pharoah's lean
kine; others again that are just duck, and nothing more,
you would hardly suspect them, under their stuffing of
acrid sage and rancid onion, to be duck — if you saw their
feet, you might be positive; these were the common
wild duck, peppered with shot, jammed in crates, putre-
fied by time, and bought by hotel-keepers and noodles ;
when cooked, they are anything you choose to name
them.

Another kind of duck, like those the Doctor was put-
ting on the table, is a young, fat wild duck, either a
Wood-duck, Teal, or Black-duck, and, as such, is peer to
any game that ever feasted a hunter. It was nested in
a tussock of grass, on some of the sedgy shores of the

STJPPEE. 263

great northern rivers, and there it lived on seed and
succulent grasses, and when it made its first migration
southward, it stopped at the wild rice fields that fringe
the shores of the big lakes, at Sodus, on Sandusky Bay,
the Thousand Islands, or the ^norasses of the Calumet
River, in Indiana, and then for a day or so at the celery
beds of the Chesapeake and Delaware, and then on the
rice-fields of the Carolina or Georgia planter. It is so con-
ditioned that its breast is flat, and its back is white with
underlying fat, and by the color of its feet you can say it
is its first winter out. Treat such a duck gently, cook him
as you would roast an apple, and with no more sauce, and
when he is done, not crisped like a roast pig, but gently
done, bear him away from the fire tenderly as you would
a baby, carry him lovingly as the Doctor carried the two
that we had cooked, and flank him with nothinar dis-

O

cordant and gross, but with some game bird, and nothing
better than an English snipe, and then thank the Lord
*• who giveth us our meat in due season, for never since
man had dominion over the fowls of the air has there
been cooked a daintier dish.

Two ducks and five snipe would probably be to five
persons the same inconvenient animal that a goose is said
to be to one — too much for that one, and not enough for
two ; but then when the day has been spent in hunting
in the open air, it is another matter — so we pronounced
the ducks the best ever killed in Florida, and ate them
all.

" But what of the omelette ?" I hear you ask.

264: WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

Oh! ah! yes. The omelette was not what was pro-
perly expected of a dish prepared with such flaming an-
nouncement ; either from receiving too much sugar, or
from some want of lightness on the part of the parent
turtle, or from some dissipating effect of just a few drops
of brandy, to give it an essence, that the head cook con-
fessed to have put in it, or from some other unexplained
reason, the omelette never scuffled, but remained per-
versely dense ; it might better have been called an ome-
lette au plomb. Lou Jackson suggested that the heat
had so far generated the young turtles that their shells
made it tough. Others insinuated that the brandy ap-
propriated for the omelette had been perverted from its
use by the Doctor, and therefore the omelette grew
downhearted. But it was no great loss, after all. We
concluded we had eaten enough without it, and gave it
up with a sly laugh at the Doctor.

As the dinner progressed it had become dark, and now
only the blazing fire lighted the foliage and the rippling
beach, and only the faint call of the raccoon in the woods
answered the heron and the duck in the marsh, and
gradually we sank down to our usual places, talking in
a low tone, and casting remarks back into memory, and
away into the future, now telling a tale, now half singing
a song, until we dropped asleep.

" But what of the pumpkin ?" I hear you ask.

Oh ! that we kept for the next day.

HOME AGAIN. 265

CHAPTER XVn

HOME AGAIN.

" Be thy intent wicked or charitable,
Thou comest in such a questionable shape

That I will speak to thee."

HAMLET.

IF the reader will leave for a short time his hunting
acquaintances of the Key, and visit another contemporary
camp, he can see, in fancy's eye, one of the chief men
that, at the date of our story, controlled the destiny of
the Floridas.

Halleck Tustenuggee was a Mickasukie chief of much
repute, as well for Ms bravery and endurance as for his
complete knowledge of the resources of his native land,
his eloquence and his cunning in all the wiles of Indian
diplomacy. Being born of the Mickasukies, the original
owners of the soil, and being related by marriage to the
principal men of the tribe, he possessed a wide influence
that was sustained by his strength and manliness of per-
son. Gaily colored quills were plaited in the long black
hair that fell from the crown of the head, and his costume
was more uniform than that of the savages of the northern
tribes, and resembled the hunting-shirt of the frontier
hunter. He was six feet two inches in height, and

12

WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

slightly made, with a sullen, stolid face, that seemed in
repose to be without intelligence, but which brightened
into intensity when animated. Halleck Tustenuggee's
favorite camp was located on the upper waters of the
Ouithlacouchee River, on a live-oak island that reared
itself the only stable land amid leagues of morass. Here
were erected neatly thatched cabins, and store-houses of
food and ammunition, and here, guarded by the solitude,
the quicksand, the tortuous lagoons, and the scaly reptiles
of the swamp, were always to be found a merry company
of little swarthy imps that played in the grass, and sober
women that sat all the while with their blankets wrapped
around them, as still as the dead monks in the Piazza
Borgonona.

No white man, it might be said without a word of
exaggeration, had ever seen this island ; therefore, a per-
fect description cannot reasonably be required, and any
criticism on the description, as given, will lack proof to
make it effective. The buzzard alone, from his slow
circles in the zenith, had marked the camp smoke, under
the long-hanging moss. Only the panther, from the
labyrinth of the magnolias, or the alligator under the
fallen trees, heard the children's laugh, or the squaw's
song to her swart pappoose. So the stores of maize and
powder were never burned by the enemy, and the dried
and wrinkled scalps that hung to the tent-poles, some by
their silken tresses and some by their short grey curls,
continued to smoke and dry in the fire-light and the sun-
shine, unreclaimed and unavenged.

HOME AGAIN. 267

To explain the unconquerable aversion that has always
existed between the white man and the Indian on the
North American continent, needs the description of
many aggressions and revenges that each has inflicted
on the most susceptible feelings of the other. The white
man has colonized the land of the savage by suffrance,
and then by reason of the necessity of his position, kept
them by force. By superior foresight he has bought their
peltry at trivial prices. He has imported infectious dis-
eases, has corrupted with alcoholic drinks, has cut down
preserves of game, has amassed wealth, and power, and
space, while his simpler-minded neighbor has been stunted
under his shadow. All this happens even when the rela-
tions of the two races are amicable, and treaties are
observed with fidelity, and the aborigine knows that, as
the white man prospers he must decrease — that the white
man's life is the red man's death. But the outward peace
in a little while disappears. Some settlers' cattle have dis-
appeared from the woods, and the Indian is charged with
the theft ; the charge is probably true. Some brave, in
visiting the settlement, has been intoxicated, and killed
or maimed a white man, who has insulted him. The law
claims a compensation. The law is made by the white
man, who regards the Indian with contempt and dislike,
and the compensation is graded by his judgment, and not
by the meagre wealth of the Indian. Retaliation follows
the distraining ; a foray avenges the retaliation ; then a
burning village and the scalpmg-knife brightens the
night, and brings on a campaign that for years converts

268 WILD SPOETS IN THE SOUTH.

the border into a debatable ground, like the Valley of
the Shadow of Death. The white settler, at a distance
from relief, and guarding his cabin only by force of arms,
regards the sullen, wary, crouching foe with a bitter
hatred that he bestows on no other enemy, and his hatred
is handed from father to child, and perpetuated by tradi-
tion and song, and many a vacant place by the fireside.
The chieftain looks back over a life of battles that were
always disastrous to him, and that has left his tribe a
handful of broken men, and recalls the peace that was
more injurious than war, the worthless bargains, hollow
promises, poisonous gifts, discordant counsels, mock cere-
monies, and cloaked hatred.

Little wonder is it, then, that when some chiefs of
shrewder foresight than others come to power among
the Indian tribes, they form combinations, recount their
wrongs, and, urged on by the national enthusiasm, make
one bitter burst for revenge and immortality I Such a
chief was Halleck Tustenuggee, and such was the history
of his people ; and the settlers on the Gulf and the ver-
dant bottoms of the Suwanee remember his last charge,
so unexpected and so bloody, as the fishermen of the
Mexican Gulf remember the tornadoes that come ou$
from the south in the middle of the summer afternoon,
and go wailing and wrecking all that was basking in the
tropical stillness.

Tustenuggee had consulted with all the divisions of the
Seminoles. Runners had come and gone, some in canoes
and some on foot, to all the different outlying parties.

HOME AGAIN.

The women had been removed to the recesses of the
swamps, extra quantities of lead and powder had been
purchased, a census had been made of all the white
inhabitants residing on the debatable land, and the
forces had been appointed so many braves to each de-
partment ; at the same time, no change in the demeanor
of the red men marked their determination ; they came
and went the same as before, and bartered and hunted
without a word of mistrust or dislike. The very day had
been fixed, ancfthe hour ; and that night, while the laugh
was so loud by the camp-fire at Bonda Key, and while
soothed by the murmurs of the sea, we passed away to
the land of dreams, the red eye of Indian warfare was
on us all the while, and we knew it not. While we
were cooking and eating our meal, and when we laid
down to sleep, a tawny figure was turning its basilisk
face toward us from a clump of thickly clustered
trees that grew some fifty yards from our tents. It
could not be seen in the shadows, and the land breeze
that blew from us to it prevented the dogs smelling it,
and giving indications of its presence. No motion
attested weariness, no sound betokened its cat-like arrival.
It was the skeleton at the feast.

As the morning warmed the east, the figure melted
away with the wan colors of the sky, and when Mike left
the camp to loiter around, for his usual morning walk, he
found the dew disturbed on the grass, and following the
slight trail, he carried it to the edge of a bayou, where
he noticed the rushes were divided as though they had

270 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

been bent by some body passing through. As he
watched them carefully they still arose, closing more and
more of the opening, and regaining their erect posi-
tion, showing that whatever had disturbed them, had
but just departed. The hunter surveyed the whole bay
and the opening bayous with a careful eye, and then fol-
lowed back the trail to the clump of trees where the scout
had spent the night, and examined the place carefully.
He then made •pyeral casts around the camp, each one of
greater circuit, examining as he went every indication of
the presence, during the night, of any other person, and
finally returned with his measured tread, and took his
accustomed place by the fire.

From the survey he had made, he knew there was but
one Indian on the island ; he knew by the track, the
new footmarks overlapping old ones, that the Indian had
come and gone in the same direction. He knew that he
was there to watch the hunting party, and for no other
reason ; and by the matted grass in the thorn bushes he
knew that he had passed the most of the night in the
same place. It was no straggler, for he had an object ;
no hunter, for he was without dog or comrade. What-
ever Mike's reflections were, he kept them secret, and
smiled at Lou's jests and chatted as quietly with the Doc-
tor, while he superintended the loading of the boats for
the return trip, as though he had not left the camp.

The tents were struck and packed, our few skins and
trophies were stowed away in the canoes, and when we
had finished a hearty breakfast, and Rose had cooked

HOME AGAIN. 271

sufficient venison and corn-bread to answer for our din-
ner, we embarked and started once again for Far
Away.

Mike had given directions at starting as to the course
we were to take, and himself led the way. This was not
the same route we had taken in coming, but deflected
very much to the southward. Soon the island on which
we had passed so many pleasant days, was blue in the
distance, and I envied the pelicans that were sitting on
its sandy point, careless denizens of a happy land, to
whom time brought no necessity for change, and who
only migrated at their pleasure ; until a headland of
water-oaks shut out my isola-bella, and the boats wound
in among a group of islands that hid us from any view
but those of the shores that immediately surrounded us.
Mike's canoe, that led the way, paused for a moment,
and as we rode abreast he spoke to Jackson, who was
with his daughter and the Doctor, and asked them to
row on slowly with the other boats through the channel
that opened ahead, and await his coming in the first
broad piece of water they came to. The boats all
passed on, but Mike, who was paddling alone with Scipio,
immediately turned back and ran ashore on the low
island that had shut out our view of Bonda Key. Land-
ing on the beach, he bade Scipio wait, while he crossed
over the narrow point of the island, and standing
among the heavy moss that reached down from the
trees, narrowly scanned the open water beyond. Bon-
da Key exposed its full length of blue ; beyond wero

272 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

other lesser sandy keys blinking in the sunshine ; nearer,
the low tangled islands upreared their winter verdure,
save when the magnolias or pines interpersed their green
domes, or the gaudy creepers blotched them with scarlet.
Long flocks of ducks crept along the horizon, or swam in
nearer clumps; but it was for none of these the hunter
Avas watching. At length from behind an island, that
had momentarily hid the view, a canoe, impelled by a
single paddler, glided over the water, apparently making
for the place where the hunter stood. Mike returned to
his canoe, and paddled to the point of the island where
an old tree, undermined by the water, had fallen over
with its load of vines and moss, and then pulled his boat
under its shelter until it was completely invisible from
any spot but the water in front. The canoe that was
approaching from beyond soon reached the end of the
island, on the side opposite to the one where Mike was
concealed, and a young Seminole stepped to the shore,
and crouching on one knee, cautiously peered around
the point. A moment's survey satisfied him, and return-
ing to his canoe he paddled on as rapidly as before, and
turning the point of the island continued his course down
the channel where our boats had passed, and where
Mike lay concealed. He was dressed in buckskin
breeches and moccasins ; a belt supported a heavy hunt-
ing knife, while the upper part of his body was com-
pletely naked. His head was bare, and a daub of scarlet
paint ornamented each cheek and either breast. His
blanket lay beside him, and with his eye fixed on the

HOME AGAIN.

winding channel ahead, he was paddling rapidly past,
when Mike, with a muscular push against the overhang-
ing tree, shot out into the lagoon so far that the two
canoes floated almost side by side. In spite of his train-
ing and his stoic blood, the Indian was startled, evincing
his surprise by a quick motion and an aspirated ejacula-
tion, as his hand involuntarily laid hold of his gun.
Scipio was paddling the canoe, and Mike's rifle was
lying across his knee, while with an appearance of most
simple assurance, the hunter said :

" Good morning, brother, were you looking for
me?"

" No — yes " — replied the Indian, too much taken by
surprise to collect his thoughts immediately ; " I saw
canoes ahead, and I like company."

" My brother been to the Keys hunting ?" continued
Mike.

The Indian answered by a nod of assent, a gesture that
he hoped the hunter would believe.

" And is now going up the river again ?"

" Yes," replied the Indian, willing to favor the first
supposition.

"Then we go together," said Mike, propelling his
canoe a little forward in the direction the Indian was
going.

" Yes, but I am tired with much rowing, I will not
keep you back," answered the savage, evasively.

The boats now lay side by side, and Mike, with his
rifle in his hand, deliberately stepped from his own canoi
12*

274 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

to that of the savage, saying, as he did so, " Ingin Mike
will help his brother paddle his boat if he is tired."
" A keen glance and an impatient look proclaimed how
much the Seminole was averse to this- polite offer. His
eye roved around the bayou as though expecting some
treachery, and then rested on Scipio's face and his mus-
ket that lay beside him. There seemed to be no help
for him, and if he had any suspicion as to Mike's inten-
tions, he could not confirm them from anything he saw in
the sun-browned face that confronted him. His hand
left his gun, and the ill-assorted couple commenced pad-
dling down the lagoon, while Scipio followed behind, his
white teeth glistening as he laughed at intervals a
low laugh, with a chorus of words and pectoral'
chuckles.

The surprise of our party was most unqualified as the
strange boat paddled out from the winding lagoon to the
open water, and took its place in the rear of the little
squadron. The negroes eyes opened with a language of
ejaculation that was louder than words, and Jackson
eyed it as a mallard drake would stare at a cormorant
who should dare to sail in among his brood. Nothing,
however, was said of our visitor, though from front to
rear were passed many covert jokes at his expense.
We kept on our course industriously, and by noon
were all in the mouth of the river, and stopped for our
lunch and a little rest on an island, the smallest of a
group of three, that lay side by side. Jackson wanted
to stop at a larger island that we had just passed, but

HOME AGAIN. 275

Mike said that a little island, with good company, was
better than a large one with bad company, and so we
complied with his wishes, though not knowing what he
meant.

The important feature in our lunch was the pumpkin
that had been cooking all the previous night, and that
had been carefully carried in Jackson's canoe. As Rose
brought it up from the boat on her head, the Doctor
Bmiled, I laughed, and Lou looked eagerly forward, as a
child looks at an unopened Christmas box.

"Take off the cover of Pandora's Box, Lou," said the
Doctor.

" It won't come off, it's glued fast," said Lotf, tugging
at the stem.

" Give me a chance," said Jackson, aiming a blow at
it with his hunting-knife, which did not produce any
impression on the shining surface.

At length by the aid of a hatchet, it was split open,
and the interior revealed itself to our admiring eyes.
The pumpkin had baked soft, and imbibed the sugar
melted by the heat, and candied in irregular shapes, like
the interior of a crystallized rock hung with brilliants.
The steam was pendent from the sides in drops, and a
breath of sweets exhaled when opened that carried one's
mind back to the dinner-basket of childbood, and as each
one of the party possessed himself of a piece, and sat
munching away, we must have looked like so many mon-
keys regaling themselves in a melon patch. I became
poetical and repeated Whittier's lines.

276 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

"Oh fruit of loved boyhood! the old days recalling

When wood grapes were purpling, and brown nuts were falling,
When wild ugly faces we carved in its skin

Glaring out through the dark, with a candle within."

Jackson became disgusted with the rhyming.

An hour's rest and we were again on our course, Mike
all the while in the Indian's canoe, and leading the van.
The wild fowl were numerous along the river, though we
did not stop to shoot, partly because we were loaded with
game and partly because Mike had requested us not,
though he would give no reason, briefly saying, in reply
to our questions, " It's a leetle better to travel fast and
hunt slotf than it is to travel slow and hunt fast." Large
flocks of ducks were all the while being driven ahead of
the boats, flying short distances each time they got up.
Flamingoes and cormorants were winding from point to
point, and knee-deep in the tide great blue herons waded,
and snow-white cranes dressed their plumage. As vista
after vista opened around the bends of the river, or up
the lateral lagoons, new forms and colors opened to the
eye. There the stately cypress trees stood in the water,
like the pillars of a rustic Venice, and the mound-like
cones their roots threw up extended all across the basin ;
while above, the swinging vine had caught its tendrils in
the opposite tree, and thus back and forth festooned a
royal porte-cochere to nature's mansion. On the other
side, a fallen tree shut in an open passage and formed
foothold for brier and creeper, and vines that aspired to
the highest pinnacles of the forest and bowed the trees

HOME AGAIN. 277

»

with their passionate embrace. The lunge of the alliga-
tor, the cry of the bittern as he rose from the reeds, the
scream of the fish-hawk, circling in the air, and chasing
the tern, seemed fitting music for so strange a scene, and
soothed and interested the mind, while the low s'ong the
oarsmen sung did not disturb the wild inhabitants of the
air, or mar the unity of the scene.

The river grew familiar, and Lou Jackson recognized
remembered trees and openings, and soon we saw ahead
of us the bluff that marked the landing at Far Away, and
then the logs that formed the rustic wharf, and then the
seat under the oaks, and then we landed once again on
familiar ground ; and leaving the boys to " tote the plun-
der," wound our way up the hill toward the house, Jack-
son taking the lead. The young Indian seemed to have
made up his mind to accompany us, if not pleasantly, at
least without any manifest reluctance, though I noticed
Mike was always by his side.

As we mounted the hill I looked for the flock of sheep
that usually fed on the bluff, but they were not there,
though in a moment we passed one of the wethers dead
by the side of the path. Before I could remark upon
this, I heard a cry ahead from Jackson, and hastening
forward we saw the cabin was not there, but a pile of
of ashes that was drifting hither and yon by the wind,
and a column of smoke, that ascended from the rums,
marked the place where it stood. The sheds were
burned, and the sheep pen. The little kitchen, where so
many pleasant dinners had been cooked, was gone.

WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

There was no voice or sound, no neigh of horses or bark
of dogs, or bleat of sheep. The only living thing there,
was a group of buzzards that, heavily gorged, flitted up
on the stones that formed the chimney. Looking to
where they arose we saw a naked^body, half-eaten and
scalped. It was Aunty Blase, the old cook. Her eyes
were protruding, her bare teeth were grinning at the
spectator, and by her peeled skull, we knew who had
been the visitors at Far Away.

After the first cry of horror that escaped Jackson's
lips he turned around to Mike, and his eyes fell on the
Indian prisoner, who had taken advantage of the sur-
prise of the party to glide away among the trees.

" Hound of hell !" shouted Jackson, " I know your
work," and he levelled his rifle at the Indian, who was
bounding away down the glade. A mocking cry
answered the shot, and the spy disappeared in the woods.

" After him !" called Jackson, starting in pursuit.

" Hold thar, hard 1" exclaimed Mike, springing after
the planter and taking him by the shoulder. " You'll
lose your own har in thar and won't git his'n. Besides,
I'm of the 'pinion that the sooner we get in fightin' trim,
the better for us. Them sarpents has made a clean
sweep and thar is nothin' more for 'em to do here ; and
so I reckon they've gone arter us to the Keys."

Mike spoke earnestly, and Jackson stopped and
returned to the rest of the party that by this time had
collected together by the rums. The negroes were
moaning and making a noisy lamentation over the

HOME AGAIN. 279

remains of Aunty Blase, rocking themselves to and fro,
and throwing their hands up and down. The Doctor
was examining the wound on the poor old negress with a
professional eye. It was the first time he had ever had
the oppoi'tunity to see this style of dissection, and Lou
Jackson sat down on a log and wept as if her heart would
break. Aunty Blase had been a friend of many years to
her, and had baked the cakes at the feasts that yearly
honored her birth, and many a time had slyly cooked
favorite dishes for her young mistress. It was no wonder
then that Lou felt as though she had lost an aunt in
reality, and not merely a dependent.

A short consultation was had. Mike detailed the fact
that the young Indian that had accompanied them back
had been watching their camp last night, and stated
his belief that he was there for the purpose of informing
his tribe of our movements and of our return, in order
that they might be prepared to surprise us, either at the
camp or on our way back ; that his unexpected capture
had frustrated the plan, or delayed it, and that there
was no time to be lost in getting into a more open coun-
try, if it should appear, as he suspected, that there was a
general rising of the savages along the coast. The rea-
soning was so correct that it was immediately adopted.
A shallow grave, hastily dug, preserved the remains of
the old cook from the buzzards, and a short survey and
a " hulloo " satisfied us that the few other people that
had been left behind had been carried off by the savages,
and then with the goods we brought home, we hurried

X

280 WILD 8POET8 IN THE SOUTH.

t

back to the boats, and in a few minutes were speed-
ing down the river. N"o song of oarsmen now ; no
laugh or jest ; it was the hurried exodus from impending
fate, " and the boldest held his breath for a tune."

Tustenuggee the Mickasukie chief, now commanding a
band of the Seminoles, at the tune of the return of Jack-
son's family, was lying with his men in one of the little
elevations that raise themselves from the swamps, on the
upper shore of the Ouithlacouchee, where he had retired
after the sack of the plantation house, to wait for the
return of those whose unexpected absence had deprived
him of half his revenge. Among the spoils he had car-
ried away from the last night's sacking was a case of
spirits that had created a debauch in the savage band,
and from the chief to the youngest warrior, they had all
succumbed to its influence, and passed the day in alter-
nate riot and stupor. But when the scout who had been
sent down the river to watch the hunters, and whose
fleetness of foot had saved him from Jackson's vengeance,
arrived and told of the return of the party, the chief was
immediately aroused, and shaking off his sluggishness,
hastened to take such steps as were necessary to secure
his prey. Runners were sent out, some to the site of the
despoiled house, some to the river, and some to the
country lying north of the river, and through which the
settler's family would necessarily have to travel, if it
sought to escape by land to the upper settlements, that
at this time were but sparsely settled, in the direction of
Pensacola.

HOME AGAIN. 281

Hardly had the different scouts been sent on their
errand before one came hurrying back with the word that
the boats were descending the river again, and, like a
pack of dogs on a fresh scent, the whole band hurried
down to where a point ran out into the river. They
leaped from root to root, and crossed the marsh where a
hare would have floundered in the mud ; they swung
themselves, by hanging vines, over deep pools of black
water, and their tawny bodies as lithe as the copper-head
snakes that slid from the logs they trod on, appeared and
disappeared through the tangled woods until they at
length reached the point of land around which the boats
were sweeping, impelled by four oars each, and keeping
well out in the river. Tustenuggee watched the flotilla
coming with an eye that would have transfixed a lonely
traveller, so much had it grown and brightened by excite-
ment. He knew his prey was escaping, for it would be
a long shot to those canoes, and no matter how strong
his own force, he would be unwilling to hazard an open
attack on sixteen men as accustomed to the rifle as those
before him, and one of those Ingin Mike, whose prowess
all knew and feared. The Indians were careful not to be
seen from the boats, and crouched down behind any
cover they could find, hoping that some of the canoes
might approach near enough to afford them a shot. But
Mike, who led the fugitive fleet, was too wary for
that, but inclined the boats away from a point that he
was conscious might afford a cover to a foe, and nearer
the low timber that, growing in the water, would form

282 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

but a poor footing for an ambuscade. The negroes bent
to their oars, and the boats skimmed fast, making the
curve in beautiful order, and had entirely passed the
point, when the shrill report of a dozen guns sounded on
the stillness of the forest, and the water near the boats
was spattered by the bullets. Then followed the tremu-
lous, fierce, prolonged war whoop, and as it died away,
Mike's taunting answer, with a gesture of derision, came
back. Two or three of the savages had not fired with
the rest of the band, but had reserved their shots for a
better opportunity. The opportunity came as the last
boat, steered by Jackson himself, swept down with the
tide. He had seen the futility of the preceding discharge,
and regarding the boats as entirely out of range of the
guns, had rather cut the segment of the semicircle than
followed its outer curve. As he came opposite the point
two guns were discharged almost simultaneously, and at
the report Jackson dropped his steering-oar, and raised
his hand to his side.

A taunting cry was echoed from the shore, and a num-
ber of the Indians ran out as far as they might come,
mocking the fugitives, and delighted at the apparent
effect of their shot. Jackson raised himself up, stagger-
ing, and attempted to bring his rifle to his shoulder, but
could not ; he spoke to Lem, his favorite servant, who
put his arm around him, obedient to his master's com-
mand.

" Way enough, boys," he called out in a low voice.

The men paused on their oars, Jackson's lips com-

HOME AGAIN. 283

pressed as the rifle came to his cheek, and at the sharp
report, one of the two Indians from whom the last shots
came, tossed his arms in the air and fell from the bank
where he Avas standing with a splash into the stream and
swirled off with the black water.

" Ha ! ha ! ye black devils," laughed Jackson, sinking
down in the bottom of the canoe from the arms of the
boy that was holding him.

" Oh, maussa ! you hurt ; dear maussa, speak, maussa !"
cried Lem, kneeling over the planter, and unbuttoning
his vest.

The wounded man looked fixedly, and a guttural noise
came from his chest at every breath and a perspiration
dampened his iron grey locks. The boat, unheeded,
turned and drifted with the tide, and Mike's canoe, in
which Lou Jackson was riding, seeing something wrong,
waited till we came up to them.

" Father," said Lou, as the canoes swung together,
speaking in a low, hurried voice, " I am here, your
daughter, Lou."

Jackson did not speak, though he looked shoreward
with a wandering eye.

"Dear Father! God is good; he will not do this!
speak to me, say it is not so !"

Jackson's lips moved, we listened, and low and faint,
we heard a nursery prayer :

" Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,"

and then some words indicating that he was thinking of

284 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

home and the garden walks. The stern heart was re-
tracing life's steps again ; it saw its childhood's home on
the Altamaha, it heard its mother's lullaby, the evening
prayer, it felt the good-night kiss, and smiled. The
dangers around were forgotten, the war whoop that was
sounding mockingly along the shore was unheard, Jack-
son had retraced live's voyage to its source, and was
home again.

We all saw the relaxation of muscle that followed the
last hesitating word, and knew its meaning. Lou sunk
back into her boat vacantly — listlessly staring, without a
word or a tear. The negroes wailed a low cadence of
sorrow gazing on their master with streaming eyes.

" Wall, he's only got the start of us by a piece, it's a
few days airlier or later ; but them dogs don't get his
hair — that's a comfort ; and may be it'll do him good to
hear my rifle crack, if he hain't gone far yet — it used
to make him smile." And saying this, Mike levelled his
piece at one -of the savages on the shore, who were
watching, in groups, our movements.

At the crack of the heavy piece, that carried a ball
further than any gun on the coast, an Indian in one of the
groups shivered, but by holding on to a branch above
him he saved himself from falling, though we all saw he
was wounded. Mike put his hands to his mouth and
gave the war whoop, but neither the ring of the rifle nor
the wild cry of battle awoke the dead, and obeying the
dictates of prudence we resumed our oars and hurried
out of the river for the more open channels of the islands ;

THE BURIAI» 285

CHAPTER XVIH.

THE BURIAL.

" They truly mourn who

Mourn without a witness."

BARON.

DEATH is a great truth-teller. He throws us back on
our littleness, and makes us turn about, feeling for pro-
tection, or staring for explanation of his mysteries. We
see ourselves divested of reputation, of wealth, and the
million little circumstances and forms that clothe us, and
in his presence we stand naked to our own eyes. There
is nothing in us different from the dead clod beside us,
that a moment before was one of us, and that a moment
hence we may be. We speak short, and only what we
mean; we act fairly, and not for any appearance; we
feel the stirring warnings that are of our spirit, and that
are taunting our million cares for the flesh, mocking its
littleness and its flickering termination.

In social life, the love of self and dread of others is not
shaken off even at the grave. We bury our dead man
with pomp and proper etiquette. There are invitations,
and crape dresses, hearse, bells, monuments, criticism,
and seclusion from society; even in our death we are
worldly, draping the dead truth and its morals with liv

286 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

ing fictions and fashions. In the woods death is more
direct in approach, and you less able to shun his com-
pany. There is no art to help the stricken, no luxury for
the languid, no shrive for the dying. When the des-
troyer has left his mark on your comrade and gone again,
the open eyes gaze at you, the stiff body is in your arms ;
no one speaks of it, or over it ; it preaches in mute lan-
guage for itself; there is no hearse, no mourners, no
newspaper article, no sexton, no rites; you and your
friend are alone together — he is dead, and you are li ving.
Prithee, hunter ! pray for yourself, for you know the flies
will crawl in and out your nostril to-morrow as they do
in his to-day.

The night had well set in as we again caught sight of
the low outline of our camping-ground, after the hurried
flight from the river with our sorrowful burden. We
lay off in the open water until Mike had made an ex-
amination of the land to see that there had been no one
there after our departure, and when we saw his fire-light
signal we rowed to the beach and disembarked. The
negroes spoke in whispers, the boats were half un-
loaded, the guns carefully examined, and lay ready for
use ; the very hounds felt the blow that had fallen, and
crept listlessly to the fire, and laid down wondering, all
save poor old Duke. Duke was a sterling dog, though
somewhat aged ; his bed for years had been his master's
couch, his platter his master's hand ; and now he kept by
the blanket that was spread over the stern of one of the
canoes, and licked a white hand that fell from beneath,

THE BURIAL.

and at intervals half whimpered, as does a hound when
dreaming of the chase.

Before establishing ourselves for the night, we made
a thorough examination of the island, and posted one of
the men on the upper end, to act as sentinel in case any
canoes were seen, as they would necessarily have to ap-
proach from that way. Then one tent was raised for
Lou, the smoldering fire wras rekindled, being first
sheltered from observation by the tent, and by a screen
of bushes, and we addressed ourselves to sleep, though
this was done more to encourage the men to take some
rest than from any desire on the part of the others for for-
getfulness. Some lay down, and soon were oblivious of
alK earthly troubles ; others dozed, and started, and
mused by turns ; only Lem, of all the negroes, seemed
to keep fully awake, and his low moanings were pitiable
to hear. The night was perfectly still, and the same
familiar cries came from the marsh that we had so often
listened to ; but now they had a mocking sound. The
" stars dreamed their path through the sky," and with
the waning moon made a thin light that seemed cold
and ghostly, and a mist arose from the sea — the sure pre-
cursor of a storm.

Mike presently left the camp, and walked down by
the beach, and the Doctor and I followed him,
for the purpose of talking, and arranging some plan
for the morrow.

"Well, Mike, what are we to do with Jackson ?" said
the Doctor, after we had taken a long look at each other.

288 WILD SPOKTS IN THE SOUTH.

"Thar aren't but one. home for him now; but what's
to be done with his darter ?"

" Take her with us," said the Doctor.

" Where shall we take ourselves to ?" I asked.

No one answered, and each looked at Mike as the
surest adviser. The hunter sat himself down on the sand
cross-legged, in the Indian fashion, and, after a pause,
said :

"It's clair we aren't wanted hereabout, and it's mighty
onsafe for the young woman. Thar has been a risin' of
the Injins everywhere, and the only safe place for a
crowd als big as our own is in the boats. The Injins
wun't fight us by day ; it's only when they ketch us on
the sly, fur they know they aren't a match for honest
folks, no how. Ef it warn't fur this ere young woman,
and Rose, and the boys, we might lay around and rub
out some of those varmints, and like enough get back
some of the people they stole from the house. But it's a
mighty onsafe game to play, with a handful of niggers
to bother one, and I reckon we'd best make tracks."

"But where shall we turn to?" asked the Doctor,
looking around him.

"Well, ef we go north, it aren't a great way to
Lorenzo's clearing, but I kind o' think Lorenzo has lost
his hayar night 'fore last, with the rest on 'em. The
surest place would be Tampa Bay; thar we'd have the
Fort, and from thar Lou Jackson could pass up to where
she would."

" Poor girl ! poor girl 1" said the Doctor. " What is

THE BURIAL. 289

to become of her ? She seems very calm ; I was afraid
she would feel it more. She has not shed a tear or made
a sob since it happened."

" A hound don't yowl much when he's hard hurt," re-
plied Mike.

"What of the body, Mike?" I asked. -"We must
bury it some time, and where."

" Them sarpents won't let it stay buried long ; they
want his hayar."

"You don't mean to say they would despoil his grave
for his scalp ?"

" I mean they are 'bout among the islands, nosing us
out this minute like wolves."

" Oh, Mike !" said the Doctor, looking around anx-
iously.

" 'Taint likely they'll find us to-night, though they
know pretty much where we be ; but their spies'll be in
all the passes at light to see where we go, and what we
take with us, and they'll dog us to Tampa, and ef they
can't get our hayar, they'll try to get his'n. We can't
carry him four days' journey to the fort."

" We could bury him in the sea," said the Doctor,
" and there he would remain undisturbed."

" His darter wouldn't give in to that," said Mike.

" How do you know ?"

" Wall, I reckon."

" Then how can we bury him, and when ?"

"The sooner the better," I replied. " Bring him hero
to-night — 'twould be least suspected."

13

290 WILD 8POET8 IN THE SOUTH.

" And how hide the grave ?"

" Build the fire over it," said Mike.

And so it was agreed that the burial should be made
in the night, and that the party should leave before
light should expose their motions to the enemy. I was
deputed to acquaint Lou Jackson with the plan, and to
obtain her approval. I found her in her tent, that opened
to the fire, half lying and half sitting against a roll of
blankets. Her eyes were shut, and she seemed asleep,
but when spoken to she answered without moving. I told
her of our plans for the morrow. She answered in a low
distinct tone, that it was all very well. I spoke of
her father, and that it was necessary to have a burial so
secretly as to preserve the grave from the knowledge of
the enemy. She consented by a single word of assent
in the same composed manner. I then spoke of its being
done immediately, and asked her if she was willing. She
turned in her habitual manner, as though deferring the
question to some one beside her ; it was her manner
of asking her father, that had always in the family been
regarded as a question, and answered by Jackson without
a word. Then as if recalling to her mind that there was
no one to respond, she looked around vacantly with
a troubled look, pronouncing the name of Mike.

" Yes, child," said the hunter, bending his frame to
the entrance of the low tent, and replying to the unasked
question, " that's best."

" Very well," she said ; and seeing her indisposed to
talk, I left the tent.

THE BURIAL.

In a few minutes the fire was removed from the spot
where it had been burning for so many days, and the pile
of ashes pushed aside. Then with sharp sticks for mat-
tocks, and paddles for shovels, in a little while we dug a
grave in the sandy soil. Four men took the canoe, cov-
ered with the blanket, and guarded by Duke, and
carried it up by the grave. The fire waned and flickered
and the moon was nearly set. The heavy gaily-colored
Indian blanket was wrapped around the dead man, and
his hands were folded, " as though praying, dumbly, over
his breast." Nothing was said, but the plaintive moans
of the negroes and Lem's wailing cry were the only
sounds of sorrow. Lou looked on with eyes wide star-
ing and followed every motion of the attendants, but
no word or gesture escaped her. The'body was theii
laid in the grave, and then followed a pause ; so silently we
stood, the very air in the trees seemed noisy, and the
negroes ceased their lamentations and crowded round
Duke, who stood at the head of the grave, looking sadly
in, while his long ears touched the ground. We looked
one at the other for a sign, and the dead man looked up
at us from the grave. Where now is the prayer of the
living, and the hope for the hereafter ?

The Doctor spoke with a voice so low, that but for the
silence we could not have heard it : " Dust to dust, ashes
to ashes." Then, as if seeking words to continue the
service he .could not remember, he broke forth in that
great confession: "I believe in one God, the Father
Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, in JESUS CHKIST,

292 WILD 6POETS IN THE SOUTH.

liis only Son, our Lord." His voice, that was faltering,
grew strong, the tears that were raining o'er his cheeks
grew dry, and the triumph of his voice, as he proclaimed
the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting, was
like the march of a triumphal chorus, to which all res-
ponded, Amen !

Mike stepped into the grave and turned down the
blanket over the face of his friend, our host and our com-
rade, and laid beside him his hunting-knife and rifle — a
kindly care he had learned from his Indian habits — and
then the grave was filled up, all the dirt was carefully
placed back, or thrown in the sea, the ashes drawn to
their place, and the fire re-kindled. The boats were
reloaded, a piece of canvas was stretched on poles to
imitate a tent, -and one canoe that we did not need was
left in plain sight on the beach, with a log or two half in
the water to represent the others. This ruse was done to
attract and occupy the attention of the Indians, who would
be searching for us the next day, and who would thus
be drawn away, for a time, from our real course. There
lacked about two hours to daylight when we took to the
boats and called away the dogs. They all came but
Duke, who still sat by the fire, until one of the negroes
carried him to the boat and placed him in ; - but as
we started he jumped out and ran back to, the spot
where he had seen his master buried. The negro
went back again, but the dog resisted and set up one of
those long plaintive howls foT which the true deer-hound
is so remarkable, and which echoed from shore to shore

THE BURIAL. 293

like the call of a bugle. Lou was sitting in the boat, but
at the sound of the dog's voice she sprang out, and run-
ning back to the hound, threw herself down on the sand
with her arms around his neck, and broke out convulsively
sobbing. It was the first tear she had shed since her
father's death, and the torrent restrained was the more
powerful.

" Oh ! Missus ! JESUS help us !" moaned Rose, sway-
ing her head from side to side.

Mike rose up in his boat and looking seaward, brushed
his hand across his cheek, saying : " Thar aint no show
of light yit awhile."

In a little while Lou came back to the boat, leading
Duke by the ear, and having taken her place with the
Doctor, the boats glided off into the darkness and the
mist, and using only the paddles, passed like phantoms
out of sight.

All that night we rowed, and the next day, and avail-
ing ourselves of the smallest of the open islands for rest-
ing places, avoided surprise.

Whether the Indians ever foUowed us I know not, or
whether they ever found the grave of the recluse planter
by the sea. I never again visited the island, and the
craft and ceaseless vigilance of our guide carried us
safely amid the dangers by storm and warfare that con-
stantly surrounded us during the four days that were
occupied in getting to Tampa Bay. The scenery we
sailed along was beautiful, and from time to time we
would stop to beat up an island for necessary game, but

294: WILD SPOBTS IN THE SOUTH.

the memory of the grave under our camp-fire, and the
ever-present sorrow of Lou and her attached slaves, so
abode with us that it did not seem a pleasure trip. Mike
was the same regular, patient, watchful man. His eye
saw everything, and a motion or a word directed atten-
tion to all that was curious. His boat was constantly
by the side of the one in which Lou Jackson was riding,
and his voice and manner were singularly low and gentle,
when conversing with her, for so rude and wild a figure.
Lou was very quiet, and at night her eyes would be con-
stantly wet with tears, but it was an uncomplaining
sorrow to which man can add no solace, and which is
only bettered by that forgetfulness that the Creator in
his kindness has permitted to come over the heart of
man to heal 'even his "deep stabbed woe." In the
destruction of Far Away, Lou Jackson had lost nearly
all the property of every kind that she owned. Of the
twelve negro men that had accompanied us on the hunt,
six only were the property of her father and six had been
hired, and would now have to be returned to their owner
at Pensacola. Lem and Rose, together with five men,
would accompany their young mistress and return from
Tampa Bay to St. Augustine, where her father's relatives
resided, by the first vessel that could be found. This was
the meagre plan that she had laid out for herself, as we
sailed down the coast. At length we made the point of
Egmont Island, and entering the broad bay saw once
more the American flag, and stepped ashore in security
under the guns of the Fort.

DIDIAII HISTORY. 295

CHAPTER XIX.

INDIAN HISTORY.

True they have vices — such are nature's growth
But only the barbarian's — we have both."

BTKON.

WHEN Florida was ceded by Spain to the United
States, in the year 1821, it was inhabited by several
powerful tribes of the natives. The Seminoles, residing
in the Alachua country, in the centre of the peninsula,
were a branch of the Creek Indians, whose villages mar-
gined the Chattahoochee River, near Columbus, in Geor-
gia, and the name of Seminole, or Runaway, originated
with a secession of this branch, which occurred at a
remote period. Micanopy was their principal chief. The
Tallahassees inhabited the northern and western por-
tion of the peninsula, their chief town being at Tallahas-
see, the present capital of the State. Thlock-lo-Tustenug-
gee, or Tiger Tail, was their head chief.

The Mickasukie tribe, under Ar-pe-ik, or Sam Jones,
and subsequently under an eminent warrior, Halleck
Tustenuggee, had their hunting-grounds on the waters of
the Ouithlacouchee, and the heavy swamps that border
it.

South of Lake Okechobee another tribe found a secure

296 WILD SPORTS IN THE BOUTH.

home in the fastnesses of the everglades. They were
called Spanish Indians, and their chief was named Che-
kika.

The Creeks of Georgia came down to assist their kins-
men in the wars that ensued, and were led by Octiarche,
and subsequently by that chief whose name has added so
much to the romance and dignity of^he Indian charac-
ter, Osceola. The whole number of Indians in Florida
at this time was estimated at from fifteen hundred to as
many thousands. To this was to be added an equal num-
ber of negro fugitives from the slave States or the chil-
dren of free Spanish negroes, all of whom were living
with and adopting the habits of the Indians. 80 wide
the extent of country over which they, roamed, and so
inaccessible their villages, that even /the existence of
some tribes was unknown until after many years of war-
fare. The tribes Avere different from each other in
government and location, and some of them were .hostile
to the others.

After the cession of the province by the Spanish, the
United States immediately sought to control the haughty
nations that peopled the newly acquired territory, many
of which had never been subject to Spain, and to induce
them to cede their lauds and delegate their government
to the Government of the United States, upon the con-
dition of protection and alliance. To this end three Com-
missioners were appointed by the United States, at Fort
Moultrie, near St. Augustine, in Sept., 1823, who caused
thirty-five of the principal men of the northern tribes to

INDIAN HISTORY. 297

sign with their marks a treaty, denominated the treaty
of Fort Moultrie. The first article of this treaty stated
that themselves and their tribes have appealed to the
humanity, and thrown themselves on the protection of the
United States, " and do cede all claim to the whole ter-
ritory of Florida." The United States Government, in
its turn, agreed to pay six thousand dollars in goods, and
an annual payment of five thousand dollars.

Immediately upon the execution of this agreement,
settlers poured in and commenced cultivating the lands
relinquished by the Indians, and many quarrels as to the
intrusion and the rights of person and property arose
between these two classes, so antagonistical in every ele-
ment of character.

This difference of feeling led the United States
Government to propose, and carry into effect, in May,
1832, a conditional treaty known as the Payne's Landing
Treaty, signed by seventeen chiefs, whereby the Semi-
nole Indians agreed to emigrate to the territory of
Arkansas, west of the Mississippi River, providing they
should be satisfied with the country, after first sending
some of their chiefs to examine the land, and to give up
to the claimants the negroes said to have escaped. Seven
chiefs accordingly went, and in March of the following
year, at Fort Gibson in Arkansas, the seven chiefs ratified
the Payne's Landing Treaty, and without first making a
report to their tribes, made the original treaty irrevoca-
ble.

No sooner, however, had the delegation returned and
18*

298 WILD BPOETS IN THE SOUTH.

it was told to the different tribes of Florida that they
had entered into an agreement to remove, than they,
without dissent, repudiated the treaty, refused to relin-
quish their native land, or surrender their negro allies.
They haughtily answered the different runners and Indian
agents, commissioned by the whites, and withdrawing to
their villages in the Cypress Swamps and hummocks,
prepared to defend their homes as best they might,
according to the ancient hereditary rules and regulations
of Indian warfare. At a council summoned by General
Thompson, when Micanopy, Cooacoochee, Alligator, and
other chiefs of high renown were present, Osceola, who
was then a young chief, being called upon to answer if
he would sign the treaties, strode up to the table in front
of the officers, saying, " The only way I will sign such a
treaty is this," and drove his scalping-knife through the
parchment deep into the table, while the conference
broke up in confusion. The call to arms sounded through
the land, the Indians pillaged the settler to obtain mili-
tary weapons, and burned his cabins, drove off the cattle,
and waylaid the soldiers, and the United States Govern-
ment threw her best armies into the country, to have
them destroyed by the miasma and the Indian arrow,
patiently renewing the losses in the regiments, and sup-
plying millions of money for a period of over fifteen
years. The amplest supplies were afforded for the pro-
secution of the war, and the first soldiers in the country
such as Generals Jackson, Clinch, Scott, Worth, and
Taylor, led the armies.

INDIAN HISTOET.

This was the condition of Florida when in the latter
part of the winter of 1840 and 1841 we found ourselves
involuntary prisoners at Fort Brooke.

A low octagon fortress, with a palisade inclosure of
sharpened timbers, situated at the end of Tampa Bay,
and that formed the headquarters of the American army
through the many discouraging years of the Seminole
war. The temperate climate of the coast, and the com-
manding and safe position of the fortress, made it a plea-
sant and safe residence amid the miasma and disorders of
the interior country. It was also the depot for military
stores, the arsenal for ammunition, and the harbor for the
gun-boats. Civilized and savage warfare here displayed
their pomp and coloring hi close relief. The painted
savage, with his wives, camped daily by the walls, or
traded with the sutler ; the Indian runners, who alone
could thread the inner wilderness, came and went to dis-
tant outposts ; and the little brown canoe of the savage,
so thin in texture that a pin could pierce it, and so light
in mold it left no wake in the water, floated side by side
hi the ripples with the heavy gunboat of the soldier,
that some day was destined to rake and crush to pieces
its slighter opponent — fit emblems both of the power
and feebleness, of the people of which they were res-
pectively the types.

Fort Brooke often contained within its casemented
walls other and greater contrasts, and more stirring emo-
tions than the material landscape and pageantry of war
and race. Here came the young recruit, emulous of

300 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

fame, with armor newly dight, and hither returned from
the cypress swamp or pathless everglade the soldier
whose brief campaign sent him home wounded, wasted,
-broken, with his weapons untarnished, save by the rust,
and his glory unmade, except by his sufferings. Here
fled for shelter the settler's family from their burning
home, the shipwrecked sailor from pursuing storms, and
here the haughty chieftain came with his armed band,
wrapped in his wrought mantle and his stoic dignity, to
treat for peace or vindicate his race ; or the captured
warriors in their damp prison shivered on the prison ships
in sight of the warm life of their native forests. Here
" talks " were had with the tribes, treaties signed, ex-
peditions fitted out, forays revenged, and the barbaric
life of the woods mingled and flowed side by side with
the chaster forms of civilization, as the Oswegatchie
pushes its black current into the blue waters of the St.
Lawrence, and mottles the flood with its curious con-
trast.

The war that had been waging for over ten years
through the length and breadth of the peninsula was ap-
parently no nearer its termination than at any previous
period. Small bands of Indians had been captured at
different times, always by some ruse^ and not by open
warfare, and exported by ships to the far West. Several
noted chiefs had been slain in defending their homes, and
many villages and corn-fields been laid waste, but braver
warriors seemed to take the place of the old ones, and
new retreats had been found in the most inaccessible

INDIAN HISTORY. 301

swamps, wherein the Indian woman might nurse her
babe and till her corn-fields, while the braves revenged
their losses by some foray so distant, unexpected, and
bloody, as to countervail all rules of warfare, and render
useless all prevention, and impossible all redress. This
was not one perpetual war, but a succession of wars,
separated by treaties and truces more or less long, and
more or less faithfully kept. During these truces,
sutlers, relying on the promises of the United States
Government, made settlements in the territory, and with
the fearlessness and temerity of the American borderer,
pushed their outermost farms within the lines of the
Indian territory. Sometimes, under favor of a particu-
lar Indian chief or band, they were protected for years,
and remained safe while others were massacred. But at
length some wrong done to their people would so excite
the Indians that no individual favor could be a protection,
and the outposts of the settlers were whelmed in flame
and blood.

Far Away had been an instance of this kind of reliance
upon this most uncertain estate, and its existence had
been prolonged by the hospitality of the planter ; but
courtesy could not avail in the hour of general retribu-
tion, and the revenge bred by years of accumulating
wrongs swept over the homestead like a spring freshet.

In a few days after our arrival, a government vessel,
sailing by way of Key "West for St. Augustine, offered
Lou Jackson a passage, with her people, which she
accepted, and departed, carrying Duke with her, and

302 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

leaving Mike, Poke, and myself, again to our own re-
sources, awaiting some opportunity for the indulgence
of our roving propensities. But roving propensities were
now only to be indulged under military escort, or else at
the risk of our hayr, as the hunters pronounced it ; so
for the first few weeks we contented ourselves with the
curious scenes that were daily transpiring in the inclosure
of the fort, or the most limited walks directly around the
pickets. Occasionally some scout would come in with
the report of a soldier, or a runner, lying dead on some
of the routes, and a guard of soldiers would be sent out
to bring in the body, and give it a burial in the little
burying-ground that was located just beyond the picket.
The sight of the revolting exhibition of Indian warfare,
however, soon passed by, and we forgot the terror that
environed us in our desire for activity, and the enjoyment
of the sports of the chase and the observations of the
varied beauties of animal and vegetable life so prolifically
developed.'

Is it strange that, when the morning reveille of bugle
and drum awoke the loud gobble of the wild turkeys not
yet flown from their roosts on the cottonwood trees on
HiUsboro' River, we could not resist the call, but would
occasionally steal out with our rifles, "jist to clair out
our shootin' irons," as Mike said. Day by day these
little excursions extended themselves, and we became so
accustomed to the danger, that, like the villagers that
build on the slopes of Vesuvius, we had forgotten the
fires beneath.

A BEAR IN DIFFICULTY. 303

CHAPTER XX.

A BEAK IN DIFFICULTY.

" Snout. 0 Bottom ! thou art changed : what do I see on thcc ?
Bot. What do you see ? you see an ass's head of your own, do yon?"

MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM.

OXE morning Mike and I left the fort in our canoes,
with Scipio and Csesar, to look for some game on the
islands that were scattered along the beach in the many
indentures of the bay to the southward of the fort. An
hour or two of paddling brought us where a low island
was fringed with the tangled roots of the black man-
grove. This peculiar tree frequents the salt-water shores,
and springs up from a multitude of roots that raise the
trunk of the tree from the ground. The pendent
branches then droop until they touch the water beneath,
where, clasped by oysters and other parasite shell-fish,
they are anchored to the earth, and, taking root, send
up many shoots that thus ramify and interlace like minia-
ture banyan trees. A large portion of the peninsula of
Florida is fringed by this hardy hedge of vegetation.
Behind a border of this kind we saw the towering
forms of some gumbo-limbo trees, and the oval leaves of
the sea-grape, and, finding an open place wherein to

304- WILD SPOKT8 IN THE SOUTH.

conceal our boat, landed and commenced to hunt down
the island.

It was early morning, and the dew was still on the
grass, and the mocking-bird had not yet finished his
matinal song.

" There's a dog's track," I said to Mike, directing his
attention to some footprints fairly marked on the sand ;
" there may be some Indians camping here."

" No " said Mike, following the tracks with his eye for
a moment ; " a wolf."

" How do you tell ?"

" A wolf's got two long fore toes on each foot, d'ye
see ?" pointing to the mark on a piece of clay soil, where
the animal had leaped over a pool of water, leaving a
deep scratch on each side that showed plainly the forma-
tion of his foot ; he's gone sometime in the night ; they
are great travellers, they be, and like enough he's now
on Topolika River."

A little creek ran into the island, containing about an
inch of water at low tide, but into which, with the
flood tide, fish were accustomed to feed, and the shores
of this inlet, at its narrowest part, were strewed with the
heads and tails of small fish, such as the young of bass
and redfish, while the whole shore was tracked with the
prints of some animal. We stopped before the signs,
and Scipio, his natural instincts fully alive, exclaimed :

" Gi ! dere be shocks db coons here o' nights fishin'."

A closer examination satisfied me that such was the
case, and that some raccoons were in the habit of repair-

A BEAK IN DIFFICULTY. 305

ing here when the tide was ebbing, and heading off
the fish that had ascended the stream, to seize them on
their return to the sea. Scipio and Caesar consulted long
over the marks, with an air of much importance, and
then informed us that such was " de fac'." Moreover,
Scipio assured me that he had seen, on moonlight nights,
raccoons engaged in these industrious pursuits, and
standing knee-deep in the retiring tide, using their broad
fore paws for hands, scoop out the fish, and throw them
far up on the beach, while a fellow-fisher of the same
family, wading down the creek from above, with splash
and squeal, would drive the frightened denizens of
the brook into the very paws of their cunning foe.
Caesar indorsed the same story, which I would readily
believe from the nature of the animal, but which I can-
not think that Scip and Caesar ever had the forbearance
to watch, while they had the means of pouncing on the
raccoons.

Not far from the creek lay a hollow log that Scipio
judged might be the resort of his friends, the raccoons,
and, trimming a willow stick for a probe, after one or
two careful examinations into the different knot-holes, he
began a vigorous series of punches, while Caesar stood at
the end with a club elevated to knock over the prize.
Instead of a raccoon, to our great amusement, out slid a
huge rattlesnake, disturbed in his morning nap, and
shaking his tail with a whirring sound, like the wing of
a quail when rising. Over went Caesar in his haste to get
away from his dangerous prize, exclaiming, as he ran :

306 WILD 8POKT8 IN THE SOUTH.

" Gorry mighty brcss us ! what for you call ee coon ?
you purty nigger, dun know snake fur coon!"

There were no signs of deer on the island, though
quantities of birds of every description, that roosted in
the mangrove bushes, and resorted to the pools and the
beeches of the island for food, and made the bushes laugh
with their various notes. The Key West pigeon was
here, with its burnished colors, and the ground dove,
with its plaintive note ; the oriole gleamed in the willows
like sunrise, and the mocking-bird so peopled the bowers
with his many-tuned throat that the stranger would be-
lieve a hundred voices were singing at once. When,
through vistas of the mangroves, we caught sight of the
sea, the porpoise was rolling in pursuit of the fish
on the bar, while the pelican and cormorant were follow-
ing his motions in revolving circles high in the air. All
created things, in their multitude of ways, were fulfilling
their destiny, and each grade of life, by the other fed,
ran its appointed round to make its part in the measured
whole of that great cycle of animal life, of which man
knows but a few members, and whose rules of revolution
seem to his dull vision to be the mere instinct of appetite.

"Bar !" said Mike, interrupting my reflections.

"Where?" said I.

" Smell him."

" Nonsense !"

"Yah! ha! ha! ha!" said Caesar, tugging at She
leathern leash by which he held Mike's hound ; " Yowler
smell him, too 1"

A BEAR IN DIFFICULTY. 307

Mike took the strap in his hands, and we silently fol-
lowed the lead of the dog. In a moment we passed a
tree that had been stripped of its bark for a distance of
five feet from the ground, and the bark scattered all
about, while the hard inner wood of the tree was all fur-
rowed by the nails of the animal.

" An old He," said Mike.
~" How do you know that ?"

" The she ones are 'bout havin' young, and are hid in
the big swamps," replied Mike ; "and he's a fat one ; see,
his hind toe marks don't touch his front ones. If he'd
bsen a rael lean one, they'd a well-nigh overlapped."

The marks we saw soon led us to the edge of the
bushes, and then out on the open sands. We followed
carefully until a roll of sand affording a cover for us, we
crawled up behind it, and carefully concealing our heads
behind bunches of grass that grew scattered about the
summit, beheld our game in the undisturbed pursuit of
his morning avocations. The surf was rolling in, and
there were many things lying about on the sands that
had been stranded by a recent storm : here a tortoise-
shell, and there a cocoanut, and further on a board, and
some fragments of a vessel. Bruin was busy inspecting
these flotsam that had drifted into his domain, and his
manner of doing so was as follows : He would first look
at the article, then smell it, then touch it with his fore
paw, and then he would deliberately seat himself in the
sand on his broad posteriors, with his hind legs project-
ing in front, and his toes turned up, and, lifting the arti-

308 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

cle under consideration to his mouth, turn his head on
one side, and try to crack it with his teeth. The inde-
scribable air of burlesque gravity with which this was
done made me laugh. Added to the individual awkward-
ness of the animal was the fact of our unsuspected obser-
vation, and the scene appeared doubly ridiculous ; and
when the negroes chuckled aloud, the bear would only
discontinue his investigations for a moment to take a sur-
vey, and then renew them again. The cocoanut he found
too hard to bite, and so, after rolling it over two or three
times, threw it into the sea again. Then he examined a
large tortoise-shell, and putting his claws in the side, with
his arms a-kimbo, pryed it open, to find it empty. Next
he picked up an orange, and sitting down, as before, ate it
with evident satisfaction, his fore paws resting during the
time of his mastication on the toes of his hind paws.
Occasionally he would reach around and scratch himself
in the same manner as a negro, whom he laughably resem-
bled in very many of his manners.

Presently he discovered a small cask, and after apply-
ing his nose to the bunghole to scent the character of its
contents set to work to arrive at the interior. But
the half-barrel was strongly coopered, and in spite of
bites, and boxes, and hugs without number, it remained
intact, though an oily juice ran from the bunghole and
smeared Bruin's paws, who eagerly licked them dry.
At length, by a good deal of biting, he enlarged th,e
bunghole so that he could get a paw in, and by this
means fished out the sweets, holding the cask up with

A BEAR IN DIFFICULTY. 309

one arm, and dropping the other into it, and then into
his mouth, like a little negro on a molasses barrel. But
this mode of getting at the contents did not seem suffi-
ciently expeditious to Little Tommy Horner, who, pre-
sently getting up on his feet, inserted his nose in the bar-
rel, and then his head. Now a bear's nose is very sharp,
and goes through a small place very easily, but does not
have the same facility for coming out, owing to the hair
and ears being set backward, and the heavy folds of skiii
that hang around the neck. In this instance Bruin made
the discovery of this difference, and, like the weasel in
the flour barrel, soon gave symptoms that he was fast.
He began to pull back, but as he pulled the barrel came
with hun, until he rolled over on his back, pawing ineffec-
tually with his hands at the convex sides of the barrel,
which revolved around his head as on a pivot, but would
not come off. Mike smiled out aloud, and the negro
yelled with laughter. The bear, hearing the sound of
our voices, probably increased by the reverberations in
the hollow barrel, took fright and ran for the woods,
making directly to where we were lying, and carry-
ing the cask on his head like a helmet. We could not
have shot at that half-barrel, even had we been able to
fire our guns, which we were not, from laughter, and
therefore scattered right and left as the animal rushed up
the hill ; as he crossed the conical peak he lost his foot-
hold, and rolled head over heels in our midst. Then picking
himself up, he started in the direction he happened to be
when he regained his feet, and ran directly into the sea.

310 * WILD SPORTS m THE SOUTH.

This turned him about again, when Yowler, who had
escaped from the negroes, seized him by a leg and forced
him to halt. At this he reared himself on en$, and com-
menced growling and waving his paws all the time,
resembling more a picture of Bacchus than a wild ani-
mal. "We ran down to where he was standing, when
Scipio, with a blow of a club over the head, broke the
barrel, scattering the mackerel with which it was filled,
and released the animal from his confinement, who re-
warded the negro with a blow from his paw that knocked
him on the sands, when Mike and I, with a simultaneous
discharge of our rifles, laid him lifeless. This was a very-
large bear, and from the abundant mast still hanging in
the woods, and from the quantity of shell-fish on the
island, was very fat. "We brought our canoe round to
the beach, and in a few hours were again with our trophy
safely back to the fort.

HOW WE CONQUERED HALLECK TTJSTENUGGEE. 311

CHAPTER XXI.

HOW WE CONQUERED HALLECK TUSTENUGGEE.

-"but quoth he,

' It was a famous victory.' "

THE winter had passed away and spring had come,
opening the pyramid of silver tulip-flowers of the pal-
metto royal (the yucca gloriosa of the naturalist), while
we were watching a chance to leave Tampa Bay. One
day the commanding officer detailed a company of men
'to cross over the peninsula to the forts on the other side
for the purpose of keeping open the communication, and
learning the situation of the enemy, as well as of the
troops operating in the interior.

We accepted the chance, and the next day found us
with our packs slung on a mule, two canoes for ferrying
across rivers, and a company of about forty men winding
through the pine lands that lie east of the bay. There
had been an old trail cut through here, marked by blazes
on the trees in the open woods and here and there a log
felled bridfje-like across the creeks that intersected the

o

swamps ; but the trail was only useful as a guide, although
it is marked on the charts of that day as a military
road.

312 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

The dear-bought experience of the American troops
had not been profitless, and the company we were with
was as well organized as it Avas possible to be. The men
were frontiersmen, quick in the use of the rifle, unterri-
fied by the appalling sights and sounds of Indian war-
fare and — what was of vital importance — accustomed to
the country, and skilled in woodcraft. They could sup-
port themselves, if need be, in a swamp, or build a town
there without foreign assistance. The rules adopted for
crossing the country were as follows : No more baggage
to each man than was absolutely necessary, and this bag-
gage to consist only of food and ammunition ; each man
to carry his own share. One guide was placed ahead of
the detachment about three hundred yards ; within
sight of him and of the column, another. These men
were the most experienced of the hunters, and generally
one a friendly Indian. To their knowledge of the geo-
graphy of the country the party was indebted for the
directness of its route, to their quick eye for its security
from ambush, and to their observation of every passing
footstep on the land, marks of paddles on the shallow
bottom of rivers, or the slimy projecting logs, its acquain-
tance with the movements of outlying parties of Indians,
or the recent passage of friend or foe. How small these
signs might be, and yet be detected, how blind and yet
be read, is one of those mysteries of the woods that are
disclosed only to the observant and the practised. Their
very description excites incredulity. The passage of one
of these scouting parties through the Indian country was

HOW WE CONQUERED HALLECK TCSTENUGGEE. 313

a curious scene, and impressed one with a feeling of awe.
The old tokens by the way, here a ford named after some
bloody massacre, and there a little log pen whitened by
the bones of those who fell there at bay together, hemmed
in by the pursuing savage, were so frequent and well-
remembered, that the soldier crossed the woods with a
ceaseless watchfulness. He travelled all day with his
utmost speed, lest his pursuers might come up on his
trail, and at night lay down in the darkness without his
fire, that his covert might not be disclosed. The celerity
of the passage was the safety of the party.

Thus we crossed over to Fort Fraser, on the Hitchi-
pucksasi, and two days more brought us to Fort Gardi-
ner, on the ford of the river that connects two of the
largest of the lakes of central Florida, Lake Kississimee
and Lake Tohopekaliga. These forts were nothing more
than heavy cabins built of logs, and defended by pali-
sades, sometimes garrisoned by a company of men, and
sometimes only houses of refuge. The one last named
was in the margin of the cypress swamps, and was one of
those huge shallow tarns, whose black waters, encumbered
by logs and cypress knees, and encroaching into the dense
forest by interminable arms^ were more intricate than the
labyrinth of Crete. The Indians excelled in the navigation
of these lakes. Their canoes left no trail, and they could be
hovering about for weeks, without the scouts discovering
their presence. If they wanted to leave, they knew of
water connections through to a score of other lakes, or
they could flee away to the South down the Kississimee

14

314 WILD 8POKT8 IN THE SOUTH.

River, to the great Okechobee Lake in the ever-
glades.

Some portion of the land around the fort was of the
same nature as that commonly known as everglade.
Properly, the everglades are confined to that portion of
the peninsula lying between the uttermost southerly
point, Cape Sable and Okechobee Lake, a space of about
two degrees of latitude, though some are found further
northward.

No language save that of the painter's brush can
depict the desolate immensity of one of these treeless
swamps. There league after league of rank grass waves
on every side, unrelieved by hope, to the explorer, of ter-
mination or prospect of change. Here and there a thick
leafed cactus, or cabbage-palmetto, or a clump of leafless
cypress, grows upward, draped in the moss the stagnant
water has bred. Fallen trunks of old trees are tangled
with palmetto roots beneath the grass, having drifted in
the summer rains from the place where they grew, or
gaunt dead water-oaks hold out their arms, from which
the flesh of leaves has dropped away, or still clings pen-
dent from the fingers. Strange birds fly over, screeching
in foreign tongues, and trees and stumps and grass show
by green deposit on their sides the different heights to
which the water that floods the waste had arisen on dif-
ferent months.

In the dry season this broad extent of country is nearly
dry. During the rainy season of spring and summer the
water lies over it in varying depths from two to twenty

HOW WE CONQUERED HALLECK TUSTENTTGGEE. 315

inches. Through the grass are seen winding channels
made by the prevailing currents and lagoons, from whose
black muddy bottom grows the pond-lily and other float-
ing grasses which intersect the prairie and turn back the
pedestrian. It would seem as if the rolling of the sea had
built an embankment of sand around all the coast, shutting
in this low-lying tract as does the cushion on a billiard-
table, so that it could be only drained by evaporation, or
settling in the shallow lakes and lagoons.

Through this Stygian pool the hunted Indian doubled
and wound, or turned to strike pursuing soldier whose
toilsome march he had been watching for days, or he
disappeared into its mirage with his family, like ghosts,
without a trail and beyond all successful pursuit.

The story of this war has yet to be written. On the
one side were Generals Scott, Clinch, and Worth, names
that were dear to us, and millions of money, and loving
chroniclers of our gallant deeds. We hunted the In-
dians with troops, boats and dogs, and renegade spies
crueller than the hounds, and we entrapped their chiefs
at the council board, and broke up the organization of
their bands. On the other side was a people deriving
their weapons only from their foes, insufficiently provid-
ed and suffering every want. They resisted our attack
with patriotism and battled in swamp, and water,
and reedy fastness, for thrice as many years as we were
fighting the War of Independence, and no historian to
record their protests, their prayers, their councils, their
sufferings, or heroic deeds. We know that Molly Starks

316 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

were there at every battle, for their bodies lay on the
field when the fight was done. Bunker Hill was repre-
sented in every cypress gall. The cruel winter at Val-
ley Forge they underwent, though their torture was the
miasma and the heat. Their capitol was burned at Pa-
lacklickaha, and its fruitful fields were destroyed. The
old prison-ship lay moored for them in Tampa Bay, and
their highest chiefs were captives in its hold. They had
their Sumpters and Marions, in Chekika and Hospetarke
their Pulaski in Holartoochee, and their Washington in
Osceola ; and had their Arnolds been discovered, as ours,
they would be living still, an independent people.

If men are to be esteemed for high virtues in propor-
tion to the obstacles they had to overcome in attaining
them, and if the praise of comparative great deeds is due
mostly to those who have from lower life made them
eminent, the brave resistance of the savage in his
swamp is a higher deed of chivalry than the war of a
civilized people, with its wealth of reason and example,
and if it does not stand on historic page in brighter light,
it is because the page. is written by the civilized race
as defence and not as a veritable history.

One morning, as the sentinels around the fort were
relieved, a stranger came up to the relief, Was recog-
nized, and then sauntered into the camp. A huge, rough,
talkative fellow, a hunter by trade, and now following
the camp, like many others, half for the fun and half for
the gain ; one of that peculiar southwestern race, a sort
of cousin to Mike, not in blood, but in position. Mike*

HOW WE CONQUERED HALLECK TUSTENUGGEE. 317

was a little more gentle and observant, Potter a little
rougher and jollier, more rollicksome, hailing everybody,
singing wherever there was eating and drinking, and run-
ning every danger to be present at a fight. His leathern
suit, rifle, and knife, were the prominent features of his
dress, and a keen eye and huge mouth and limb, the first
points noticed in his person.

Mike knew him, and recognized him with a smile and
a question :
"Up?"
" No, down."
" S'Gustine ?'»

" Wall, you'd better b'lieve it."
" Seen Injins ?"

" Stacks of 'em — slinkin' about like coots on the St.
Johns. Squaws, too ; somethin's up — reckon they're
a-goin' to purr a little ; sent a letter to the old man.
Who's your old man here now ?" continued the hunter,
pulling out, as he talked, from his bullet-pouch at his belt
a little roll of birch-bark ; " took 'em an all-fired tune to
write it, and had a big pow-wow to read it when wrote.
Scissors! I saw some good looking Injin gals at that
camp. Came as near being tuck that time as ever I did ;
felt my hayar jist fallin' off; thought I was wolf's meat
that run. Yer see I'd been dodgin' tracks all day, so's
to git to this clearin', and night cum on. I sez to myself,
Go it, boots ! and made a bee line. Fust thing I knowed
I had walked right into an Injin camp. No fire — fire'd
gone out — cuss the fire ! Pitched slam-bang over a red-

318 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

skin asleep, and in a minnit there was forty atop me.
' Hold up !' sez I ; ' I'm Injin, don't you know me ? I'm
come with a letter from the great white chief,' and I
held up an old bit of paper that Jake had given me
at S'Gustine, with the writin' on about bringing some
stores. They swallered the bait, and I sot there half an
hour readin' off in Injun the cussedest lot of nonsense
you ever heard tell on. Then they wrote this answer,
and I started fur here ? Didn't I make dirt fly for the
first ten miles betwixt me and them !"

Having rattled off his account of the adventure, that
left no more mai'k on his danger-loving mind than an
every day encounter would have done, he tossed his rifle
in the hollow of his arm, and lounged over to the cabin
occupied by Colonel Worth.

The missive he delivered was on clear white birch-
bark, and pictured a broken hatchet, and a half-circle of
Indians sitting around a council fire. Being translated,
it read : " We have broken our weapons of war, and are
now consulting about peace ; only half our chiefs are
here — we are waiting for them at the council."

This message was on a par with many others that were
constantly passing between the Indians and white leaders,
always on the part of the Indian procrastinating and
guarded.

From Potter we learned many items of news from, the
east coast, but none that served to interest us so much
as the information of Lou Jackson. It seemed that a
month before Lou Jackson had been in St. Augustine,

HOW WE CONQUERED HALLECK TUSTEXUGGEE. 319

and had embarked in a revenue cutter to go down the
coast with a relative who had been appointed light-
keeper somewhere in the neighborhood of Key Bis-
cayne.

It seemed strange that after the danger experienced
at the plantation she would so soon go off to an equally
exposed and lonely life. Could she not find a better
position than that of a light-keeper's assistant ? Or did
the lonely life it promised agree with her disposition and
her feelings of sadness?

Mike expressed his feelings, looking southward as if he
could see the lighthouse, by the words " Waall, waall !"

However there was no explanation to be had, and
after talking it over, we turned to the frolic of the camp
and the Indian negotiations, which seemed rapidly
approaching a definite result.

A few days more at the lakes, and we found ourselves
at Fort King, having accompanied Col. "Worth with a
detachment of troops by the way of "Warm Springs,
where there was a collection of Indian chiefs who had
come in for a conference.

This was one of the occasions of periodical truce, so
common in this war. Each party was glad of cessation
— the soldier to be relieved from marching and incessant
watchfulness, and the Indian to gain time to recruit and
purchase a stock of ammunition. At such times the pre-
cincts of a fort was the scene of a pageant. The chiefs
came in under the white flag, without their arms, bring-
ing their wives and children, and pitching their camps

320 WILD SPOBTS IN THE SOUTH.

right under the guns of the fort, and the sutlers traded
with them as with the soldiers. These chiefs retained
all their stoic dignity of manner and gaudiness of dress.
Regarding themselves as in a measure in council, they
dressed with care, and studied to impose on the respect
of the whites or each other. Some of them were men
of much influence and honor among their own people,
nearly all of them were objects of great curiosity to the
troops who had been so many months in their pursuit,
and who connected their names with some bloody massa-
cre, or hard-fought battle.

The leader of the present band was our old friend Hal-
leek Tustenuggee, who had left the marks of his black fin-
gers at Far Away, on our last visit there. He was standing
at the gateway as we came in, the war paint washed from
his face, and his heavy black hair drawn back from his
head, and plaited down behind with the feathers of the
roseate spoonbill ; a heavy blue blanket hung from one
shoulder, in which was wrapped one arm, and the other
hung freely at his side. His bearing was noble as words
could describe, and if there had.not been in his eye the
glittering cruelty of his race, something akin to the fas-
cination in the tiger's eye, that stops you as you pass his
cage, he would have stood with credit for a Roman gen-
eral. His wife and children were with him, and two sub-
ordinate chiefs with their wives. The main body of his
band, twenty-five in number, were a few miles distant,
near the camp at Warm Springs, participating with all
the abandon of the native character in games of ball and

HOW WE CONQUERED HALLECK TU8TENUGGEE. 321

quoits, wrestling and dancing. Nothing was omitted on
the part of the officers to make the truce pleasant. Pro-
visions and whisky were distributed and presents made,
and, to crown all, a great feast was prepared, to which
all the warriors were invited. When at the table, the
commanding officer announced to them that they were
prisoners; the soldiers, already instructed, sprung to
their arms, and the band that no force could conquer
were bound prisoners for life.

A messenger was sent to convey the tidings of the
capture to Colonel- Worth, who was entertaining Tus-
tenuggee at Fort King. The rider came fast through
swamp and woods, for his life would be little worth
should the day's proceeding be known to Tustenuggee,
or any outlying Indian, before he reached a secure shel-
ter. He approached the fort at a moment when the
commander was sounding his Indian guest upon the ever-
recurring subject of their emigration. The officers were
seated in front of their quarters, the Indian chiefs stood
before, and the idlers of the camp were gathered around
listening to "the talk."

"A horseman is coming from the south," called out
the Doctor, relieving his pockets of one hand to shade
his eyes.

" Come as ef he wras sent," remarked Mike.

The sentry challenged, and the rider came in with his
answer through the open gateway in the palisades and
up to the doorway where Colonel Worth was sitting,
and delivered his missive. Tustenuggee stood before

H*

322 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

him in his Roman attitude until the dispatch was read,
and watched the while the countenance of the colonel,
but the hard-bearded face gave no sign.

The rider dismounted and stripped his saddle. A
brief order was given by the colonel to the orderly who
stood behind him, and the Indian chief resumed his talk.

" My heart and the hearts of my chiefs are white, not
from fear, but in love. You sent me the flag of the five
fingers (white flag, with white and red hands clasped).
I know you want friendship. I trust you. Tustenuggee
is here. Listen, white man ; what he says is true — listen,
Great Spirit ; what he says is true. His answers are the
answers of his people. He is chief of the chiefs."

The Colonel — " The chief has spoken like a brave man,
and his words in council are like his deeds in battle. "We
all honor him, for he will listen to reason. He has lost
many men in the wars, and the rest are weary. But the
white soldiers still come, and will come on forever. The
white man has many soldiers, and many weapons, and
much ammunition. It is not good for the red man to
fight against him, for he will waste away, no matter how
brave. The white man has offered his red brothers lands
in Arkansas many times. Some have gone there — Tus-
tenuggee has refused. The white man now offers for the
last time, and he wants to know if Tustenuggee will
move at once with all his people."

Said the chief: " Hundreds of winters ago the Great
Spirit gave to his red children this land, its woods and
its waters."

HOW WE CONQTJEBED HALLECK TUSTENUGGEE. 323

He enunciated emphatically and pointed slowly to the
sky above him, and waved his draped arm around with
a majesty peculiar to the oratory of his race.

Old Primus, a snowy-haired Indian, translated into
English as he spoke, and a secretary at the table wrote
down the conversation.

" Where was our white brother then ? Where then
was that shadow ?" pointing to the shadow of the flag on
the officer's quarters, as it fluttered back and forth on the
greensward. " Forty years ago, God made Tustenuggee.
Then our white brothers lived to the north. Did the
Mickasukies war against our white brother, and ask him
to emigrate to Arkansas? The Mickasukies were big
then, and the white man very little. The white man was
so little that he could not do his own work, but had
black man to help him.

" Tustenuggee has always lived here. Tustenuggee's
people have always lived here. They have loved the
soil ; they have dropped their seed here, and their seed
has taken root. The roots hav(* gone down far into the
earth. The white man is a great wind. He comes from
where we can't see. He blows against the red tree. If
he blows hard enough the red tree will break down, and
his seed be scattered, but the red tree has grown too
long to take root elsewhere. My people are like deer —
they have been hunted, and are shy. They start when
they hear a twig break. They hide when it is day. The
white man has hunted them for many winters. He has
burned their cabins, he has rooted up their cornfields.

324: WILD SPORTS IX THE SOUTH.

They are sick at heart. The women can find no covert
to bring forth their young. The men dare not light a
council-fire, or come together to talk. The chiefs
cannot know the minds of the people, for they are
scattered. Let there be peace. The red man will
keep it. He who breaks peace will be punished.
The red man will hide his hatchet, and take his hoc.
The white soldier may go home. Then, when the
tribe comes in from the hummocks, we will talk of
moving. Runners will go to Sam Jones, to Octiarche,
and to Tiger Tail. Our hearts will be open — the sun
will shine on them — the smoke of powder shuts out the
sun now. When that is gone we can see clear. Tus-
tenuggee will not promise what he cannot perform;
Tustenuggee is too great a chief to lie. His tongue is
straight. "When peace comes he will see clear. Then
he will read the white chief what is written in the hearts
of his people about moving. Tustenuggee has spoken."

The Indian stepped back, and wrapped his blanket
around him.

The colouol arose, and said : " Halleck Tustenuggee,
I read your thoughts. You have wanted a truce to buy
ammunition and provisions. You would then do as you
have done before — take to the swamps and renew the war.
This stratagem is now to be ended. At Warm Springs,
to-day, all your warriors have been taken prisoners, with
their wives and children, and will be sent forthwith to
Arkansas. You and your chief are also prisoners, and
will accompany them."

HOW WE CONQUERED HALLECK TDSTENUGGEE. 325

Tustenuggee looked around him with a quick gesture.
The gate in the palisade fence was drawn, and the
soldiers were under arms. His eye flashed, his breast
heaved, and, as his young chiefs made a desperate, but
unavailing attempt to escape by scaling the palisades, he
quietly drew his blanket over his head and sat on the
ground. »

No word was said by the bystanders. The intense
interest of the scene chained 6very tongue. The sentinel
stopped on his round. The soldiers gathered from their
avocations. The orders given by the colonel for the
security of his prisoners was delivered in a low tone, and
as they moved away to the guard-house our hearts
seemed to beat again as if after the spectacle of some
great tragedy.

Thus ended the career of this great chief. The woods
knew him no more. His race lost his fiery valor, his
vindictive vengeance, his far-sighted policy, and the in-
fluence of his name. He was one of the haughtiest and
most uncompromising foes the white man ever had, and
was only taken by the same means that Osceola had been
before him.

That night, while most of the camp had retired, or
were quietly sitting by the fires that lighted the in-
closure, a savage scene was enacted in the guard-room
where the prisoners were confined under a guard of
soldiers. A large fire was lighted and the captives sat
around it, among them several of the Indians taken at
the other camp, that had been forwarded for security.

326 "WILD SPOKTS IN THE SOUTH.

It appears they had been canvassing the means by which
they had been made captive, and one of them had inti-
mated that it could only have been effected by the
treachery of their chief.

The words were no sooner out of his mouth than Tus-
tenuggee was on his feet. Bounding over the fire, he
struck the bold speaker in the breast with both feet,
then seized him by the throat, and as those in the yard,
attracted by the tumult, reached the window of the
building, they saw him almost strangled in the tiger-like
clutch of the raving chief. Before help could be rendered
him, Tustenuggee had seized the ear of his antagonist
between his teeth and bitten it off, then throwing aside
his prey, he ground the ear between his teeth, and spat
the clotted flesh in the faces of the guard, then, raising
his sinewy form to its grandest height, and waving his
arm, he gave the Indian whoop, and called out with a
wild voice twice, "Halleck Tustenuggee! Halleck Tus-
tenuggee !" and fell back to his seat, trembling with ex-
citement and the rush of his passions.

The strange accessories of form and color, the armed
guard, and red fire-light, the savage act of the barbarian,
impressed the scene on our minds as the act of a demon.
It held us enchained, and we looked on the actor as a
caged lion.

On the morrow he and his chiefs were on their way to
Tampa Bay, to be sent by ship to New Orleans.

THE " PAINTER " IN THE PIG PEN. 327

CHAPTER XXII.

THE "PAINTER" IN THE PIG PEN.

u I was with Hercules and Cadmus, once,
When in a wood of Crete, they bay'd the bear
With hounds of Sparta ; never did I hear

Such gallant chiding."

MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM.

THE days were getting rapidly warmer in the interior,
cut off as we were a large portion of the time by the
close woods from the free winds. The ducks had gone
to the northward long since, and with them the snipe and
many song birds. To take their place, the flowers were
opening to the spring on every side.

Hunters are rarely botanists. None of their wants are
aided by its knowledge, with the exception of the know-
ledge of the points of the compass, told by the moss, or an
acquaintance with the texture of different woods, or the
medicinal properties of a few plants. They are equally
unused to the description of flowering plants. The
pointed cutting of a deer's hoof on a cactus leaf to them
is a greater study than the most radiant flower that ever
fringed its pulpous leaf. They cannot give technical
descriptions, and but few natural ones. They may not
call the stars by their names, or classify the active life

328 WILD SPOKTS IN THE SOUTH.

that peoples every nmddy pool, or makes a decayed tree
a miniature world.

Yet, for all this, there is no race on whom the sweet
influences of the Pleiades fall who are more open to their
soothing — none to whose eyes the radiations of the flower
afford a keener pleasure — none to whom the fragrance
of the wToods opens a more vivid association, or who are
more observantly drinking in, night and day, those ^Esop
lessons that man puts into a fable, but that God talks with
in letters of life. The constant silent observation of what
is around him makes his recognition quicker ; his natural
active life makes his senses keener, and the soft, damp,
fragrant wind that touches his cheek in passing, may tell
him of a change of weather, of the wet swamp that he is
skirting, and may even whisper the kinds of trees and
plants there growing, and whether in bloom or no ; the
plants will tell the soil, and he may know the very ani-
mal life that lives in the woods before him, by what on
another cheek would be a passing wind, and nothing
more.

Even the roughest hunters at the Fort could show
this observant taste. Mike had it to a great extent.
Potter had it, though burlesqued by the wild, random
manner of an impulsive boy. We would often get them
talking in order to lead them out. Evening was the
ordinary occasion of many tales and practical jokes. The
men would gather around the huge fires, sitting and
lying in every attitude. Negro interpreters, Indians and
soldiers, the volunteer hunters, that gamed their living

THE "PAINTEK" IN THE PIG PEN. 329

by supplying the garrison with game, and the officers, hi
uniforms that the swamps had left no longer uniform or
neat. Names well known in the Florida wars were called
and answered to. There were Primus and Gopher John,
the Indian scouts, and Holatter Mico, the royal chief,
and Vose and Wilcoxson, officers, and Mike, Potter, and
a score of others whose local fame then ran as high as
Marechals of France, though in a narrower sphere and
for a shorter term.

There were drinks of government whisky, and smokes
from pipes shorter and blacker than a Killarney man
could fix in his hat-band, and Irish jokes, and yarns of
monstrous length, that were roughly criticised or excelled
by some other more incredulous still.

Potter gave us one. Seated astride of an empty bar-
rel, with his rifle across his knees, his buckskin cap
pushed back on his head, his blue flannel shirt-coUar
rolled back, exposing a breast as broad and shaggy as a
bear's, he told us the following story with gesticulations
and amid peals of laughter :

" "Wall, you see how it was, Squire, is this."

The speaker took a long pull at his pipe, gave a hitch
to his suspenders, and then, ejecting the dense smoke in
volumes through his nostrils, commenced his narration.

" I was living that year on the coast, purty nigh St.
Augustine. It was late in the year and the night was on-
common dark — wall, it was — and the wind roared ugly.
Yer could hear the trees smashin' up in the woods every
five minits when it buckled to a little extry, and when

330 WILD SPOKT8 IN THE SOUTH.

yer put yer head out o' the door, as I did once in a hit to
see, you couldn't have seen Talyhasse Capitol House ef
you had rubbed your nose agin it. The big breakers
were poundin' on the bar, and yer could see 'em one by
one whare they struck, for the phosper lit 'em up like
blue paint. We had a screechin' fire in the chimney,
and it was right good to look at. The old woman was
a-mending clothes in the corner, and I thought it war a
cussed sight better bein' a home body and turnin' in by
the side of one's own wife than a-roosting all night in the
open range, as I had bein' a-doin' for a month back.

" Parson Smith war thar, too ; he had dropped in goin'
up to Pelatky on a revival trip, and seein' the blow
comin' on staid all night, and he was talkin' religion to
Marthy by the fire, drying himself and convartin' a soul
both ter once. Parson Smith was a likely man and a
rael talker. They called him Doctor, and he wrote his
name Rev. Eliakim Smith, M.D. M.D. stood for Medi-
cine Doctor, though that war some thin' of a lie, for he
war a horse-doctor before he took to religion, and he had
a kind of oily way of rubbin' his hands down his legs as
he sat by the fire and talked away that would take the
spavin right out of a woman, and convart her in two-
forty.

" Wall, there he sat a-rubbin away and watchin' the
taters roastin' in the ashes and the bacon frying in the
pan, and talkin' of Election and Delilah, and them other
holy women folks in the Bible, till I begun to feel holy
myself, and thought I was in the land o' Canaan, when I

THE " PAINTEK " IN THE PIG PEN. 331

fancied I heerd a painter screech. I was wide awake in
a minnit. 'Holy Moses!' sez I. The Doctor hadn't
heerd the painter, so he thought I was getting grace,
and he right away buckled into me with all sorts of Bible
sayin's, and my wife jined in, but I jist riz up and went
to the cabin wall, where there was a little winder that I
had cut to look out toward the woods. I pulled out the
shutter and put my head through, but yer might as well
have looked into the Kentucky cave, it was so dark.
The wind come in, too, so strong and chill-like, that it
made the Doctor and my old woman draw up a little
closer together. I listened a while to see if I could make
out any signs of the critter, but it war no use. What
between the surf a hammerin' on the bar, and the
branches crackin' in the woods, and the squalling of the
gulls that had blowed in from the sea, you couldn't a
heerd a neighbor asking you to take a drink, and I reckon
that is what a man hears quickest. Once in a while one
of the big water-oaks would topple over in the woods. I
knowed it had blowed over, for it made such a smashin'
of little branches when a hull tree come over, and then a
short tug or two as the roots broke. Then agin yer
could hear one of them tall pines on the ridge break.
There was no give there ; it would break short off with
a crack like four or five rifles. I would have bet I could
have told the very trees that snapped, I knew 'em all so
well. Then agin the wind would die away, and you
didn't hear nothin' but the rain.

" * Jist the night fur them varmints,' says I, drawin*

332 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

my head in again ; ' they allers come down in a storm,
kind of unsuspectin' like ; that's their natur.'

" ' Yes, nothin' so decaitful as the 'Piscopalians,' says
the Doctor.

" I knowed what he was after ; the Doctor went tooth
and nail aginst the 'Piscopalians, and so did the 'Pisco-
palians 'ginst him. That's the natur' of religious people.

" ' No,' sez I, c it was the painters.'

" 'Painters! where? — have you seen a painter?'

" ' No, but I heerd one just now.1

" ' You don't mean it,' sez he, and he went right over
to his saddle-bags that was lyin' on the bed, and tuck out
two of the longest kind of Spanish pistols, and primed
'em up, sayin' all the while somethin' about how with the
jawbone of an ass he had slam a thousand men.

" I didn't believe the critter, for he was given to blow-
in' ; but Marthy she jist swallowed it all like batter cakes.

" I seen old Boz, who was asleep by the fire a whim-
perin' away — you know how dogs take on when they're
dreamin' — raise his head quick like and make a straight
pint for the t'other eend of the cabin, whare the logs was
a little open like. He stood there for about a minnit
and then came back and laid down agin. I knew some-
thm' was up, and that screech I heerd Avar true music.
The old woman seed the dog, and she broke in with —

" ' Yes, that's so ; when I, my old man, and the dog,
both smell painter, I knows there is painter. Two dogs
don't both make a false pint to once.'

" At this Doctor Smith he walks to the door and

THE "PAINTER" IN THE PIG PEN. 333

unlatches it ; the wind blew it wide open. I saw a pair
of long white horns outside, and that minnit the Doctor
gave jist one of the biggest yells yer ever heerd a wild
Injin make ; one of his pistols went off; I don't know ef
he fired it off, or it went off of itself, and the preacher
went over backwards as my yoke of young steers came a
rushin' right in the cabin. Lord ! yer could a heerd me
larf a mile.

"The critters was a frightened in the storm, and
maybe had smelt the painter, and were mighty glad to
get in the house where the light was ; but they weren't
half as frightened as the Doctor was. He hadn't any
more pluck hi him than an old hen on a rainy day ; he
was right wilted down, though he tried to show how the
bullock had hit his arm and that had fired the pistol.

" We got the critters out agin presently, though they
didn't want to go and I sot a thinkin' about it, and won-
derin' how it was they were so onusual skeery, and the old
woman had fixed the Doctor somethin' warm, and I hadn't
heern any more of the painter for an hour or more,
when all of a sudden, queek, quee-ee-ee-ak, we heerd the
old sow go, and a thumpin' noise, and the cattle bellowed
and run around the house.

" Thar, I knowed it," says I as I grabbed my rifle,
upsettin' the teapot, * cuss the painter, he's got the old
sow.'

" Lord, you should ha seen that cabin empty itself.
Boz and the other dogs first, and then the Doctor and
his pistols, and then the old woman, though she was the

334 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

smartest man of the lot, fur she brought out a big
pitch pine knot all afire, to see what we were goin'
after.

" I put right for the pig pen ; that was about eight
rods off from the house, and where the pigs were a squee-
lin' bloody murder all the time. That's what bothered
me. I knew if the painter had got a pig he must have
killed it right off, and then he would up and away with
the carcass. That's the natur' of the varmint. Could it
be an old she painter a havin' one of her cubs out exer-
cising him, and the cub couldn't lug off his share of the
game ?

" We got up to the pen. It was a log cabin about
twelve feet square, built of heavy logs, jist to stop such
doin's as this. ' The dogs had their noses to the cracks
baying away like all fired, and the pigs were a snortin'
and squealing inside ; but the strangest thing was, that
the door was tight fast, the chain across it, and the big
oak pin drove in as tight as ever.

" ' Whar is the painter ?' says the Doctor, as he came
sidelin' up, lookin' behind every stump.

" ' That's jist what I want to know,' says I, as I cum
around the buildin' to looK for his hole, but without
findin' it. The pigs were a squealin' away as if they
would split their throats, and the dogs were a dancin'
and a howlin. The old woman was a sayin' somethin',
but you couldn't hear what it was, for the wind blew as
bad as ever ; it only wanted that cussed painter's screech
to make it all complete ; and jist then, as I am a livin'

THE "PAINTER" IN THE PIG PEN. 335

sinner, the varmint gave his screech, and it was inside
the pen.

" I say, Squire, it would ha done yer good to have
heard that screech, and ha seen that scrimmage. I've
hearn the varmints screech many a time when they and
I have been in the woods all alone, but then it was kind
a soft like, as if' he was a doin' it for his amusement when
he was lonely ; he puts it then in the best metre, of
course, and it isn't disagreeable, unless he might be too
close to you. But here he didn't smooth it down, his
dander was evidently riz, and he yelled out as if he was
filing a ninety horse power saw with the Rocky Moun-
tains, and wound up with a spit that jist took the hair
off a steam whistle. The young pups drew back a little
and howled, and the old dogs went nearly mad because
they couldn't get through the cracks between the logs.

" The Doctor was for settin' fire to the cabin and
burning him up. The old woman was fur cuttin' a hole
in the door and shootin' him. That was kind of onfair
to the varmint, I thought. Sez I, ' I'll show you a pret-
tier trick than that ; I'll jist open the door, and then,
Maithy, if you hold the light steady, I'll take him with
a poke in the ribs that will stop his stealin' my pigs.
There is no miss fire to my gun, and that won't be impo-
ein' on a varmint that's down.' I put my hand to the
peg that held the chain, when the Doctor, taking the
ends of the logs that stuck out at the comer of the cabin
for a stairs, jist put himself on the top of the pen in
a shake of a deer's tail. I smiled softly to myself,

336 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

but I didn't say nothin', for thinks I to myself, if the var-
mint does come out here, and I do miss him, or only
wound him, the dogs will be on him like a shot and then
he'll go to tree right on top of the cabin, that's sure.

" So I tugged at the peg, and every time the chain
rattled, the Doctor edged back on the top of the cabin,
gettin' np to the ridge, I s'pose, for a sure seat, when all
of a sudden he disappeared. Heavens and yearth ! he
had come backwards onto the hole the painter had dug
in the roof, and had tumbled in.

" Yer should have heerd that man scream ! The
painter wasn't nothin' to it. Painter might have been
some louder, but then it wasn't so skeery. It fairly made
me shaky to hear him. As he come down to the ground
inside, there was such a bustling around in that little
building ! pigs and painter and man, all seemed to be
stirring about pretty lively, and to all the other noises
the old woman set up a screechin' that made me more
shaky than anything else.

" ' Quick !' she hollered, ' pull open the door — quick !
Oh,Eliakim! oh dear!'

" I pulled as hard as I could, but the cussed peg had
swelled with the rain, and yer couldn't budge it, and'the
chain was the ox-chain, as went all across the door.

" ' Tear it down, you old pirate !" says the old woman
to me, and she took hold of it with both hands, but she
might as well have tried to pull down the cabin. And
all the time, between the bowlings of the dogs and the
squeelings of the pigs I could hear the Doctor a praying

THE "PAINTER" IN THE PIG PEN. 337

away one minit as loud as he could bawl, and at another
minit callin' to me to come and help him.

" ' Run,' sez I to the old woman, ' run to the house for
the axe.'

" Away she started, leaving the torch with me, and
she run like a wild Injun. I kneeled down so as to get
on a level with them, and puttin' the pine knot so it
would shine through, I peeped in at the varmint. Lord !
he was a beauty. Crouched up in the fur corner of the
cabin, he stood with one foot on the wall, ready for a
jump. His glossy bay coat shone like a horse. His eyes
looked like two blue lights out on Florida Keys, and his
open mouth all the time dropped water down on his
whitish chest and on his feet. Once in a while he'd take
a look up at the hole in the roof and lay down his ears,
as if to jump at it, but it was a leetle too high for him,
and he couldn't get room enough to make the leap. Oh,
he was a purty critter. His feelers were as long as a ram-
rod, and when he looked up at the roof they lay so far back
that they reached the wrinkle that crossed his shoulders,
the only wrinkle on his body. I wanted to take a shy
at him, but it warn't no use, the cracks were so nar-
now I couldn't begin to sight over my rifle, and knowed
if I wounded the beast it would be all day with the Doc-
tor. ' Oh,' thinks I to myself, * ef I could get my pigs
and the Doctor out, I'd manage some way so as to take
him alive, and make a spec out of a real live painter.
'Twould be the first ever seed in Ameriky, I reckon.'

" Just then the Doctor broke out afresh, half a screech
15

333 WILD sroKTS m THE SOUTH.

in', half a prnyin' ; he seemed to be kind o' confessin' to
the painter, for he was goin' over what a sinner he had
been, and talking about Daniel in the lion's den, and the
sword of the Lord, and somethin' about Gideon, and
Samson and the young lion, and yer never dM hear a
critter get out so much that was pious in so short a time.
I think if I wanted to convart a sinner I'd shut him up
with a painter, I would.

" Just as he was sayin' somethin' about reposin' on the
protectin' arm, the painter gave a jump for the hole in
the roof.

" Jehoshaphat ! what a jump! he got his fore claws
on to the shingles, but the shingles give Avay and down
he cum with a spiteful screech. With that the pigs
rushed around in double quick time, and Eliakim, for-
getting his praying, hollered for me and Marthy to come
and help him. He was like the old woman who said she
trusted in Providence, when her horse run away with her,
till the britchen broke, and then she guv up.

" Poor fellow, I felt for him ; every time the painter
moved, he and the pigs moved too, and they were
hazed around that pig-pen in double quick time, for the
painter is a restless brute, and can't abide standin'
Btill.

" Soon the old woman came back with the axe, and I
commenced cuttin' the peg that held the chain. This
riled the painter, and he commenced runnin' round live-
lier than ever, and away went the pigs, gruntin' and
Bqueakin', and away went the Doctor, runnin' and

THE " PAINTEE " IN THE PIG PEN. . 339

j urn pin' over the dead sow the painter had killed, prayin'
away and callin' to me by turns. " Oh, Potter ! quick —
be merciful to me — a — a — painter's comin' — as you
hope — -to — be — saved — blasted sow — oh, ough — salva-
tion !»

" A stroke or two of the axe cut off the plug. ' Stand
aside Marthy,' sez I, as I pulled down the chain and
threw open^he door. I had my rifle to my shoulder.
The first thing that cum out was the Doctor ; it nearly
cost him his life, for I was just a pullin' on him when he
said somethin' and saved himself; then came the painter
quicker than greased lightning ; as he struck the ground
outside after his first jump, I pulled on him. The ball
struck him just in the shoulder, breaking one leg; he
fell, but was on his feet again quicker than thought, and
every one of the sixteen dogs, pups and all, on top of
him.

"Phew! what a tussel! 'Go it pups!' sez Marthy,
holdin' up her light. ' Go it ;yaller backs.' That old
woman was clare grit — well, she was. Gone now, poor
soul !" and the frontiersman wiped his eye with the sleeve
of his hunting-shirt — " killed herself learnin' to read.

" The painter fetched himself up on his hind legs, like
a bar, hissin' all the while. One leg hung down — that
was the broken one — the t'other one ho fetched around
among the dogs, and knocked 'em over like nine-pins.
Old Boz took some of it, and it keeled him up straight,
and then Tinker, and Sumter. I seen 'em getting cut
awful, and so I walked into the muss with the axe. One

340 WILD SPOUTS IN THE SOUTH.

cut did the business. It took him just over the ear and
druv into the brain, and thar's his skin, now aint it a
beauty ?

" Wall, the Doctor was in the house when we cum in
with the painter, and he 'was still holden on to his pistol.
He was just used up, and all my larfin at him, and all
Marthy's Schiedam Schnapps didn't cure him. He took
the fever and ague, and couldn't leave the house for a
week, and when he went he war so weak in the back
that he could hardly sit on his horse.

" He stopped there purty often again that winter, goin'
and a comin', but ef we ever heard anything out doors
nights he would ahvays coax me to go off and see what
it was, but he never left the house, and was purty sure
to lock the door when I was gone, to keep the varmints
from comin' in. That's the natur' of a doctor."

POKE DECEIVES A CUE'OSITY AND TELLS A YARN.

CHAPTER XXin.

POKE RECEIVES A CUR'OSITY AND TELLS A YAKN".

" Oblivion here thy wisdom is,

Thy thrift the sleep of cares ;
For a proud idleness like this
Crowns all life's mean affairs."

EMERSON.

THE Indian prisoners had gone with most of the gar-
rison to Tampa Bay ; the fort looked desolate in contrast
with its previous crowd and excitement, and we were
anxious to start for the east coast.

Our party had made preparations to descend the
Ochlawaha to Lake George, and thence down the St.
Johns, and Mike had employed his leisure, and our negro
boys, Scip and Caesar, in building two dug-out canoes.
In these our " plunder " was carefully stowed, and with a
store of salt provisions from the fort, one pleasant day
we embarked and swept away down the current.

There is something of unusual novelty in descending a
Florida river. An aspect of dreariness that only long
habit overcomes, quiets the tongue and awes the heart.
The black turbid river boils in circular eddies, or spreads
in motionless lagoons, far into the neighboring woods.
The stiff cypress trees stand naked with their feet in the

312 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

water as though relying for foliage upon the grey Spanish
moss that hangs from everything in tresses and curtains
of wondrous length, sometimes reaching from the upper
limbs into the water, and marking the directionof the cur-
rent. Where the lagoons opened into the river there was
constant doubt as to the course of the channel, for the
lagoon might be broader than the true course, or the
latter totally shrouded from sight by the draping moss or
jammed trees. Sometimes the leading boat would wait
for its fellow, calling to it a few feet off to come through
some curtain of vegetation, where it had jusjt found a
passage. There was no animal life here save reptiles,
and little vegetable beauty. It was a stagnant waste,
overhung by the dead growth of ancient times.

Then, too, there was a watchfulness against Indian
contact that made our passage seem more like a flight
than a hunt, and when some alligator rushed from the
bank to the water, the noise would startle us and bring
back the scene when Jackson died on just such a passage
down the Ouithlacouchee. Two, or three days brought
us into pleasanter life, and our eyes were greeted with
the open water of Lake George and the varied vegetation
of its low -lying shores.

It was curious to watch Mike make his entry on the
lake. As AVC approached, our boats came nearer and
paddled slower. We hugged the shore closely, and
when the first faint roll of the waves of the lake came
into the river, he motioned us to stay, and glided down
among the rushes in his own canoe, watching the broad

POKE EECEIVE8 A CUB'OSITY AND TELLS A YAEX. 343

open \vater with a keen, careful eye. "We slowly came
up and followed him as, parting the reeds, he wound
along the shore some quarter of a mile, till where the
grass began to grow thin. Then beaching the canoes
where they could not be seen from the lake, we unpacked
our provisions, and, seated where we could overlook all
the water, and yet not be seen, ate our dinner and took
our noonday nap.

The propriety of Mike's caution in a little while
became apparent. A canoe came out from one of the
outlets of the lake a mile down, and crossed over to the
side where we were sitting. In it was a single Indian.
This was followed at a short distance by another with
three women, and both boats disappeared in a cove.
Had we been on the lake we should have been seen, or
had we continued our course we must have met them.

" What's that mean, Mike ?"

" Injins."

" Yes ; but what are they doing ? Is there a tribe of
them here, and are they on a war party, or what ?"

"No; it's a band ; they've got their squaws with 'em.
They're travelliu', fur they paddle, leastwise the squaws
do, as ef they were tired. And there's more on 'em
Bomewhars, for there's too many squaws there fur that
one red-skin. Keep quiet and they'll show their hand."

Before night three other canoes passed the lake in the
same direction, and turned round the projecting point
where the first appeared.

The evening came on apace. The sun set — a globe of

344 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

fire. The pencillings of red on the lakes shortened ; and
then disappeared. The birds that had fished all day in
the shallows settled in the trees to roost. The earth
wrapped itself in darkness as a mantle, and left to dews
the freshened air.

" Wall," said Mike, after a big yawn, " let's do some-
thin'."

" Yes, and that something must be to get out of this
place as soon as possible," quoth the Doctor.

" No !" replied Mike, with a comical accent.

" It's very well for you, Mike, who have a gift for
Indians, to hang about them, but I don't think I care to
have my ears bitten off, like Tustenuggee's aid-de-
camp.'-'

" We're ah1 right so long as wre squat here, and make
no fire, or any trails, but when we come to go away we
may meet more Injins in the river."

"But the faster we go, the less likelihood of meet-
ing." ,

" Wall, we will go. Shut up, Yowler, you dod-rotted
dog !" to the hound, who was attempting one of his
houndish yelps. " But first I nmst see who them cree-
ters is, and ef you'll keep quiet here awhile, I'll go
look."

So, in spite of the general dissent, Mike took one of
the canoes and disappeared in the darkness, while the
negroes crept up close like monkeys, shivering with fear
of the darkness and danger, and we chatted in low tones
of the scene around us. There was a steam on the

POKE KECEIVES A Ctm'oSITY AND TELLS A TAEN. 345

water that looked like a gathering fog, and made it dark
close to its surface. The night was hushed, and the
heavy booming of the alligator bull came down the lake
like the muffled roar of a lion.

In an hour Mike returned, with his quiet salutation,
stepping ashore and tossing something in the Doctor's
lap, saying, " Thar's a cur'osity for your collection."

The Doctor picked it up, but it was too dark to tell
what it was. It looked like the boy's toy called a sucker,
made of a circular piece of leather, about three inches in
diameter, with a string fastened to it.

"What is it, Mike?"

" Somebody's heyar."

"A scalp?"

" Reckon."

" Where did that come from ? It is not a fresh one."

" Stole it from those beggars ; too lazy to watch their
own boats !"

" How many of them are there ?"

" Nine, and five squaws. I stole the only scalp they
had, and jist marked my cross on their canoe with my
knife, so they'll know 'twas me. It's that cussed old
Tiger Tail. Drat his red skin ! won't he swear some to-
morrow ! I reckon we'd better go. Marbee it wouldn't
be safe to be loafin' 'beout here when he finds his canoe
punched and his scalp stole."

No one obeyed this suggestion to depart with more
alacrity than the Doctor, who already felt Tiger Tail's
fingers clutching his own scalp-lock in revenge for the
15*

346 WILD 8POKT8 IN THE SOUTH.

lost one, and a few minutes found us on the lake pushing
fast and silently for the St. Johns.

The next morning we learned the cause of the move-
ment of Tiger Tail's band. The flight of several flocks of
water birds, and the chattering of the blue jays, gave us
•warning of the approach of some stranger, and, taking to
the bushes that fringed the banks, we watched for what
would appear. Soon we heard the measured stroke of
oars, and then several Indian and negro scouts in canoes
passed without observing us, and then swept along six
barge-loads of soldiers — a part of the Second Regiment
moving up the river on one of their forays, by which
they sought to disturb the security and products of their
foes. The American flag was flying at the bow of the
leading boat, and the merry laugh of the men, and the
loud joke and call passed from front to rear, showed
how inadequate they were to catching their fleeter foes.

" Hulloa !" said Mike, pushing out his canoe from the
reeds, " goin' a fishin' ?"

This sudden satirical salutation brought the boats to a
halt, and sent half the soldiers searching about for their
muskets.

" Where are you from, and where to ?" was the answer
of the officer.

" Oh, cross country, goin' a pleasurin'," responded Mike.

" Seen any Indian signs ?"

" No signs in partickalar ; stopped at Tiger Tail's camp
a piece back," replied Mike, gradually moving down the
river, and away from the boats.

POKE EECEIVES A CHR'OSITY AND TELLS A YARN. 34:7

"That's the hand we are after. How soon do you
think we will come up to them ?" The boats getting
further off all the time.

" Never !" responded Mike, paddling down stream at
full speed. "Ketch a fish-hawk jist as soon," he con-
tinued in an undertone.

The boats had resumed their course, when the offi-
cer, who seemed to know our hunter, hailed us once
more.

" Hulloa !"

" Hulloa !'» said Mike.

" Come and guide us, and you will be well paid."

" No ; you're too many of you, 'taint no use ;" and a
turn of the river carried us out of eight.

That night we camped early, perfectly secure from an-
noyance, for the passage of the troops up the river had,
we judged, driven away any lurking Indians. Indeed,
the only band in the St. Johns which we were approach-
ing had been Tiger Tail's, the rest being occupied with
the treaties and negotiations that had been in progress
on the west coast. So AVC kindled our fires and cooked
our meal, and laid down to talk and dream of old adven-
tures, or half-forgotten hopes.

Mike assured us that he had no tales to tell, mumbled
about Tiger Tail, and wondered where he was leading
his band, then ventured some remark about Lou Jack-
son, half to himself and half to his hound, and then fell
asleep. The Doctor being called on for a story, gave u?
an account of a fire-hunt in the woods of the

34:8 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

As nearly as I can remember, it was as follows. I can't
repeat the words, only the ideas. They were pleasant ;
he was a poetical fellow, that Doctor, when it grew late
in the evening.

Beyond Little Tapper's Lake, some three or four miles
further on in the wilderness, toward the Racquette, lies
Little Rock Pond, a mere dot of glass set in the emerald
woods that stretch for miles away in every direction, un-
broken by human thrift and unmarked by the fruits of
that primal curse that caused the thorns and the thistles
to be brought forth. Connecting these two sheets of
water is a narrow stream so insignificant that it joyfully
runs its way nameless and unknown. The hills stand
back on firmer bottom, and the little valley bordering
the river is filled with succulent grass, reeds, swamp
alders, and rose-trees that blossom and bud for- the wild
game alone. Here Stalknecht and I had a camp and
were spending a month together, keeping house in the
only decent manner there is of living in this free country,
where the servants are all a little better than their mas-
ters. (Poke was violently opposed to Irish servants. )

Hank, my guide, and I one night paddled our boat up
this stream to its source in Rock Pond, and when dark-
ness had come we lighted our jack-light, and, setting it
in the bow of the boat, he took his seat in the stern with
the paddle, and I mine in the bow with my double-bar-
relled rifle, and we commenced to descend the stream.
A jack-light is so arranged that it throws a bright light
in front of the canoe, while it leaves the boat in utter

POKE RECEIVES A CHE'oSITY AND TELLS A YARN. 349

darkness, and the hunter, thus sitting in obscurity, is en.
abled to see anything in range of his light with perfect
distinctness. So we began to descend the stream. Our
voices, subdued to a whisper, were presently hushed alto-
gether. Not a sound disturbed the perfect stillness; no
splash of the paddle in the dexterous hand of the guide ;
no noise of motion; we floated on the water as the moon
floats when " with white fire ladened " she sails out into
the still night. The weird trees, naked of leaves and
shirted in moss, flashed out in light, and then fell back
in darkness, save when their tops marked the sky beyond.
Bush and flower, reeds pendent with their heavy seed,
and lancifoliate lilies, with their deep blue plumes, lateral
lagoons, gemmed with water-plants and bordered with
their larches, came out into the light, dropped into the
darkness, and were succeeded by others in clumps and
clusters, and festooned by blackberry vines. Ghostly-
looking sights, stumps that had supernatural shapes, and
tombstone trunks, blanched white by rain, marked the
banks.

Kee-honk ! kee-honk ! screams a blue heron in harsh,
aspirated afecents, as he springs into the air, fanning the
night with his great wings in measured beats that can
be heard long after he is beyond sight. The muskrats
come out in the circle of light before the boat, in won-
derment at the pale fire that awakens them, and dive
beneath the waters when the boat is on them. The boat
swings around in the turning of the stream, and I see the
erect head and large cars of a deer. It is a doe, foi

350 WILD SPOKTS m THE SOUTH.

there are no horns. A moment of pause to be sure that
I am right, and the ringing shot awakens a hundred
echoes, and clouds the air with smoke.

" Why, ye'nt seen no deer, did yer ?" asked Hank.

"Yes, a doe."

A dip of the paddle sends the boat to the shore, and
then discloses to my mortified gaze, the charred limb
of a tree, standing up in the grass, the veriest spectre of
a deer.

"Well, your doe is dished now — ha ! ha!" laughs Hank.

I load my rifle rather humbly. " Ready — push on !"

" Don't you want to see if you hit it ?"

" No ; push on, will you."

The boat glided forward again, mile after mile, in tho
same spectral journey, as fast and as still as the dead do
ride in the ballad of Leonora. My mind floats along with
the water-bugs that run ahead of me and the shadows.
I see the stars floating in the water, and those overhead
likewise, and many more stars than ever shone in these
latitudes. In fact, I got asleep. I don't think I had
slept long when I was awakened by a shrill noise, resem-
bling the letting off of steam from a small steam-engine
when the valve is suddenly opened and as suddenly closed
again. I have heard such noises ju a country church
before the commencement of exercises, when some ple-
thoric deacon blowed his brazen nose, only, if anything,
the night-lmgle was a little more emphatic, and several
times repeated in quick succession. -" What's that ?" I
whispered.

POKE EECEIVES A CUll'oSITY AND TELLS A YARN. 351

" Deer," responded Hank, in a whisper, swinging
ivound the canoe so that, .as the light moved, against the
tvoods, the. motion of the boat brought forth two or
three more sneezes, and then we heard a heavy crashing
through the bushes as the deer dashed up the hill,
awakening the echoes with his nose, more terrifying than
Bardolph's fiery beak to all the bottom land ; for imme-
diately, from the other side of the brook, another great
buck took up the cry,and rushed up the hill to the summit,
where he stood some minutes, stamping the ground and
startling the darkness with that most singular of
alarums.

" Two big bucks," said Hank. " There be'ent much
good huntin' here any longer ; we've got back to the
lakes agin, and them bucks has called off all the others.'*

" But it won't do to give it up so, Hank ; we must have
a deer, or we won't go home till morning. Think of the
hungry mouths in camp."

"Wall, I suppose we can try them sand-beaches
round on the south shore. I kinder think the bucks
fodder on the sand beaches more'n on lily pads this time

o' year."

/

So around we went, glaring our Cyclopean eye over
the open lake, and causing the loons to laugh like moii-
keys. One or two islands stand out in the open water
where the brook makes in, and we passed around their
jutting rocks to the southern shore. The water b#gan
to shoal, and I could see the white sand on the bottom,
from which here and there the osiers reared their taper

352 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

J

wands, and, as the air came wafting from the land, it
brought the odor of the white water lilies, the queen of
all the water flora. Skirting the osiers we could see the
sword-grass growing rank beyond, and presently our
ears heard a splash in the water. A moment more of
slow drifting motion and we heard the tramp, tramp, of
some animal wading in the water. A little nearer we
floated^ the rifle in hand and the senses concentrating on
the grassy marsh. A little nearer, and the eye caught a
motion. Brighter grew the light as the canoe floated
up and reddened the grass and reeds, and we caught in
the darkness ahead a bright, blue light, and then another,
the reflection from the deer's eyes. Then we heard a
suppressed snort. Another stroke of the paddle, and a
deer stood out in the grass, his head thrown up, and his
eyes shedding pale light. The boat is directed straight
toward him, and the paddler is as still as a statue. I aimed
and fired. From beyond the smoke I heard the splashing
and dashing of water, and a big buck dashed past me,
and then two others, all rushing off together for a belt of
timber that arose close by us on our right. As they
ascended the bank, I aimed, at the hindermost with my
remaining barrel and fired, and at the sharp ring of the
rifle he fell back convulsively dead.

"We hastened to the shore, and, carrying with us the
light from the boat, we found the deer I had first fired
at, lying with a broken shoulder, just dead, in the high
grass. The second was lying among the lily pads where
he had fallen, the ball having passed through the centre

POKE EECEIVES A CUK'OSITY AND TELLS A TARN. 353

of his neck, breaking the spine and killing him instantly^
They were both large bucks of six tines, with their horns
fully grown. It seemed a marvel — something that was
as supernatural as the weird scene around us — to see
those two noble beasts that, a moment before, were the
wildest forest things that range the earth, so still and
heavy in among the lilies and the sword-grass.

" Wall, wall, that was purty well done," said Hank.

But Hank's praise could not lighten the dull leaden
weight of the stags, nor relieve my mind from the lurk-
ing impression that the coming by night into these soli-
tudes, to shoot down two of the lords of the soil while at
their food, was not the part of a brave man. But what
is the use of moralizing ? Some men sin without
thought, others with much ; but I opine that the much
thought don't deter from a repetition of the sin.

With a good deal of labor we hoisted our two deer
into the canoe, and paddled home to the sleeping camp,
and then —

" Tuck a drink," said Mike, whom we all thought fast
asleep, from under his arm.

A drink I no sir, I was more intoxicated with my
hunt than a gallon of whisky would have made me.

" All who believe Poke's story, signify it by saying I."

" I," said Poke.

" I'se sure maussa tell fur true 'bout firin' in de stump
part," suggested Scip.

The Doctor was displeased, and went off to lift the
night lines, and the rest of the party to dreams.

WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

CHAPTER XXIV.

WOODLAND CHORUSES.

"In the long nights of winter when the cold north wind doth blow
And the howling of the wolves is heard amid the snow."

MACAULAT.

As we descended the St. Johns River, the water
scenery gradually enlarged and became more characteris-
tic. The wider volume of water set back the forest to a
further distance, and not only removed all question of
Indian bullets, but the change from the heavy woods to
the open vista made us freer in feelings and more rapid
in our motions. The boats moved faster, and wind and
current in our favor, with trolling lines astern for sea-
trout, and the negroes singing their Methodist air —

" In a few days, and a few days
'We're gwine to glory,
In a few days,"

we rapidly sped northward to our final destination and
the scenes of civilized life.

One day wo passed an Indian canoe. Mike said the
paddler was an Indian, though he looked more like a
negro, and had a long talk with him. They used the
Indian language and we could not understand them,

WOODLAND CHORUSES. 355

though from some names we heard spoken we judged
their conversation went back to Tiger Tail. The Indian
once, we thought, mentioned Jackson, and once 'gave
the native motion for taking scalps.

After he was gone Mike seemed moody for a day, and
then the meeting with the Indian was forgotten.

The jumping mullet were frequently seen in the waters
here, and at night we could catch them in abundance in
our canoes by carrying a torch. They sprung from the
water toward the light, frequently two or three at a
time, and fell in the boat, their pearl-colored scales
glancing and flashing in the torchlight. In some places
they are called moth-fish from this peculiar instinct. In
later years the raftsmen on the river availed themselves
of this habit, and placing lights on the sides of their rafts
collected quantities of fish that readily leaped the low
edges of the raft.

The nights were very dark, and during a portion of the
time we were descending the river, yet as we. were in
haste to be home, we kept on our way sometimes till late
in the evening, marking our course by the black line of
forest that margined the shore. Some of those nights
were exceedingly solemn. The mystery of the darkness,
the splash of the leaping fish, the murmur of frogs and
moths, the rushing wings of the night birds, and now and
then the heavy bassoon of the alligator, in whose bosom
the spring of the year had awakened tender recollections
of his mate, all added to the awe and novelty of our
voyage.

356 WILD SPOETS IN THE SOUTH.

Sometimes, too, we could hear the plaintive whine of
the panther or the howlings of wolves, that, scenting us
from shore, challenged our distant passage that left them
no bones for their supper.

These wolves are funny fellows. You would hear one
howl away down the river just audibly above the insect
hum. Then an instant's pause, and another answers from
the opposite shore, and then one close at hand gives a
yelpish whine as though he had been intending to howl,
but a bone that he had in his mouth stopped him, until
he laid the bone down and hurriedly had his howl out.

"We pitched a camp one night at dark in a grove of
orange trees a little up from the shore with everything
to make us comfortable. Opossum, venison, fish, and
doves were hanging before the fire ; the night was dry
and pleasant, our camp was well located, and we had
every anticipation of a cheerful night, until the Doctor,
who never could resist the chance of throwing a line,
must needs hook a small alligator in the river on his
night line. It was all very easy as long as the animal
was in deep water — he was a caught fish — but the mo-
ment the Doctor dragged him up to shoal water where
he could obtain a good footing, then the Doctor was
caught, and had either to be pulled in the river or let the
line pay out and the brute get back to four fathom
water.

Soon we heard a call for help, and, after a number
of facetious suggestions offered and refused, one of the
negroes paddled out a few yards, and, when the animal

WOODLAOT) CnOKUSES. 357

came up to the surface, put a rifle to his head and killed
him.

The hook was cut out of his mouth, and the body
floated down the river a few yards, and, as we learned in
the morning, lodged against the bank.

The discomfort of the Doctor's fishery now became ap-
parent. Supper being dispatched, every one rolled over,
pulling off his boots for a pillow, or laying his head on
his arm! The first sleeper had just begun to emit the
first hoarse breathing which a listener would call a snore
and the sleeper would swear was not, when we heard,
" Ah-ha — whoo-a-whoo-oo-oo !" from a little way down
shore. " Bow-ow-ow-owe-owe !" said every dog in the
camp, in different tones of shrillness, depending upon the
acidity of their tempers. Up on end came every sleeper.

" What's that ?" quoth I.

" Cuss the wolves !" quoth Mike.

" Dar's a prime psalm singer, settin' the tune," quoth
Scip.

" Cause he settin' tune, yer mussent kick around like
all afire," quoth Caesar, holding on to his shin, that some
one had kicked.

" Wag, here Wag, don't go there !" called the Doctor
to his cur, that had not the least intention of venturing
beyond the circle of the fire-light.

Everybody turned over ; wolves are never dangerous,
unless to your provisions, and in a moment more there
was silence and a sound of strangulation from the Doc-
tor that foreboded his profoundest sleep, when " Ooh-ooh-

358 WILD SPOBTS m THE SOUTH.

ooough," came the old note, followed by the rush of the
dogs and the same series of questionings and y awnings
and objurgations.

There seemed to be a concert near us ; for the moment
one wolf would get tired, another would take up the
refrain until it was soon apparent that there was no more
sleep for that night.

We only took cat naps, eating a little now and then
and sometimes taking a drink, talking, conjuring up all
the old stories of wolves that we had ever heard or read
of, good bad and indifferent, they were all repeated,
— wolf had no mercy shown him that night. If he could
have understood our language I am sure he would have
howled louder in anger at the character we gave him
than ever he did in hunger or melancholy.

Mike's opinion of him was that he was a " dratted
mean cuss, feered to hunt deer alone and fodderin' on his
own young ones when he can't ketch nothin' else."

The negro boys entertained the belief that the lumin-
ous appearance from their eyes at night arose from their
feasting on the slain in battle, and a suspicion that they
sometimes visited grave-yards for other purposes than
pensive meditations.

The Doctor told how that the power of a wolf's jaw
was greater than that of any animal — that it had a power
of, I have forgotten how many hundred pounds, and
something about his facial muscles that no one under-
stood.

I told the following story of an adventure. It don't

•WOODLASTD CHORUSES. 359

seem new half as natural as when the wolves were howl-
ing an accompaniment, but it is true, nevertheless.

THE WOLF CHASE.

During the winter of 1834, being engaged in running
a line in the Aroostook country in the northern part of
Maine, I had much leisure to devote. to wild sports.
To none of these was I more passionately addicted ihan
to skating. The deep and sequestered lakes of this
State, frozen by the intense cold of the northern winter,
present a wide field to the lovers of this pastime. Often
would I bind on my skates, and glide away up the glit-
tei'ing river, and wind each mazy streamlet that flowed
beneath its fetters on toward the parent ocean, forgetting
all the while, time and distance in the luxurious sense of
the gliding motion, thinking of nothing in the easy flight,
but rather dreaming as I looked through the transparent
ice at the long weeds and cresses that nodded in the cur-
rent beneath and seemed wrestling with the waves to let
them go ; or I would follow on the track of some fox or
otter, and run my skate along the mark he had left with
his dragging tail until the trail would enter the woods.
Sometimes these excursions were made by moonlight,
and it was on one of these occasions that I had a rencon-
tre, which even now in a warm climate and with kind
faces and bright fires around me, I cannot recall without
a nervous looking-over-my-shoulder feeling.

"I had left my friend's house one evening just before

WILD SPOKTS IN THE SOUTH.

dusk, with the intention of skating a short distance up
the Kennebec, which glided directly before the door.
The night was beautifully clear. A peerless moon rode
through an occasional fleecy cloud, and stars twinkled
from the sky and from every frost-covered tree in mil-
lions, and the great zone of the milky way and the lucid
planets were all copied in the mirror-like ice, till your
foot seemed treading the jewelled vault of heaven.
Your mind would wonder at the light that came glint-
ing from ice, and snow wreath, and incrusted branches,
as the eye followed for miles the broad gleam of the
Kennebec, and like a satin ribbon wound between the
dark forests that bound it. And yet all was still. The
cold seemed to have frozen tree and air, and water, and
every living thing that moved. Even the ringing of my
skates on the ice echoed back from the Moccasin Hill
with a startling clearness, and the crackle of the ice as I
passed over it in my course, seemed to follow the tide of
the river with lightning speed.

" I had gone up the river nearly two miles, when,
coming to a little stream which empties into the larger,
I turned in to explore its course. Fir and hemlock of a
century's growth jnet overhead, and formed an archway
radiant with frost-work. All was dark within, but I was
young and fearless, and as I peered into an unbroken
forest that mirrored itself on the borders of the stream, I
laughed with joyousness, my wild hurrah rang through
the silent woods, and I stood listening to the echo that
reverberated again and again, until all was hushed. I

WOODLAND CHORUSES. 361

thought how often the Indian hunter had concealed
himself behind these very trees, how often his arrow had
pierced the deer by this very stream, and his wild halloo
had here rung for his victory. And then, turning from
fancy to reality, I watched a couple of white owls, that sat
in their hooded state, with ruffled pantalettes and long
eartabs, debating in silent conclave the affairs of their
frozen realm, and was wondering if they, " for all their
feathers, were a-cold," when suddenly a sound arose ; it
seemed to me to come from beneath the ice. It sounded
low and tremulous at first, until it ended in a prolonged
yell. I was appalled. Never before had such a noise
met my ears. It seemed more than mortal, so fierce, and
amid such an unbroken solitude, as if a fiend had blown
a blast from an infernal trumpet. Presently I heard the
twigs on shore snap, as if from the tread of some animal,
and the blood rushed back to my forehead with a bound
that made my skin burn, and I felt relieved that I had
to contend with things earthly, and not of spiritual
nature ; my energies returned, and I looked around me
for some means of escape. The moon shone through
the opening at the mouth of the creek by which I
had entered the forest, and considering this the best
course, I darted toward it like an arrow. 'Twas
hardly a hundred yards distant, and the swallow could
scarcely excel my desperate flight ; yet as I turned my
head to the shore, I could see two dark objects dashing
through the underbush at a pace nearly double in speed
to my own. By this great speed, and the short yells

16

362 "WILD SPOETS IN THE SOUTH.

which they occasionally gave, I knew at once that these
were the much di'eaded white wolf.

" I had never met with these animals, but from the
description given of them, I had but little pleasure in
making their acquaintance. Their untamable fierceness
and the untiring strength which seems part of their
nature, render them objects of dread to every benighted
traveller.

" With their long gallop, which can tire
The Deer-hound's hate, the hunter's fire,"

they pursue their prey — never straying from the track
of their victim — and as the wearied hunter thinks he has
at last outstripped them, he finds that they but waited for
the evening to seize their prey, and falls a prize to their
tireless cunning.

"The bushes that skirted the shore flew past with 'the
velocity of lightning, as I dashed on in my flight to pass
the narrow opening. The outlet was nearly gained ; one
second more, and I would be comparatively safe, when
my pursuers appeared on the bank directly above me,
which here rose to the height often feet. There was no
time for thought, so I bent my head and dashed madly
forward. The wolves sprang, but miscalculating my
speed, sprang behind, while their intended prey glided
out upon the river.

" Nature turned me toward home. The light flakes
of snow spun from the iron of my skates, and I was some
distance from my pursuers, when their fierce howl told me

WOODLAND CHORUSES. 363

still their fugitive. I did not look back, I did not
feei afraid, or sorry, or glad ; one thought of home, of the
bright faces awaiting my return, of their tears, if they
should never see me, and then every energy of body
and mind was exerted for escape. I was perfectly at
home on the ice. Many were the days that I spent on
my good skates, never thinking that at one time they
would be my only means of safety. Every half minute
an alternate yelp from my fierce attendants made me
but too certain that they were in close pursuit. Nearer
and nearer they came ; I heard their feet pattering on
the ice — nearer still, until I could feel their breath and
hear their snuffing scent. Every nerve and muscle in my
frame was stretched to the utmost tension.

" The trees along the shore seemed to dance in the
uncertain light, and my brain turned with my own
breathless speed, yet still they seemed to aspirate
their breath close in my ears, when an involuntary
motion on my part turned me out of my course. The
wolves close behind, unable to stop, and as unable to
turn on the smooth ice, slipped and fell, still going on
far ahead ; their tongues were lolling out, their white
tusks glaring from their bloody mouths, their dark,
shaggy breasts were fleeced with foam, and as they
passed me they glared, and they howled with fury. The
thought flashed on my mind, that by this means I could
avoid them, viz., by turning aside whenever they came
too near ; for they, by the formation of their feet, are
unable to run on ice except on a straight line.

364: WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

"I immediately acted ""upon this plan. The wolves
having regained their feet, sprang directly toward me.
The race was renewed for twenty yards up the stream :
they were already close at my back, when I glided
round and dashed directly past my pursuers. A fierce
yell greeted my evolution, and the wolves, slipping upon
their haunches, sailed onward, presenting a perfect pic-
ture of helplessness and baffled rage. Thus I gained
nearly a hundred yards at each turning. This was
repeated two or three times, every moment the animals
getting more excited and baffled.

" At one time, by delaying my turning too long, my
antagonists came so near that they threw the white
foam over my dress as they sprang to seize me, and
their teeth clashed together like the spring of a fox-trap.
Had my skates failed for one instant, had I tripped on a
stick, or caught my foot in a fissure in the ice, the story
I am now telling would never have been told. I thought
all the chances over ; I knew where they would first take
hold of me if I fell ; I thought now long it would be
before I died, and when there would be a search for the
body that would already have its tomb ; for oh ! how
fast man's mind traces out all the dead colors of death's
picture, only those who have been near the grim origi-
nal can tell.

" But soon I came opposite the house, and my hounds
— I knew their deep voices — roused by the noise, bayed
furiously from the kennels. I heard their chains rattle ;
how I wished they would break them, and then I would

WOODLAND CHORUSES. 365

have tried ' turn about is fair play.' The wolves, taking
the hint conveyed by the dogs, stopped, and after a
moment's consideration, turned and fled. I watched
them until their dusky forms disappeared over a neigh-
boring hill. Then, taking off my skates, limped up to
the house, half cured of romance in the woods and tired
of the name of wolf.

"But even yet, I never see a broad sheet of ice in the
moonshine without thinking of that fetid, snufiling
breath, and those fearful things that followed me so
closely down the frozen Kennebec."

As the tale ended, an unseen auditor, who from his
covert in the bushes was indignant at my account of his
people, yelped out, Oo, who-oo, who — oo — o — ah, aigh.

" Hear the vowels," said the Doctor, " a, e, i, o, u, and
sometimes w and y.

" Drat the cuss !" qif^lh Mike, throwing a blazing
knot into the bushes, " has he got no decency ?"

-

WILD SPOBTS IN THE SOUTH.

CHAPTER XXV.

LIFE IN THE L I G H T - H O U SE.

" The rocky ledge runs far into the sea,

And on its outer point, some miles away

The Light-house lifts its massive masonry,

A pillar of fire by night, a cloud by day

" The startled waves leap over it ; the storm
Smites it with all the scourges of the rain;
And steadily against its solid form
Press the great shoulders of the hurricane."

FAB to the southward of what has been the scene of
our story, forming one of the barriers between the sandy
coast of Florida and the surjftg Atlantic, lies Key Bis-
cayne. Southward still, innumerable little islands of
white sand show their backs above the tide, and then
Key Largo, Indian Key, and Key "West, sweep in ft
curve around the point of the continent, warding off with
their coral arms the blows of the angry Atlantic, and
the soft allurements of the Gulf Stream. To the west-
ward on the main land stretches from ocean to ocean the
labyrinth of the Everglades .

There were no permanent settlers in this country a
few years ago, though at Key West was congregated a
reckless company of men whose boats found shelter from

LIFE IN THE LIGHT-HOUSE. £67

the storms among the islands, and who gained a liveli-
hood from the shipwrecked vessels that monthly dashed
to pieces on the coast. Most of them were desperate
men, without families, only cultivating the soil to plant
cocoa and plantain trees, and relying upon the sea for the
supply of their wants. Their low craft could be seen
among the innumerable reefs at the beginning of every
storm, like sea-gulls foreboding -the tempest, and hover-
ing for its waifs.

In the interior of the peninsula the Indian still remained
secure in his morass, and from Key Biscayne at times
his camp-fires could be seen bright against the midnight
sky.

The only thing that was human on the coast, contrast-
ing with the cruel shore and the more cruel wreckers,
was the light-house on the Key. The great charity reared
itself between the howling wilderness and the beating
surges, an oriflamme over the strife. It stood on a jut
of beach at the lower end of the island, where the
palmetto trees dried out in the sand, and only the long
sword-grass grew around in scattered spears. A boat
with a mast lay on the shingle, and a log canoe, and close
by the light stood a little low white house, with two
square windows and a door toward the sea, and two
square windows and a door toward the bay. A tiny
porch covered each doorway, and the little windows
were opened and closed by heavy wooden shutters. The
only vegetation near the light was one tall, twisted cocoa-
tree, whose tuft of heavy leaves were so high in air they

368 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

formed no shelter from the sun, but crackled with 3
shardy sound, and when the wind blew fresh from sea,
from time to time the tree loosened one of its large
cocoa-nuts from its stem, letting it fall to the ground
with the thud of a cannon-ball.

The prospect to the eye from the lantern on the tower
was a weary stretch of( sand islands between the sea and
the bay, and beyond the bay the desolation of limitless
swamps. Heavy surges beat on the shore, long hot days
made the land glimmer in the mirage, and the tower and
the little house cowered before the breaker, or danced
in the white heat.

Here Lou Jackson had couie, and with her father's
brother was living in the house and keeping the light.

It is difficult to explain the motives that in some per-
sons lead to their course of life. The human heart is not
alike in all, and words that are meaningless to one fall on
another like blows, and acts that are ordinary to one's
standard are monstrous to another's. Analyze most of
our acts, those that are disconnected from sudden, tran-
sient impulses, and AVC will find at the bottom of the re-
tort a deposit of pride that would color the whole solu-
tion. It may be unsuspected — it certainly is to the
extent discovered, but our words are couched in its lan-
guage and many of our acts — all of those in public — are
under its stern will. "Shall I yield?" says Pride, em-
phasizing the personal pronoun, and refuses what the
heart would have granted. " Shall I accept a favor from
these people who ought to be no more capable of giving

LIFE IN THE LIGHT-HOUSE. 369

favors than I?" and avoids and declines just what the
judgment says is needed. " Shall I let him know I love
him, and overtly respond to advances he has been mak-
ing ?" and the pride acts a lie, leaving the soul longing,
sighing, hoping for that other soul that was abashed, and
has departed.

Lou had a little foot, and it was laced over its high
arch with an Indian moccasin. The wrought buckskin
became the foot, as the foot was tapping the uppermost
step in the lantern, while its owner, with her arm on
the window-sill, sat looking seaward. Here was her
accustomed seat as the sun fired the everglades at his sit-
ting, and left the ocean still as a child tired with his
romping, and every evening, for the month that she had
lived at the Key, found her in the same spot 'dreaming
away the twilight, and when it was dark brightening the
eyes of the passing mariners with the expectant flash of
the great lantern.

The spits of sand that ran up and down along the coast
were margined with little rollers that broke in foam along
their seaward side, and then fell back to renew the
attempt, while doewitches and sand-pipers with nimble
tread pursued them back and forth. The blue line of the
horizon, where it cut the roseate sky, was marked by the
sail of a ship. It was not the ways of the shore birds
that Lou was watching ; her mind was not following the
path of the ship. She was conning over her past few
years of life. Figures came up to her misty eyes, dead
friends, and other homes, strong men, and patches of

16*

370 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

wood, and camp-fires, and old longings. There were
tears in her eyes, and her foot ceased to tap the iron
step, and she leaned more over her arm and looked
harder out to sea. Then appeared her lonely life, and
the wild imaginings and romances it had created, and
her form straightened again. Her short Up curled, and
the tears dried up.

She thought of her Avealthy kinsfolk in the States, and
how with haughtiness she had thrown back their proffers
of assistance and sympathy. She thought of her own
active life, her self-educated tastes, her superiority to her
sex of the same age, not boastingly, not extravagantly,
but proudly and justly. Old dreams of ambition and ro-
mance came over her soul, dreams that had been dreamt
and re-dreamt, and had awakened — old fancies of a des-
perate, whole-souled love, proud as her own, that was to
meet her own and make surrender — that was to woo,
plead, strive, and die for her^ and be accepted. She
tnought of Mike, and in her daring mood as she was, the
patient, gentle, watchful hunter was swept away with a
rush of scorn. Too timid to dare for her, too careless to
plead for her, too simple for an ideal, his love was the lik-
ings of a man, but no love for such as her. A man that she
couldn't understand at times, a man that was too cautious
to praise, too weak to dare anything for her, even a refusal
— out on such a man ! The consciousness of a secret liking
that had made her leave Mike so hastily at Bonda Key
when he had proffered the cat-skin, made her pride re-
volt and her scorning the bitterer. Then she was too

LIFE IN THE LIGHT-HOUSE. 371

proud to let him come nearer her because she was the
daughter of a planter, and lie a vagrant hunter. Now
she was too proud even to think of him, for she was the
child of misfortune, poor, and an orphan. It needs but
a little excuse to let the proud heart work out its will.
Lou Jackson had shown it rich and poor all the more
because she could not rid herself of that unconfessed re-
gard. There were other men that wrere bold*er than
Mike. The dark eyes that had flashed to her at St.
Augustine, the ready tongue and fair words, were they
not the signals of a higher life and warmer heart ? Had
this immense world no life and form, in it that was per-
fect to her ideal ?

" Fool — fool ! I am a fool !" she said aloud, springing
upon her feet. Taking a cloth from a locker, she began
polishing the reflectors of the light, whistling some old
air between the pauses of her duty.

" Donald, isn't it time to light up ?" presently called
her voice from the gallery of the lantern.

" Yes," answered her uncle from below, scanning the
horizon with a long look to note the gathering shadows.

In a moment more it was dark, and the sailor pacing
his watch on the ship in the offing called from the fore-
castle deck to the mate : " Cape Florida light, sir, on tho
port bow, ten miles away."

372 WILD SPOETS IN THE SOUTH.

CHAPTER XXVI.

TRACKING THE ENEMY.

" For it is with feelings as with waters—
The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb."

"NINE Injins and no squaws," quoth Mike, seating
himself on one of the rolling sand hills that border
Indian River, a little south of Cape Carnaveral, after a
Ions: examination of the surrounding shores.

O o

On the same evening that we pitched our camp on the
well-marked trail leading from the St. Johns River across
to St. Augustine, Mike had disappeared. He had given
no notice of his intention, unless the purchase of powder
and ball from a trader camping at the same place might
have been a notice. The place where he slept at the fire
was vacant, and the dun hound and heavy rifle had dis-
appeared with their owner.

We were safe from all doubt as to our course, and
from all danger, for St. Augustine was but sixteen miles
away, but we speculated much on the cause of the sud-
den flight. Had the trader or his men given him any
bad news? No, they were only talking of the wars, of
Tiger Tail's forays, and how the troops were drawing
down in concert to destroy the Indians or drive them

TEACKING THE ENEMY.

southward. We thought at first he had gone over to
the town, but a missing canoe showed he had taken to
the water. "We mentally bade him farewell, and started
over to the Spanish town of St. Augustine, and were
soon pacing its narrow streets, under the moss-grown
walls of the old fort, builded, as saith its inscription, by
Field Marshal Don Alonzo Fernando Hereda, of noble
fame.

In three days Mike stood under the moss-grown walls
of the cypress trees that bastion the southern shores of
Lake George, builded and mossed when Hereda's fort
•was in the quarry. He had retraced the course he had
brought us in descending the river. Over the broad
water of Lake George he passed like a gull before a
northerly wind, holding up his blanket for a sail, and
made the orange tree point where the St. Johns enters
the lake from the southward.

Following the St. Johns beyond Lake Monroe, he
passed in the night, and unobserved, the company of
soldiers we met in descending the river. Their camp-
fire was bright on the beach, and he could hear the sen-
tries challenge as they marched to and fro under the
stately trees, according to what Mike thought their
unnecessarily ostentatious rules of camp government.

" Hulloain' like that in the woods when they ought to
be hidin' away," said he to himself, as he noiselessly
floated by ; " that's all some folks knows."

Mike was like a good many quiet people — he liked his
own company, and would talk to himself, little by little,

374: WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

in disconnected sentences, even when he refused to talk
to any one else. .The many days he passed alone
encouraged the habit.

Thence still up the St. Johns, through all its winding
course, he paddled, warily watching the shore and water,
and often visiting either bank to look for signs. Where-
ever there was a bend in the river he kept close to the
point around which the curve made, creeping around so
slowly and cautiously that his eye took in all the reach
of the river ahead before he could himself be discovered.
He visited many old Indian camps, wandering around
them, looking for little signs indicating the intention
their occupants had at parting. Wherever there was a
trail across the river he seemed to know or divine it,
approached it warily, and only left it after a careful scru-
tiny.

When he built a fire to cook his food, it was made
back from the river, and the fire was lit of the driest
twigs, so that it raised no smoke, and at leaving he
covered it over Avith ashes, and stamped out the mark
his rifle had made in the sand. Sometimes he would not
let his dog come ashore, or if he did, carefully rubbed
out the tracks of his feet. He did not travel at night,
unless in the early part of the evening, and never struck
a light after dark, but carrying his canoe on shore, filled
it with moss, and laid down in it with his dog at his
side.

At the far upper end of the St. Johns, after the
explorer has passed through innumerable expansion-like

TRACKING THE ENEMY.

375 -

lakes, and crossed the beautiful waters of Lake Poinsett,
he will find the St. Johns winding and twisting, over-
flowing the prairie here in shallow marshes, and running
off into deep long tributary lagoons, fringed with canes,
reeds, and flags of the most graceful shapes and dense
growth. Some of the canes totter over, leaning their
tall tips against the others for support, and so they reach
entirely across the narrow creeks, shutting out the sun and
air, and leaving the boatman to push his canoe as through
a sewer. One such branch of the St. Johns turned
eastward and reached nearly to the coast. This was the
course taken by the Indians when making their journeys
from the interior to the sea, and it carried them so near
Indian River, a broad inlet of the sea that margins the
Atlantic, that they had but a very short carry to get
across. Mike was following this outlet. He had seen
old fires a day or two back, and thought them, judging
by the brands, about as old as the interval of time which
he had taken to reach there after Tiger Tail had passed,
providing the chief had come this way immediately after
visiting Lake George.

Mike examined the narrow passage up which he was
paddling with the instinct of a tracker without any posi-
tive signs, merely led on by his suspicion, mayhap by his
heart. Every scratch on the canes he noticed, and float-
ing bits of wood he picked up from the water to look at
them, and then toss them back again. Where a flag had
been broken, and half withered hung from its stem,
ho floated past with upraised paddle, calculating the

376 WELD BPOKT8 IN" THE SOUTH.

number of days it would take a flag to wither that
much.

At length a dint in the oozy bank he marked as made
by the blade of a paddle, and marked it so exactly that
when he saw another on the same bank he knew they
were the blades of different paddles, and that there were
more boats than one that had recently preceded him.
By the inclination of the hole in the mud, he knew the
direction of the stroke, and therefore the way the pad-
dlers who left the marks were going. When there was
an opening in the reeds he would raise himself to his feet
and look out on the flatlands, watching the birds to see
if they would indicate by their flight or their cries
passers in the desert.

Where the creek ran out, the scout examined warily
the landing. There were no marks or signs of any kind.
He watched long and closely, but could see not a token
that a footstep had been there for a month.

" Queer, that !" ho said, and paddling back a little
to an out-of-the-way elbow, pulled in his canoe in the
reeds, and stepped ashore, leaving his hound tied in
the boat. He then crossed over from the low land to
the higher rolling sand of the coast, but found no signs
of passers. Extending his walk a couple of miles down,
he came upon footsteps plainly marked in the sand,
going from west to east.

"Ha!" said he, coming to a halt, and bringing his
hand to the cock of his rifle. His eyes followed the
signs back and forth, and he smiled drily. He felt the

TRACKING THE ENEMY. 377

compliment to himself, implied in the pains taken by the
savages to conceal their trail.

"Tried to dodge — landed back and walked around.
Somethin's up — wouldn't have been so pertickalar ef
they'd been actin' honest."

The hunter followed the trail both back to the lagoon,
or a branch of it, where they had left the ordinary course
for secrecy, and then over the sands till where the foot-
steps faded out in the ripples of Indian River.

" Seven days out, jist !" said he, musingly. " Scratchin'
along fast."

Seating himself on the sandy hillock, among the rough
swaying grass, he mused on the thoughts suggested by
the trail, and after a very long silence again repeated
with a sigh, looking southward — " Nine Injins and no
squaws — that means mischief."

The soft haze was ever the landscape, and the cabbage
trees on the distant beach loomed up like inverted moun-
tains. The ripples on the sand whispered softly, and
the air was burdened with the exhalations of the opening
year.

Mike laid off hi» cap and drew back his matted curls,
leaving his forehead open to the caressing air. " Seven
days," he said. " "Wall, seven days are a deal of time,
and what's wrong done, is done bein' helped. I might
as well go over and see. Somehow or nother, it don't
seem nateral for that critter to come this way. Ef he's
runnin' from the soldiers he'd gone west ; he knows too
much to be bothered by them. He's sent off the women

378 WILD SPORTS m THE SOTJTH.

folks for no good, but it mayn't be he's goin' so far.
She'll think I'm s'pectin' danger when there ain't
none.

" Wall, wall I might as well be down thar. She won't
be any the worse for my bein' nigh her. Poor child,
poor child ! And ef thar's nobody about, why I can
come away again without her knowin' it. It does a
fellar good to know she is near, and ma^be it will turn
up as times go she may need me."

That night, Mike with his dog slept among some wil-
lows, kindling bis fire from the half-burned brands that
had served before to cook the food and dry the mocca-
sins of the band he was pursuing. It seemed as if a sort
of instinct guided him on the trail. One day he might
not see it at all. Travelling, as they both were, by
canoes, there were no signs left save where landings had
been made to cook or sleep, or to carry over the little
portages, the traversing of which so shortened the route
between Indian River and Jupiter Inlet. But it was the
knowledge of native character that guided the pursuer.
He could tell on his day's journey just where such a
band, impelled by Indian cunning, would land to con-
ceal their fire. Had they been running carelessly, land-
ing where accident led them, their course would have
been more difficult of detection, but Mike was tracking
them mentally, more by reason than by a trail percepti-
ble to the eye, and as he ran his canoe to the beach, it
would sometimes strike on the very footprints of the
savages, and the hunter would give his satisfied ejacula-

TRACKING THE ENEMY. 379

tion of " ha !" and quietly sit down to his meal without
further examination.

Mike travelled faster than his predecessors. When he
carried his canoe over the portage connecting Jupiter
Inlet with the next creek to the southward, and ex-
amined the tracks where they had not been drifted over
with the sand, he smiled, saying — " Gained a day."
Presently his dog dug up from the sand a broken pad-
dle. Mike patted the hound, and examining the paddle,
knew why they had travelled so sloAvly that day ; and a
little search showed some shavings where a new one had
been cut. His suspicions as to the leadership of the band
and the direction they were taking had become confirmed,
little by little, and he now baked his corn-bread, and
rolled himself to sleep on his Spartan couch, satisfied to
a certainty that his journey was not a needless one.

A boat is usually sent by the government, at regular
intervals, to visit the different light-houses of the United
States coast, and supply them with stores. Such a visit
had just been made to the light-house at Cape Florida.
Two barrels of oil, provisions for the light-keeper, a little
powder and shot, some tools, cordage and oakum, a few
fishing implements, and some books that had been sent
for Lou Jackson, had been delivered and were lying in
front of the little house, and the white sails of the
schooner were again low on the horizon, leaving the
light-house keeper and his niece to another month of
solitude.

Lou's uncle was busily engaged storing the goods, some

380 WILD SPOET8 IN THE SOUTH.

in the house and some in the light-house, and the girl
was in the lantern with a book on her knees and her eye
wandering away along the reaches of the shore and of
the past. The evening was lull, and even the gulls had
settled down on the waters of the bay. Presently her
eye caught a motion from over the palmetto bushes that
ran down the island, and she watched for the cause. In
a moment she saw a naked Indian creeping over the
sands, running from a clump of bushes to one nearer the
house. The fellow was painted vermilion and black,
and from his gaudy color and crouching motion, looked
like a leopard more than a man. Lou was not so igno-
rant of Indian ways but that she knew in an instant the
meaning of the war paint and the subtile approach that
never could have been seen from below. The blood
rushed to her heart with a bound, and then her thoughts
were as cool as before. This had not been a totally
unforeseen contingency, and they had discussed the course
to be followed, and had prepared for it in a measure.
The door of the light-house had been made heavy and
strong, and the arrangements in the upper story had
been such that a person would find it a comparative
shelter.

Lou leaned over the rail and called to her uncle in her
ordinary voice, " Uncle !"

"Well, child?"

" Look up here, uncle."

The old man leaned over the coil of ropes he had in
his hand, and looked up at the lantern.

TRACKING THE ENEMY. 381

"Don't move fast," said she, in a measured voice,
" but come into the tower quietly ; there are Indians in
the palmetto bushes."

The uncle was not capable of self-control. He cast a
hasty look around him, dropped the coil of rope, and ran
to the light-house. It was well for him the door stood
open wide, for as he ran a ringing shot came from the
palmettoes, the bullet cutting his jacket, and another shot
from another covert shattered a pane of glass beside
Lou Jackson, and from every side broke out the war
whoop, while half a dozen savages, whooping with their
hands to their mouths, sprang from the palmetto bushes,
and rushed across the opening to intercept the fugitive.

The old man slipped in, slamming and bolting the
heavy door behind him, and was safe. The savages
crowded up against the doorway, as an angry wave
would sometimes do on a stormy night, and then fell
back with tumult and sullen roar, baffled for the nonce.

>82 WILD SHORTS IN THE SOUTH.

CHAPTER XXVII.

SMOKING OUT THE ENEMY.

11 The creeping tide came up along the sand,
And o'er and o'er the sand,
And round and round the sand,
As far as eye could see ;
The blinding mist came dovrn and hid the land
And never home came she."

KlNGSLET.

IT was evening when Donald Laidlaw, Lou's uncle,
effected his escape into the light-house, and the next
morning found the two prisoners in the upper floor,
vainly seeking to spy out their foes, who had disappeared
like the uncouth shapes of a dream. The prisoners had
listened and waited all night long, but there was no
sound on the air but the low wash of the sea, and
nothing could be discerned from the apertures of the
tower save the sand and the trailing gleam of the lan-
tern on the ocean.

Hour by hour glided by in perfect hush. The como-
rants flew past to their daily fishery, the gulls came in
from sea, and the shore birds ran in and out with the
ebbing tide as they were wont to do. Laidlaw emerged
out on the upper floor of the light-house, and turned out
the lamp, cautiously peering about him. He saw the

SMOKING OUT THE ENEMY. 383

goods strewn on the sand, just as they had left them,
and the halt-open door of the cottage still ajar. He
descended again to the tower and told what he had
seen ; but his escape from the enemy had been so narrow
on the previous evening, and Lou's knowledge of Indian
character was so good that they concluded it was far
from safe to venture out of their place of refuge. So
they opened a bag of biscuit and made a frugal meal,
from time to time peeping out of the crevices between
the plastering and the floor above, and then turning
again to each other to talk or dream away the day.

Noon had long passed when they became con-
scious of some one calling from below, and saw an
Indian standing in front of the house, waving a white
rag, and indicating by his motions a desire to speak.
Laidlaw mounted the steps to the platform on which the
light was placed, and which extended some distance
over the tower, and moving cautiously to the edge in
such a manner that only his head was exposed to obser-
vation from below, called out to the Indian to inquire
his message.

" Indian wants to talk."

" Well, what is it ? Go on," answered Laidlaw.

" Indian is going away — he wants peace. Indian will
do no harm. Give him one blanket and he goes."

" Why did you fire at me last evening ?"

"Indian was wrong — Indian much drink — Indian is
sorry. Give Indian one blanket."

The savage held up one finger to denote the smallness

384 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

of his wants, and his other hand he pressed to his breast.
His face was free of paint, and he carried no arms and
spoke very pleasantly, and with a graceful gesture.

" What shall we do, Louisa ?" asked the uncle, turn-
ing around to the trap-door, through which his niece's
head appeared, as she listened attentively to the conver-
sation.

" Tell him to take the blanket and go. We will see if
he will do it."

Laidlaw told the Indian, who, after a pause, replied :
" Indian can't take blanket — say Indian stole blanket."

" Uncle, it is all a cheat. Look out for them," whis-
pered Lou.

" No, we will not come out to bid you good bye.
Take the goods you want and be off."

The Indian seemed disappointed, judging from his
manner as he turned on his heel and disappeared in the
bushes, while the old man descended to the securer
retreat of the tower.

The light-house in which Lou and her uncle were
entrenched, was the ordinary columnar-shaped edifice
that may be seen at intervals all along the coast at the
present time. It was built of unhewn stone, to the height
of about six feet from the sand, and then of concrete — a
composition of broken shell and mortar — for forty feet
more, slightly decreasing in size until within a few feet of
the top, when it suddenly expanded to receive the bell-
shaped lantern of glass that covered the lamps.

Under this lantern was constructed a stone platform,

SMOKING OUT THE ENEMY. 385

overlaying the tower, and extending out till it formed a
narrow ledge, and a single hand rail ran round its exte-
rior edge, so that the light-keeper could walk the out-
side, polish the glasses, and keep undimmed the light.
In the lantern stood the lamps on a pedestal, with their
metal reflectors, a can of oil and a bundle of waste, for
polishing.

At the base of the tower, and on the side from the sea,
was a heavy oaken door, entrance to which was gained
by a little flight of stairs, and the door was placed above
the stone work, so as to be free from any extraordinary
tides. On the level with the door in the tower was a
pile of stores of divers kinds, some provisions and some
necessary implements for the station. From this a wind-
ing stairs of wood ran up to the narrow opening that led
to the lantern.

When Lou and her uncle took refuge from the savages,
they remained at the bottom of the tower, reclining on
the cordage or bales, save as they were occupied in try-
ing to make discoveries of the savages through the nar-
row windows that here and there were cut, like arrow
slits, into the walls for the purpose of light. It was hither
they descended when the unsuccessful Indian diplomatist
departed, and they were left once more to their own
anxious expectations, and to the renewed machinations
of their foes.

It was not a great while they had to wait before they
heard on the exterior the guttural voices of the savages,
and felt the door vibrating under their tests of its

17

3S6 WILD SPOETS IK THE SOUTH.

strength. Presently they heard heavy blows as though
from a stick of timber, and then the sharp rap of a
hatchet. Laidlaw started up, and arming himself with
the only weapon he possessed, an old fowling-piece, pre-
pared to do battle when the door should no longer be a
security. Lou retreated up the steps toward the lantern.
But the door was of live oak, studded with nails, and the
Indians did not care to risk their hatchets on so stern a
material, and even the blows of the timber presently
ceased, the assailants finding it difficult to make their
battering ram work effectively from the narrow platform
afforded by the steps on the exterior.

The prisoners congratulated themselves on their
security, and again seating themselves on the cordage,
renewed their council, and even jested upon the futile
attempts of their enemies. An hour or more had passed
away in -most perfect quietness, and saving the occasional
visits to the loop-holes of the tower, Lou had relapsed
into a dreamy state of half wakefulness, while her uncle,
•with the caution of years, sat close to the door-way with
his duck gun across his knee, and his ear to the crack.

" Don't you smell something strange, uncle ?" said the
girl, after a pause.

" No," whispered the old man. " What like ?"

" I thought I smelt wood burning. What is that I
see on the floor ?"

Her uncle looked down on what seemed a carpet of
lamb's wool, white and flaky, gradually spreading itself
over the floor. Laidlaw leaned down his face until ho

SMOKING OUT THE ENEMY. 387

could look out through the crack beneath the door. Then
raising up his head suddenly, he stared at his niece, ex-
claiming in a whisper — " They have set fire to the
door."

There was a long pause, and the two doomed people
gazed at each other in silence. As they sat they could
hear from without the dull rumbling of the flames as
they gathered volume, and then at intervals the whoop
of the savages in mocking tones.

The thoughts that chased each other through the
minds of the prisoners were stern and hurried. There
was no water or other means of putting out the fire, and
even had there been it was on the outside of the door
and constantly supplied with fuel by the savages. In a
little while the flames became perceptible through the
crevices of the door as the panelling shrunk from the
heat. The knots fell out, and through the openings left
they could see the savages passing and repassing. Lou's
mind likened them to devils in the flame of the pit, and her
soul went up in an unsyllabled prayer for deliverance
from a death to which only the torments of the lost bore
any likeness.

Had Laidlaw been a man like the men that the wild
scenes of those days often engendered, he would have
been plotting against the savages, or at least been pre-
pared for this emergency and capable of inflicting a salu-
tary revenge ; but he was mild and gentle, having outlived
many of his friends and ambitions ; he returned to gentle
pursuits and dreamy musings to fill his vacant mind.

388 WILD 8POKT8 IN THE SOUTH.

His only attempt now was a trial of endurance without
any retaliation upon the savages, and laying aside his
fowling-piece he assisted his niece in carrying up to the
lantern a few things that a protracted stay might render
necessary. A few bags of biscuit and boxes of figs, a
canvas sail and a rope were brought up, and two or three
glass reflectors of heavy weight and much value, were
lifted up, with great labor, to the topmost platform.

" I have forgotten my gun," said Laidlaw, descending
for the last time the winding steps, blurred with smoke
and dusky with the twilight, while Lou crouched down
in the lantern to avoid being seen from the sands.

" And bring up some tobacco for your pipe, uncle,"
she called after him, down the stairs.

" I can't find the gun. Lou, did you see where I put
it ?" he called from below.

"Is it not leaning against the centre post?" she
called.

The answer to her question was sent back up the con-
fined tube of the tower, multiplied into infinite echoes by
the hollow walls, in an Indian war-whoop.

The savages had effected an entrance from below.
Where was her uncle ? She listened, but there was no
sound of struggle or pleading, no prayer or groan, only
the war-whoop came up in the darkness, echoing and re-
echoing from vermilion colored lips and stony walls. She
leaned her head down the trap door that communicated
from the lantern to the stairs, calling, "Uncle, dear
uncle, shall I come to you ?" But no voice or sound

SMOKING OUT THE ENEMY. 389

replied ; even the Indian yell died away. The fire at the
door had been trampled out, and there was a most per-
fect hush, contrasting fearfully with the yells and tumult
a moment before. Lou listened and watched, but the
tower was thick with smoke, and darkness had settled
over all the world. She did not dare to descend, know-
ing it would be a useless sacrifice and no help to her
kinsman. She did not dare to go to the edge of the lan-
tern, for doubtless the savages were watching her from
below. She only fulfilled her woman's mission and
waited and hoped.

She had been thus lying on her breast by the trap
door an hour or more, during the most profound silence.
The moon had arisen, and by its rays the winding stairs
came partially out of the obscurity. Here and there
down the black vault, a narrow slit of pale light came
across the darkness, from the windows, and made a
freckle on the stairs. Something moved past one of
these bars of light, far down the tower. A moment
after it passed another opening on the moonward side of
the tower. Again, though without noise, it had mounted
nearer, and where the bar of moonshine crossed it, Lou
recognized the vermilion daubed face and braided scalp-
lock of an Indian. In an instant after, it disappeared in
the dark. She drew back as from an apparition, or from
the arch fiend himself. She shut her eyes, and yet by
her mental vision saw the brindled shape mounting
nearer.

She would have prayed, but she scorned to address in

390 WILD SPORTS UT THE SOUTH.

her extremity One she did not openly petition in her
pride of life. Her mind swept around the whole circuit
of her years, summing up in a second an age of being,
and millions of defences that might have aided her had
they been there. Trees, woods, air and the ocean, love,
hope, and books, flashed through her mind as quickly
and brightly as the light in a summer cloud, and yet
she. was conscious without seeing him, of the approach
of the dread shape that was climbing from below. It
was the fascination of a fate that could not be averted.

In a moment her eye fell upon a weight that had been
used as a balance to the mechanism of the lamp. It was
a heavy cannon ball, with a ring in it. She rolled it to the
edge of the trap door, and when next the figure below
passed the light of a window she let it fall. Downward it
flew with swift gathering velocity, until it struck the
savage on the bare forehead, when he was hurled with it
to the bottom, striking from side to side a lifeless mass.

As one throwing a stone in a marsh will wake to shrill
clattering, the rails hiding in its lonely coverts, and as
their mocking cries, answered from tussock and reed,
immediately hush into silence again, so the two bodies,
hurled with a dull blow to the base of the tower, awoke
the silence of the night with the baffled whoop of the
savages who were waiting below ; their cries were
answered from other hiding-places, and immediately
after the war whoop ceased, and a hush as of death
reigned as before.

Lou listened to the wailing cry and sank back appalled

SMOKING OUT THE ENEMY. 391

at her own act of desperation. The darkness wrapped
her as a mantle, not protecting her but pinioning her
arms in helplessness. It seemed the greater from the
contrast with the beacon light that usually shone from
the lantern brightening even the distant sea. She struck
a match and lit the great lamp of the lantern, and as its
flash broke out on the night her heart grew lighter at its
accustomed cheerfulness. She could once more see the
white walls of her house, and the ranks of marching
breakers that knelt along the beach, discharging their
regular volleys of noise and foam. She laid down on the
floor so as to be secure from any shot from without, and
watched the narrow winding steps of the tower.

Where was her uncle ! There had been no voice or
sound of him since they had parted. There was but one
opinion as to his fate ; she could not think of it, and
sternly shut it back lest she might be totally unnerved.

A few hours sped by, and a, motion at the base of the
tower indicated some new attempt on the part of the
besiegers. The experiment developed itself in a cloud
of smoke that gradually mounted the tower and found
vent through the trap door. Then a flame was seen
below, and in a moment more the winding stairs were in
a blaze. The fortress they dared not storm, was to be
burned out. The girl looked around her as the smoke
accumulated, and opened the windows and the door that
led to the gallery to give it vent. The flames roared up
through the aperture as through a hollow tree, above
which, the lantern, like the topmost boughs, came out

392 WILD SPOBTS IN THE SOUTH.

against the night sky in bright relief or was wrapped in
darkness as the flame or the smoke successively lighted
or enveloped it. The girl cowered away from the flames
as they came up the trap door, to the fullest extent of
the tower. The smoke became denser and the stone
•beneath her warm. She wrapped a blanket around her
and kept her face down to the floor. The fresh air that
stole through the broken sash struggled with the smoke
that curled around her. Her ear caught the whoop of the
Indians exulting in their carnival, and an occasional shot
that was fired at the lantern, more in triumph than with
the intent to slay. She heard the surf, and the peevish
cries of the sea birds that circled around the unusual
light. Her brain reeled with the smoke, and she became
insensible.

When she recovered her senses the morning had bro-
ken and the world with its thousand happy tenants had
awakened to the joys of another day. The slight
wooden staircase in the tower had burned out, leaving
the column of stone and mortar with its iron ribbed
lantern as strong as before. The girl looked down the
column and found herself cut off from the earth. She
looked out on the strand and there was no living being
in sight. The lamp had gone out in the smoke. She
looked out for her late enemies, but could see none. The
world below her was beautiful to see, replete with rolling
breakers, shells and sands, flowering palmettoes, and the
long lagoon, with its little island, dreaming a hundred
yards from shore.

BESIEGING THE LIGHT-HOUSE. 393

CHAPTER XXVIH.

BESIEGING THE LIGHT-HOUSE.

" And that unknowing what he did,

He leaped amid a murderous band,
And saved from outrage worse than death

The lady of the land."

COLERIDGE.

THERE are some positions in which one is thrown so
hopeless, and so complicated in the abundance of their
misfortunes, that the heart gives up resistance and lamen-
tation. Then, after a little, there arises a pride of supe-
riority, and the heart grows greater from its conscious
scaling of these disasters. They cease to afflict, and are
"the sources of a pleasurable pride.

So from her house of refuge by the sea Lou Jackson's
mind ran over her lonely life, her position of disaster so
singularly great, and her desolate feebleness against a
nation of foes. Her mind recovered its tone, she became
proud of herself, matching her feeble" endurance against
war, fire, and the girdling waves. She did not flaunt
her new-found hardihood, but used the arm of the feeble,
and kept concealed in the bottom of the lantern, yet
proud of her own endurance and fortitude. She knew
that Indian eyes were on the tower, and that the bushes,

394: WILD SPOUTS IN THE SOUTH.

seemingly inhabited only by the cardinal birds, were
sheltering her enemies as well. She peered out from the
crevices of the tower, watching her foes or the passing
sails that, unconscious of her fate, crept along the hori-
zon, and the sea, in glassy undulations murmured to the
shore.

As noon rode in the dazzling air and the hollow tower
still stood, blackened by the fire, yet seemingly deserted,
the Indians, satisfied by the death-like stillness, stole
from their hiding-places to examine their work of
destruction. First one crept out, with his rifle in his
hand, winding around different covers until he reached
the base of the tower, and looked up its lofty cone.
The embers still smoldered in its base, and up the
darkened trunk he could see the square hole that led
to the platform, and through it the blue of the sky.
Then another savage came out, and another, and they
gathered together and talked long at the base of the
tower. Lou saw them from where she lay, and could
have thrown her lamp-scissors on their heads, but she
kept quiet and concealed. The savages, tired of their
siege, and satisfied that they had destroyed the only
occupants of the light-house, collected together the spoils
from the dwelling-house, and putting them in their
canoes, prepared to start. Lou watched them eagerly,
thinking she might see her uncle a prisoner among them.
She saw the patchwork coverlet from her bed go down
wrapped around a painted chief. She saw some of the
little mantel ornaments, her uncle's large brass compass,

BESIEGING THE LIGHT-HOUSE. 395

the family kettles mid pewter plates. She saw many a
little article of grace and comfort, endeared to her by
gift or use, passed through brutal hands and stored in
the canoes lying in the lagoon, but her uncle was not
there. The faint hope that had arisen in her soul faded
away, and the mercury of her heart fell back with a cold
chill.

The Indians paddled off fast, to get to the main land,
for the weather was changing ; a cold wind was blowing,
and they preferred the shelter of the main to their ex-
posed camp on the Key. In a little while their canoes
looked like a train of ducks gliding over the black
waters of the bay, and the curling waves came in from
seaward with a hollow scund, booming out at sea, and
hissing on the sands. Far beyond the regular shore-
breakers, white spots on the ocean and curling ridges
showed where the coral reefs reared their backs and
made maelstroms of boiling waves tangled with sea-weed
and brightened with foam.

o

The sun set before its time in clouds. The air was all
a haze. The gulls flew about hither and thither, like bits
of white paper tossed on the winds.

" A hard night at sea," said Lou, gathering herself up
and looking round her citadel. The wind blew up the
trap-door with spatters of the salt water, and found
egress through the shattered lantern. She drew some
planks over the hole, and after a fashion stopped the
broken windows with pieces of boards or glass. The
activity calmed her mind. She saw she was safe if she

396 WILD SPOKTS IN THE SOUTH.

could hold out until some one came to her relief, or until
the store-ship returned again. There were a bag of
crackers and several cans of lamp oil safe from the
flames stored in the lantern, but they formed a meagre
diet. She trimmed her lamp as was her wont, from time
to time stopping to watch the rising sea or scan the dis-
tant shore, where the Indians had disappeared. The
night was a severe one for coasting vessels. Many a
wreck would strew the Keys by the morrow, now that
the good light was destroyed. Many a brave ship with
its light hearts and cabins full of mirth would " crash
together the keel and the mast to be tossed up aloft in
the glee of the wave ;" a sense of duty and self-sacrifice
came over her mind, strengthening her to action. " The
ships, at least, should have the benefit of the light as long
as she was there," spoke the girl ; and so, when every-
thing was made as secure in the lantern as her means
admitted, she touched the wicks with turpentine, and
then with a match. In an instant, like the electric con-
tagion of a heroic deed, the bright light flashed over the
seething main, in a long tram of splendor; and the
watching mariner who had been longing, yearning, for
that light from his reeling deck, saw it and blessed it
aloud, though he wist not the enduring heart that bade
it. burn.

Down among the tangled foliage of one of the islands
close bordering the far shore was crouched a band of
Indians. Over the fire cooked their supper. Their
canoes, inverted, lay along the shore. Their blankets

BESIEGING THE LIGHT-HOUSE. 397

and the plunder of their foray were scattered around
them. The dense hedge of palmetto with its fan leaves,
and the matted cane, bent over them, screening them
from the wind, and though on the pulses of the gale they

•

could hear the sobbing of the distant sea, they were
secure from the tempest and from want, laughing low
with humor, smoking their pipes, drying their leggins and
stretching and basking like cats in the genial warmth and
light of the fire. They too saw the bright flash of the
light-house, as it stepped to its place in the heavens as did
Herod the star over the cradle of Bethlehem. With their
harshly uttered accents of surprise, they started to their
feet and peered out from the foliage on- the light they
thought had darkened forever. The whole temper of
their meal was changed, and with diverted glances and
low conference they ate their food and glowered at the
star that shone so placidly in the horizon.

Still another party, besides the sailor on the sea and
Indians at their camp, saw that star take its accustomed
place in the dark.

Mike was coming down the same lagoon when the
far-floating specks of the Indian canoes caught his eye,
and drove him to cover. He hid his little craft in the
palmetto bushes on the land, and squatting beside it with
his hound, the two watched the savages pass and land
on the beach opposite to him. There were three canoes
— that was the same number he had been tracking,
there w.ere no women with the party — that again tal-
lied, but here were eight men, and there had been

398 "WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

nine in Tiger .Tail's party. Had they sacked the light
and left with the spoils, after losing one man? This
seemed to be probable. This Avould be a likely result,
in case the two inhabitants of the Key were attacked in
such a manner that they could return but a single blow
before they were overpowered.

" Or it might turn up," quoth Mike, to himself, " that
they treed more'n they could ketch, and were goin' off
for a time on a make-believe, leaving one to ketch the
old man when he cum down. That's like 'em. " Cum
back, Yowler ; don't show your ugly mug to them crit-
ters ; they know you better'n their own squaws."

And the old dog obediently resumed his place at his
master's side, and the couple quietly watched the open
sound that had now become too rough to cross in a canoe.

" No, taint it," continued Mike, to himself. " They've
been here four or five days. They wouldn't have sot
there all that time and done nothing. Wall, wall, time'll
show."

The hunter nibbled his jerked venison, giving a bit
now and then to his dog, who sat with his head in his
master's lap. He saw the screaming gulls come land-
ward, and the darkness gather like a pavilion. He saw
the light of the Indian fire, and the long reach of Key
Biscayne like a log on the wrathful sea, and the
breakers combing over either end.

When the lantern suddenly looked down at him with
its tranquil eye, he sprang to his feet, exclaiming — " God
is good 1 God is good to sinful critters. No daylight

BESIEGING THE LIGHT-HOUSE. 399

vras ever so pretty to a lonesome bein'. Ha ! they've
got a long pull to make yet, before they can blow out
that ere light."

He conned over again the devices of the Indians, and
came back to his first conclusion that there was one
watching the light-house, while the rest had left on a
ruse.

" Don't think that ere Injin is in a very safe spot,"
said he to himself, rubbing down the barrel of his rifle
with his rough hand, and looking at the waves that kept
him still on shore.

When the morning came, Tiger Tail with his band
came back to the island to complete his revenge, but
Mike had already gone down along the lee shore during
the night, and was waitiog for him.

The Indians, well knowing who was in the tower,
made no secret of their approach. They landed just
back of the house, and walked around the tower, and in
and out the little building where Lou had so pleasantly
lived. They entered the base of the tower whooping
and yelling, and looking with eager eyes toward the
aperture that led to the lantern. The sea was still roll-
ing in its heavy billows ; as they toppled over and
danced in foam, the impetus of the waters behind them
carried them up to the base of the tower, when they
climbed up like a sheaf of white feathers, and then raced
back down the sands to gain force for another attempt.
The outer side of the tower was in a measure protected
by the surf from the savages, and they confined their

400 WILD 6POETS IN THE SOUTH.

attack to that side that looked out toward the little
island in the bay.

In the dwelling-house they found implements to aid
them in their schemes. A beam was brought out and
laid endwise against the tower. On this an Indian
walked up and drove a spike into the plaster wall. He
then mounted on the spike, the inclination of the tower
permitting him to lean inward and drive another at such
a height he could just reach it with his hand. With his
hatchet he then cut out a stepping-place for his foot, and
mounted on to the second spike, and then another,
until he climbed up to the overhanging ledge of the
tower under the lantern.

Thence throwing down his hatchet to his comrades he
gradually extended one hand out until he could feel the
edge of the overhanging eaves. This gave him a support.
Then reaching out the other hand, and dropping his feet
from their support, he swung out pendent from his hands,
and gradually raised himself up until he could see into
the lantern.

Lou had been all this time not unconscious of the
plots of her foes, but she did not dare to overlook the
eaves to see what they were intending, and therefore
could not tell precisely how the blow was to full. She lay
down on the floor and waited, trusting to the Providence
that had kept her thus far to preserve her to the end.

While thus waiting and listening, her eyes fell upon
the savage at the ledge of the platform. The crest of
eagle feathers, the circles of black and vermilion, and the

BESIEGING THE LIGHT-HOUSE. 401

glaring eye, had something in it of so paralyzing a horror
that she only gazed as she would have gazed in the
dilating pupils of a lion, without making a motion of
defence.

At this instant there came to the ear of the girl the
crack of a rifle. The surf roared so heavily on the
beach, and the wind rushing so fiercely through the pal-
mettoes, and wrestled with the cocoa-nut tree, that the
report of the rifle could just be heard by the crouching
girl in the lantern, and not at all by the crowd assem-
bled on the noisy strand.

But the Indian clinging to the tower heard it, and
sprang half his length above the ledge by the contrac-
tion of his arms alone. He writhed around so that his
back turned toward the wall. His eyes searched the
thickets and the little island that lay near by in the bay.
He attempted to sound the war-cry, but the blood bub-
bled out of his mouth and fell pattering on the astonished
staring group below. One hand fell off from its grasp
on the stone coping. He tried to reach it back again,
but it wavered in the air half lifted. His eye, filming
with death, caught sight of the white sea-gulls that,
drawn by the strange sight, balanced in the air above
him, uttering their plaintive cries. He saw in them the
pure spirits of the happy Hunting Grounds promised by
his religion. His body swung around in the wind. The
head fell back, and the fingers slipped their hold, while
the dead corpse fell with a heavy thud on the sands.

During the occurrence the savages stood in horror

402 WILD SPOETS IN THE SOUTH.

looking on the unaccountable spectacle. When the body
was hurled to the ground they paused a little, and then
crept up to it, leaning over it and examining it. One
pointed out with his finger the little blue spot under the
arm that a rifle bullet makes. A guttural " ugh !" pro-
claimed their assent and surprise. They lifted up their
dead comrade and retired to the dwelling-house, setting
him up against its walls, and held a long consultation.

Lou crept up to the edge of the lantern and peered down
through the crevices. She saw the dead warrior, and
the council of the survivors, and their revengeful glances
at the tower. She looked all around for the source of
the rifle shot, but could see no living or moving thing.
The same crash of waves on the one side, and the same
monotonous line of coast and bay on the other. The
little island stood off the shore, its palmetto bushes rust-
ling and waving in the wind. The cocoa-nut tree beut
and twisted, and far out at sea, past the Babel of noise
and the tumbling waves, a happy white-sailed ship stood
immovably on the horizon, passing from the north to
some of the summer ports of the Indian islands.

A movement among the Indians announced the ter-
mination of the conference, and another attempt on the
tower. A young man came out with his rifle hung over
his back with a sling. Like his predecessor, he was
naked to the waist, only dressed in his leathern breeches,
and as he walked he drew off his moccasins. Another
Indian climbed up on the roof of the house, and with his
rifle resting on the chimney seemed to keep guard over

BESIEGIXG THE LIGHT-HOUSE. 403

the lantern. The others scattered about, each one in a
different direction, thus commanding the tower from all
sides. The young man who had first advanced walked
up to the cocoa-tree, and keeping on the side furthest
from the tower, commenced to ascend it.

The beleaguered girl saw at a glance the intent of the
savage, for the tufted head of the tree where hung the
huge cocoa-nuts was nearly on a level with the base of
the lantern, and lying as close as possible, she would not
be able entirely to hide herself from his shot.

She saw him mount slowly up, only his arms and legs
exposed to her view, looking like bronze serpents
enlacing the tree. He had reached the top of the trunk,
the long spinous leaves waved and tossed their bending
fans above him, and hid him from her view. He unslung
his rifle from his back. There came a lull in the wind.
The cocoa-tree resumed its upright position, and the
marksman steadied himself -for a shot. Again sounded
the crack of a rifle — it came from the islet in the bay —
and the young Indian dropped motionless to the sands
beneath, like the fruit of the tree when it is fully ripe.

There was no doubt in the minds of the savages now
as to whence came the blow. They had heard the
report of the rifle, and each one, with a whoop, sprang
off to a cover, and the one behind the chimney on the
house-top jumped from his exposed position with a cele-
rity that showed more fear than courage. In a moment
more there was not a savage to be seen ; .only the two
dead bodies lay on the beach.

404: WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

, CHAPTER XXIX.

MIKE AND TIGER TAIL PLAT CHESS.

" Falstaff, These nine in buckram that I told thee of, began to give me
ground.

Prince Henry. 0 monstrous 1"

KING HENBY THE FOURTH.

THERE are some peculiarities in the Indian character
that resemble those of a cat. The Indian is patient, and
untiring in pursuit of prey, not seizing it by force but by
surprise. He never openly attacks an equal, but waylays
, him, nor risks a life to take another, though the taking of
that other may have been his sole occupation for days.
The knowledge of these feline qualities of the savage
mind gives to some backwoodsmen their great success
in Indian warfare, and a reputation that, like Cceur de
Lion's, is handed down from generation to generation
among obscurer nations than those that knew the great
Crusader

Mike was a philosopher in this lore. A saying of his
was, " I know what an Injin's up to by his paint," mean-
ing that his war paint, his trappings, the arms he carried,
the decoration of his dress, or its freshness, would show
the errand on which its bearer was bent.

MIKE AND TIGEK TAIL PLAY CHESS. 405

So when the savages fell back from the tower, leaving
the bodies of their two comrades on the sand, Mike
slowly and methodically loaded his rifle, under the cover
of the palmetto-bushes that covered the little islet, mea-
suring the charge of powder in an alligator's tooth that
hung at his girdle, and trimming off the spare corners
of his greased patch after the ball was fitted as carefully
as though he was shooting for a Christmas turkey, and
then taking out his store of venison from his hunting shirt,
made his morning meal, as assured of a truce as though
in his cabin. The islet he was concealed upon was
scarcely twenty yards across, and yet so luxuriantly had
the palmetto overgrown it that no single bit of sand
could be seen. It looked like a floating garden. Under
the broad fan-like leaves of the plants the hunter had
made a pathway like an otter from the outer side to the
landward edge, and thence he looked out on the light, a
hundred yards across the open water and the long
extended beach.

N"o boat could appear on the open water, or any
approach be made to the lighthouse without its being
seen from the island. Mike knew that the Indians would
not expose themselves either in the one way or the other,
although they outnumbered him six to one. That they
were watching him he was perfectly assured, and he did
not give them the opportunity of seeing his hiding-place,
by any unwary motion, as it would only draw their bul-
lets. He merely stretched out an ami over the deep
muzzled head of his hound, and slept.

406 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

From the other side of the narrow straits the
Indians frowned on the island, consulted together, or
passed from clump to clump to examine it the more
closely, carefully screening their bodies from the hunter,
though careless as to all observation from the light-house.
Among them, preeminent in gracefulness of figure, was
one who wore on his breast a silver medal, like those
given to Indians of distinction by the government of the
United States, as a reward, or inducement to fidelity.
He had crawled down almost to the beach, and from
behind some broken timber kept a steadfast watch of the
island. Although they had seen neither the marksman,
his trail, nor any of his signs, there was no doubt in the
Indians' mind as to whom the island concealed. Mike's
character was too well known to doubt whose daring act
had cost the band two of their best warriors. Even had
they not known his intimacy at Far Away, or been
warned by the diamond cut, his well known monogram,
that he had marked on their canoe. Tiger Tail would
have given his rifle and squaw for the scalp Mike wore,
and yet there slept the scout, almost in sight of him and
his band, and they dared not go and take him.

Had a stranger looked on the scene he would have
considered the beach a desolate ruin, never more to be
inhabited. The lonely tower was blackened and marred,
the place was deserted, and the two dead bodies lay on
the sand, watched by the vultures that, with braced
wings, crept in slow circles like motes in the upper air.
The storm of the previous night had passed away.

MIKE AND TIGEB TAIL PLAT CHESS. 407

The descending sun sullenly set in the everglades, the
wind lulled, and a gentle rain fell like a mist. The trees
and light-house loomed large in the obscurity, and the
white reefed breakers on the reefs, spitting their frothy
spume into air, could not be distinguished from the drift-
ing scuds that settled down on the sea. A tangled path
would the ocean be for the ships that walked its waters
that night.

Lou Jackson shivered on the stone flooring of the
tower. The meagre diet of biscuit, the drink of rain
water lapped up from the hollows of the stone, the
excitement and terror, had begun to work on her sys-
tem. Her hand trembled, her eye was sunken and bril-
liant, and her mind, excited unduly, ran riot with fancy
and vision, and became morbidly sensitive to the slight-
est indication of passing events. She knew that some
one was near and had fired on the Indians. Who or
from where she had not descried. She could see the
bodies of the two Indians lying on the sands, and others
walking about, and she knew she was still a hunted ani-
mal, and, with the instinct of a quarry, hid as best her
reason taught her.

But another thought came to her with the closing day
and the darkening sea. She thought of the happy homes
on the open main, and her mind took in the children's
laugh, and the lighted cabin with its music and books,
and the foretop with its hanging sailors prying about for
Cape Florida light. Her own mother went to sea when
Lou was yet a child ; whether she went down crushed

4:08 WILD SPOET8 IN THE SOUTH.

under toppling seas, whether she was captured by pirates,
or still floated over the waves, watching for her native
harbor, Lou did not know, only her feverish mind pic-
tured her leaning over the taffrail, and saw her pale face
looking for shore. When night came down, trailing her
black robes heavy with the sea fog, and shutting out the
earth, the vision came stronger still. Her mother's voice
calling to her in the wind to save her — the sea bird
"lone watcher of despair" piped to her in plaintive
cries for help. It was the call of the remembered voice.
The feeling was so strong she knew her mother was
careering past the reefs ; she saw the sheeted ship among
the spume, and started to save her. She arose from her
hard bed, and taking her scissors and oil can, trimmed
the great lamps and wiped dry the reflectors. She
touched them with spirits and then striking a match, the
fair light flashed out to sea, and the light-keeper again
sank to her hiding-place. The darkness had protected
her while trimming the lamps, and when the light came
she sank so quickly to the floor, the Indians could as
easily have shot one of the bale-fires that sometimes
hung about the tower, as she. As if in answer to her
act of devotion a moment after, from so far at sea, it
looked like a thread of gold, a rocket went up into the
air, parted its trident rays, and dropped again into dark-
ness.

" Mother mother !" called the girl stretching her thin
hands seaward toward the signal light of the ship, " I
come, I come " — but only the billows thundered back

MIKE AND TIGER TAIL PLAY CHESS. 409

their responses, and her wavering mind flickered between
reason and madness.

When the lamp shone out from the tower, the scout,
satisfied of the safety, as he supposed, of Laidlaw and his
niece, carefully backed out from his concealment, and
drawing his canoe from under the rank foliage, noise-
lessly embarked and disappeared in the darkness like a
wraith. The fog and darkness concealed his movements
from all observation. He knew that with the darkness
he would be attacked by $he savages, and that they
would leave unmolested the tower until he was taken or
driven from the neighborhood. Having the first move,
he moved away like a knight on the chess board, with a
great zig zag that carried him far out into the sound, and
then back to where he had seen the Indian canoes lying
during the day-time.

This detour cost him much time, moving with the
caution that he thought necessary. "When he had floated
into one of the narrow creeks, or ditches, that ran up
into the beach, he left his canoe and the hound, and
crept down the shore to where he had seen the Indians
landing. Their canoes were gone. " Ha, I knowd it,"
said Mike to himself, " they've given over the fawn and
are trailin' the painter now."

He crept on slowly from bush to'bush toward the
tower, and soon came out from the grove to the cleared
land, and warily examinined on every side for the rear
guard left by the enemy. There appeared to be none.

18

410 WILD 8POKT8 IN THE SOUTH.

" Six agin one," said Mike, smiling to himself, " that's
hardly fair play."

Then straightening himself up under some heavy
foliage he looked long up into the lantern. There was
no sound or motion from there, only the light burned on
tranquilly, falling aslant on the heavy waves that crum-
bled over and hurried up the beach, simmering with the
phosphoric fire that made them blue and white.

" Wall, wall, them folks are roostin' higher 'en turkey
cocks ; I wonder ef I could crawl up thar."

He crept along the house and found it sacked, and
finally reached the foot of the tower. Drawing his hunt-
ing-Tcnife he stepped inside, and felt around with his
hands. Nothing but ashes and cinders met his hand.
" Burned out the hollow tree," said he, and then looking
up at the little glimmer of light that came down through
the trap door, he continued, " but didn't smoke out the
coons."

Turning to go, his foot encountered something soft.
He leaned down and felt it with his hands. It felt like
a human body, and a taint of corruption emanated from
it that burdened the heavy air. A fearful idea seized
the hunter ; he grasped the body with both hands and
carried it into the light. There was just light enough to
see that it was the- body of a man. The hunter felt the
head and it was scalped. He stood up for a moment
and drew a long breath, repeating his favorite prayer of
thanksgiving and praise, " God is good, God is good to
sinful creeturs,"

MIKE AND TIGER TAIL PLAY CHESS. 411

A stranger would have wondered what the simple
man could have found in the mangled corpse to call
forth so fervent an ejaculation of praise and of joy.

Then carrying back the body and placing it just where
he found it, he glided back to the bushes and was soon
hid in his canoe under the mangrove roots that laced
and interlaced the crumbling banks.

It was growing toward morning when the hunter
heard the Indians returning. He saw the boats glide
past without noise, seeking their former landing. From
where he lay hid he could have reached out and touched
them with his paddle. He counted the Indians as they
passed — there were but five.

" Where's that t'other one ?" questioned he in a whis-
per. No one answered his question, and when the boats
were out of sight Mike shot out into the open water,
and the strong long pushes of his paddle soon swept
his canoe around opposite the island he had lain on
during the day. The light from the lantern guided him
so that he lost no time, and when the little islet could be
discerned he halted, backed out a little, and softly let
down a stone anchor attached to a string to keep his
canoe from drifting from its place. Then throwing off
his hunting shirt and moccasins, and armed only with
his knife, he cautiously let himself down into the water
and floated toward the island. As he reached it he
quietly drew himself up out of the water and wormed
his way under the palmetto leaves toward the shore-
ward end of the island. In a moment more there was a

412 WILD SPOBTS IN THE SOUTH.

guttural sound from the darkness, and the dense foliage
was violently agitated as if two bodies were struggling
beneath. The noise could not be heard on the shore for
the sound of the surf. But backward and forward on
the islet swayed the heavy leaves of the sea-rocket, that
reared its red head from the palmettoes, and Towler,
the hound, stretched his head shoreward from the boat
and snuffed the air with quivering nostrils, and his eyes
glowed like a lion's. Presently Mike crawled out again
from the foliage, dragging down to the water's edge the
pliant lithe body of an Indian that he left under the
leaves, and then he swam out and drew up his boat to
the island and hid it where it had been before, under the
tangled leaves.

Then the red flush came out of the sea, and the morn-
ing wind, and like an army with banners, the great sea
fog rolled up its masses and trailed away over the ever-
glades, leaving the tower, and the beach, and the
tumbling seas, rejoicing in the beauty and the joy of a
Sabbath morning.

In a little while after the light appeared, the warriors
of Tiger Tail's band showed themselves among the cop-
pices on the beach, carefully beating up every spot that
might afford a cover for the scent they had spent the
night in searching for. They went into the ruined
dwelling, and then into the light, and away down to
where the point of land dwindled into the surf, and
finally, as if satisfied with their search and ashamed of
the flight of their foe, they resumed their positions

MIKE AND TIGER TAIL PLAT CHESS. 413

around the tower, and one of them, laying his rifle
down, prepared to make the ascent of the outer wall to
the light, that still burned dimly and fitfully in the lan-
tern, like the morning star in the sky. The forest mata-
dor carefully prepared himself for his task by laying
aside his hunting-shirt that the Seminoles wore, contrary
to the usual habit of dress among native tribes. He took
off the necklace of coins with a pendent crescent of silver
that ornamented his breast. He threw aside his wrought
belt with its bullet-pouch and sheath, and putting his
knife between his teeth, like a butcher, with a cat-like
bound ran up the timber that still leaned against the
tower, and carefully mounted the first of the iron spikes
driven into the wall. His tight buckskin leggins were
fringed with blue, his naked chest and arms glistened
with sweat, and the sunshine and the vermilion-colored
painting on his face and breast made him resemble an
ocelot climbing a tree. He found the ascent very easy,
until he reached the top of the tower, where it curved
out to form the little gallery that ran round the lantern.
Here he paused for a moment, adjusting his feet and
inserting a hand in a crevice of the wall to support him,
while he reached out with the other to fix his hold in
the ledge, and here he met the bolt of fate from Mike's
rifle, that with its clear ringing knell proclaimed to the
astonished band that not only was their comrade on the
tower death-stricken, but that necessarily the outpost
they had left on the island in the night had first fallen
before the same avenger.

414 WILD SPOKTS IN THE SOUTH.

Sometimes, when one is hunting squirrels, and has
made his shot at some determined nut-cracker in a
stately hickory, he will see the wounded animal shiver
and drop the unopened nut it held in its teeth, then
move on a little and lay flat on the limb, then one by
one its feet relaxing their hold, until it slips from the
cradling bough, still clinging by one paw, and when that
loses its grasp, catching at a lower branch with the
other, while on the forest leaves, with a slow patter, the
red drops fall until the still wrestling animal hurtles
from its retreat, crashing through the leaves to the earth
beneath, never more to wake the morning with its shrill
bark, or shower down the hanging dew beneath its dizzy
leap.

So the Indian on the tower at the crack of the rifle
shivered and dropped his hunting -knife from between
his teeth, and reluctantly quitted his hold and fell to the
earth below. His comrades had already fled to cover,
and lying there in the sun he clenched the sand, gave a
few convulsive sobs, and lay still forever.

An hour passed by when Mike saw from his conceal-
ment the four Indians that remained crossing the sound
in their boats, they had considered it safest to beat their
retreat while they knew precisely where their foe was
intrenched. They carried their dead with them, save
the body of the one lying by Mike on the islet, and
fled in the direction they were taking when the light
hi the lantern recalled them to complete their
revenge.

MIKE AND TIGER TAIL PLAY CHESS. 415

The hunter watched their course until they faded into
the distant shore, and then coming out of his retreat,
crossed over to the beach. For the first time since his
arrival he seemed in a hurry. When he hailed the
tower and called Lou Jackson by name his voice trem-
bled, and when no answer came down to his repeated
questions, he threw off his coat and climbed up in the
same way so ineffectually tried by the savages.

Lou heard him call, and recognized his voice. She
was lying on the stone floor, and her mind had returned
with the (Soothing daylight, yet she retained the con-
sciousness of its wanderings, and thought she was
dreaming. The vision was so pleasant to her she held
her breath that it might not go away. Others had come
to her and gone during the night, and left her alone to
the terrors of death. She dreaded lest this one might
also go. Presently she heard the brushing of garments
against the outer wall, and the breathing of some one
near her, and then she knew the vision was gone, and
dreaded the spectre head she had before seen rising in
the self-same place. She drew back in fear, and closed
her eyes to shut out the Medusa head that was to trans-
fix her with horror. She heard a sudden bound, as
though something had swung itself onto the gallery,
and then in her vision came the brown face of Mike the
hunter, and she heard his low voice as he stooped over
her, saying, as he lifted her in his arms :

" Lou, child, they haint put out the light yet."

416 WILD 8POETS IN THE SOUTH.

CHAPTER XXX.

THE SURRENDER AT DISCRETION.

" Of bowe and shafte lie bin bereft,

And eke of bugil home ;
A goodlye wighte, by craftie slyghte

Alake ! is overborn*." OLD BALLAD.

THE reader must carry his mind over three years that
had flown between the events narrated in our last chap-
ter and those about to be in the present. A few more
grey hairs had interspersed the Doctor's curls, another
wrinkle marked Mike's eyelid, and a little of the fresh-
ness of my life had wasted, when the Christmas festivi-
ties of a happy house brought us all once again together.

We met at the Moorlands, a sea-island plantation,
one of many that from underneath the live oaks are
visible from the arms of the sea that indent the
Georgia coast. Happy, dignified homes, at once the,
centre of an extensive agriculture and an abundant
and unostentatious hospitality. Boys were home from
college; packages of northern goods and books had
arrived ; the negroes were gay with their Christmas gifts
and privileges; the ladies bright with the excitement,
and the world with sunshine; the gentlemen were
boisterously preparing for the snipe and partridge shoot-

THE SURRENDER AT DISCRETION. 41Y

ing, and even Mike — the quiet, satirical Mike — had
awakened to the uses of the holidays.

Mike, agreeably to a promise to spend the Christmas
days at the Moorlands, had come as punctual as the year
itself, and his wild, droll stories woke the fireside to
peals of laughter when we nig*htly fought our battles
o'er again. The house we were visiting was a portion
of an estate that had reverted to Lou Jackson, and that
from poverty had raised her again to wealth, and the
feast that had lasted for a week was made doubly joyful
by seeing our hostess of Far Away the head of the old
homestead.

The allotted time of our visit, spent in a round of
pleasure, had flown away, and it was now the middle of
the night preceding New Year's day. The moon,
" sweet regent of the sky," overlooked the Moorlands,
and her reflections flecked the lawn, whitened the house,
brightened the whitewashed negro cabins, and made the
Altamaha a belt of silver among the rice-fieMs. The air
was still, and all the household realized in dreams the
hopes of the incoming year. The great house itself
seemed to slumber, with its half-open doors, its smokeless
chimneys, its scattered implements of labor, shadowed
by trees, and lost in the forgetfulness of the early morn-
ing. Its young mistress lay in her bed, with her head
pillowed on her hand. The door of her room opening
on the piazza was ajar, and the moonshine in a flood
came in, revealing the turned down book on the stand,
and the white garments upon the chair, yet warm and

18*

418 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

conscious of the sleeper. Around the room were scat-
tered many a memento of the maiden's former life — skins,
and sketches, and Indian ornaments, the little indications
of tasteful womanhood that make a house retain the
image of the owner even after the owner may have gone
to the house not made with hands.

*

Something disturbed the sleeper, her lips moved, and
her regular breathing was stopped. She drew her white
shoulders under the cover. The dream within her was
strong, for her color changed, and a short, quick-drawn
breath heaved her bosom,'her eye half unclosed, and she
seemed to see Mike standing in her room by the window,
with, his cap in his hand and his rifle on his arm. She lay
still with her body, though her thoughts recovered their
intensity in a second, and gathered up the past like a gar-
ment. The old days came back to her as they troop past
a person in a fever, and woods and water, the moving
sea, danger and childish fancies. Her life had nurtured
her originally bold imagination until it ran wild, and her
reason then made her control herself until she appeared
to strangers to maintain a stoical reserve. Years agone
she had sat by Mike, with her hand on his knee, listening
to his wild tales, like Desdemona, " still questioning him
the story of his life." As she grew older she drew the
hand away, yet listened still, or counted the times and
seasons of his coming and going. Older still she grew,
and the distance between her and a mere scout became
perceptible to her mind, and then pride came, doubt of
herself, and experience, and she drew back ; drew back

THE SURRENDER AT DISCRETION. 419

in form, though her heart did riot. She knew her heart
did not, and so for that knowledge the more severely she
kept herself from his contact.

Then came a change in her position in life. The In-
dian bullet made her an orphan child, and, tike him, a
vagabond, not knowing where to shelter herself. Guided
by his woodcraft to Tampa Bay, she needed all the
remembrance of her former hauteur and superiority to
guard the safety of her heart. She reasoned to herself,
and shamed herself to thinking that where she once felt
so superior she could never feel just equal. Her sorrow
at her father's death was with her, and she was glad to
flee from us away to civilized life, where no such wild
imaginings could come across her mind.

Once again the thoughts of her heart underwent a
change. When the hunter came to her in her darkest
hour of distress in the light-house, when he nursed her
with the tenderness of a woman, when he guarded her
with the loyalty of a knight, and after weeks of a simple,
humble devotion that was past all show, and silent in
words, though ceaseless in acts, finally restored her to
life, to wealth, and to her kindred, then Lucy Jackson
became conscious to herself, and blushed at the know-
ledge. She was all unveiled to her own eyes ; she floated
in his approbation, and was crushed by his unimpassioned
look.

But while she had been changing, he, too, had changed,
and, like her, acquired a pride all of his own. He was
conscious that he had been kept at a distance at Bonda

420 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

Key, he was not analyst enough to tell how ; this, to his
sensitive heart, was a refusal, abject, persistent, unreason-
able. He felt that in her was a certain pride, and, lov-
ing her, acquired it himself. When he became the means
of her salvation at Key Biscayne, that pride grew side
by side with a species of knightly honor that would not
Callow him to avail himself of the gratitude of the person
he had benefited. Such a coercion would be like selling
his bold deeds for his own advantage. She was helpless,
weak, and distressed ; he refused to ask what might be
conceded as a right, and what he had not, when pleading
as an outcast before a superior being, received before.
So modest he was, he saw not the longings that he had
awakened — so mutely, devotedly humble, he never
dreamed of success after his first hope was thwarted.
He walked by her side a servant, and turned back to the
woods again when the service was done, leaving her rich
in substance, yet poor in spirit, bowed down with a feel-
ing of being scorned, and yet of having caused that neg-
lect by her own act.

Three years had passed since then, and had brought
no change to her feelings, though much to her wisdom.
Three years had given her wealth and acquaintance, and
a world of social life that had a bustle and a wakefulness
about it disconsonant with a mind that had passed so
many years in the quiet enjoyment of nature. She
attended races and regattas, travelled and visited, but to
her mind would come the moaning of the sea, and to her
eye almost nightly would appear a camp-fire with its

THE SURRENDER AT DISCRETION. 421

appurtenances of dogs, and trees, and slumbering figures,
or the lonely lamp in the lantern would loom out of the
brine of her tears. It was the ghost that would not
down, and all the while came back to her again and
again in every form or tone the scene at Bonda Key,
where she had repulsed the single hope she now would
give her life to recall.

Mike's measured, quiet demeanor that is natural to the
woods, protected his feelings from scrutiny during his
visit to the Moorlands, if he had any that he wanted
to conceal. His frankness was like an armor that made
fall to the ground all questions and suspicions. Lou
watched him with a carefulness that left no act or word
unnoticed, and yet with all, learned nothing of his hopes
or his inner thoughts. He seemed to tell all, yet she sus-
pected and watched for more that might be unsaid.
When she had his familiar company she feigned to her-
self that it was of little value, but when she had it not,
its absence left her life vacant, and his deference was a
burning reproach. She knew he was going soon back
to whence he came. He seemed " weary of the rolling
hours." As a migratory bird that sees the passing flocks
against the sky, or a traveller that hears the airs of his
native land, he seemed to be looking southward and
counting the time. The knowledge of his going kept
Lou's eye anxious, and made her toss and mutter in her
sleep. Was it a consciousness he was by, that bade her
wake? Did a paining of the heart make her feel he was
nearing her in her sleep ? Was it a conscious presence

4:22 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH.

— was it a communication like that which tells one that
some one behind his back is watching him — or^ that calls
at night in the misty woods of June to the trysting hun-
ter, Come — come? Or was it that electric flash of plea-
sure from eye to eye that makes you feel and know that
some one you are talking to is pleased and pleases, and is
very like you, though he is a stranger ? Her heart almost
ceased its beating, when she saw him stand there in her
room, every nerve was conscious of his presence, and
throbbed, her ear heard his heart beating, her nostril de-
tected the scent of his person, her fingers seemed to feel
of his arm, the texture of his coat, and the fur of his cap.
Was it a dream ? Then, dear dream, stay forever. I
will not move, lest I affright you. No ! it was no dream,
for in a moment the figure moved — it came nearer, laid
something down on the stand by the bed, and taking
up a lace sleeve- of hers that was lying there, put it in its
bosom, glided back to the window ; the moonshine
glinted on rifle and belt, and it was gone.

Lou Jackson sprang to the table ; on it she saw a fan,
such as are only made in Florida, of the tail of the
roseate spoonbill, the head, with its broad bill, being so
fastened that it served as a handle.

Years before she had told Mike to get her such a fan,
making some laughing promise if he succeeded. Had
he mutely claimed the promise ? She ran to the window,
and saw him following the path that led to the boat land-
ing. His pack was on his arm, his hound was following
him, — he had gone. Where was the proffered promise ?

THE SURRENDER AT DISCRETION. 423

was it thrown back to her in scorn ? His humble devo-
tion rebuked the thought. A moment of sinking horror,
an upstart of wild hope, and Lou, wrapping a dressing-
gown about her, was fleeing down the path he went.
The cockspurs stung her feet, but she did not feel them,
the dank smell of the salt grass recalled the Drowned
Lands of Ouithlacouchee, and its memory of pleasure,
but like a wraith she fled onward between the low
drooping moss that overhung the path down to the
Altamaha and came out on the open glade that
margined the river. The moonlight stared her out
of countenance with the boldness of her act, and
she halted and turned back to the shadow. Suppose
be should look coldly on her — what scorn would there
be like that ? She looked at her naked feet, and re-
treated into the obscurity. The glow-worm turned his
eye on her, the palmetto pointed its long finger at her.
Custom, instinct, and doubt, blew in her face with the
salt ail*, and made her shiver. They tied her there as to
a stake, while she knew he was being banished forever.
A chain clanked on the shore. She knew it was the
boat's chain he had unfastened.

" One word, oh ! one word — I would die for one word.
I love him so I will take shame for him, scorn from him,
anything but this doubt," she said, half aloud, and again
hurried toward the beach. Mike stood with his foot on
his boat, wherein were lying his gun and his dog.

He started as the hound challenged the comer with a
growl, and the girl placed her hand on his shoulder,

4:24 WILD SPORTS m THE SOUTH.

calling to him: "Mike! Mike! where are you go-
ing ?»

" Back home," answered the hunter, dropping the
boat's painter in his surprise, and speaking in a half
whisper.

" Take me with you, Mike — take me with you ?"

" Child, would you go in the night and alone ?" said
Mike, drawing her robe together where it was falling
from her shoulder ?

" Oh ! Mike, are you blind, or am I mad ? Take me
— take me — don't leave me !" and as the hunter put his
great arm about her, she whispered, " Take me and love
me," and her head fell on his breast.

He gathered her up in his arms, and carried her back
from the wet shore, like an infant whispering in a bro-
ken voice, while his tears fell down on her hair : " God
is good, God is good to sinful creeturs !"

The roseate fingers of the morning unclasped from
beneath the ocean horizon, and a hundred tongues from
copse and grass anthemed the dawn of a new day and a
new life.

THE END.

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