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 A Florida farm, 
 
 3 1924 001 021 231 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924001021231 
 
A FLORIDA 
 FARM 
 
 By 
 
 FREDERIC WHITMORE 
 
 With Drawin jt by 
 William R. Whitmore 
 
 Reprinted from 
 
 THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY 
 
 with Additions 
 
 The Rid^ewood Press 
 
 Springfield Wats. 
 
 i 
 
^ CopyrrshT/1903 
 by Frederic Whitmore 
 
 ' All rights reserved 
 
PIONEERS go out to w\f fortunes upon 
 the ever broadening fringes of civilization. 
 A few succeed, and tell of their success ; many 
 fail and are silent. Perhaps it would be well 
 if the commoner tale were sometimes told. It is 
 not necessajilySdreary tale. It wants, indeed, 
 charm of a happy finis — but it has incidents 
 by the way, and it is touched with the humors 
 of reality. Something is won, if not fortune, 
 in these unrecorded adventures of average men : 
 some experience of life, a widened knowledge 
 of its difficulties, a fellow feeling for those who 
 fail, now and then a little tardy wisdom. 
 The writer is conscious that the following 
 
Preface 
 
 pages lack philosophy ; he thinks that they 
 might be accentuated by a more tragic method 
 at the end. But he is himself no philosopher. 
 The story he tells is his own, and it takes a 
 quality of comedy inseparable from a too fam- 
 iliar protagonist. If he fails of sympathy for 
 himself, he is prepared to accept that of the 
 reader, and to count it among his winnings. 
 
A FLORIDA FARM 
 
 To FARLEY and RUFUS 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 iO 
 
 The Land A^ent Appears 
 
 UR purpose in going thither 
 was primarily to make money. 
 , jgm^ Incidentally, we hoped to find 
 vigor in an out-door life, and 
 rSgif other pleasant possibilities ai- 
 red us and led us to embark in the venture. 
 The venture seemed promising. Immigrants 
 ere pouring into the state and land prices 
 ere rising. Lake Osseyo was linked by its 
 ainage canal with navigable waters which 
 )wed at last into the sea. A vast tract of 
 ch soil was dried by the lowering of its level. 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 he shores, upon a circuit of fifty miles, were 
 langing hands, and men were building homes 
 nd ploughing fields where, but two years be- 
 ire, fishes had swum and alligators basked 
 1 the saw-grass. The chief settlement of the 
 ;gion was already a city and the capital of a 
 )unty; not a paper city of the land-specula- 
 )rs, but a municipality presided over by a 
 layor, misruled by a board of councilmen, and 
 rovided with schools, churches, and drinking- 
 iloons. A newspaper devoted itself to its, 
 raises ; rail and water carriage met on its 
 ng pier, and through trains from the far north 
 rew up to discharge a daily file of tourists 
 id prospectors. A Mississippi steamer, with 
 iwering funnels, swung at anchor in the offing, 
 nother, belonging to the drainage company, 
 y belching black smoke, or swept away 
 
The Land Agent Appears 
 
 ward the horizon, with a ribbon of foam 
 iwinding from its broad stern-wheel. The 
 ttoo of the builder's hammer sounded all day 
 the woods and by the water. 
 We had seen many towns and villages in a 
 isurely prospecting tour ; we had an extensive 
 ;quaintance with land-agents, and we were 
 sheartened by the memory of many ineligible 
 fers of property. We liked little that was 
 laracteristically Floridian, except certain agri- 
 altural possibilities of the winter. In this 
 lood we had waked, one morning, at Osseyo 
 lity, and looked out to see what it was like, 
 or the first time in many days we had slept 
 rfreshingly; no mosquitoes, no sultry heats, 
 ad jaded us. A steady wind, laden with forest 
 iors, was drawing through the open windows, 
 he globe of the sun lay on the verge of a 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 vide rippled water, crimsoning fresh meadows 
 nd tile truni<s of innumerable pines. An in- 
 ermittent tini<ling of bells, a smell of sawn 
 ypress wood, a delicious chill of the morning 
 Wnd, stirred certain fibers of happy memory, 
 Ve seemed suddenly to be listening to the 
 :lank of Swiss cow-bells and inhaling the fra- 
 ;rance of dew and unpainted pine, in some 
 nn of the Oberland, It was a far reminiscence, 
 or the meadows and forest glades were level 
 IS the lake. But it pleased and curiously pre- 
 lisposed us. Here at last was coolness ; here 
 I'as green grass, and a pleasant un-Floridian 
 mpression of Florida. We looked sanguinely 
 ut into the blue morning. 
 After breakfast we lighted cigarettes, and 
 lanced around indulgently for the city. At first 
 /e saw nothing more urban than sparse pines 
 
The Land Agent Appears 
 
 their steady shade, cropping cattle and 
 moving shadows. But the city disclosed 
 as we wandered about, sceptically credu- 
 
 subtly prepossessed by the absence of 
 uitoes and land-agents, ready to have faith 
 sub-tropical region where the May breeze 
 vivifying and the turf firm underfoot, 
 clusters of dwellings proved to be more 
 rous than we had thought, for the city 
 laid out on a generous plan, with an eye 
 e future. Embowered in glistening banana 
 s or smoky willow-oaks, with "sayling 
 " overhead, and the level forest lawn all 
 : — pioneer flotillas adventuring in the 
 I sea of the wilderness — they seemed 
 mt enough, after the Sahara of the Sand 
 
 and the stagnant hotness of the orange 
 ations. It was true that the houses were 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 mostly white-washed shanties, giving them- 
 selves residential airs by means of a veranda 
 and a stovepipe in the roof. But to the culti- 
 vated eye the texture of whitewash is agree- 
 able, and an excellent background for banana 
 plumes. It takes the meridional sunrise richly, 
 and gleams snow-like in the still southern 
 noons. To the eye of the prospector, more- 
 over, all things relate to the circumjacent wild- 
 ness. A log hut is respectable and a frame 
 shanty savors of gentility ; a bow-window is a 
 burgeon of taste and enterprise. 
 
 When we had visited the residence-quarters, 
 we strolled upon the hard sands of the lake 
 shore, and admired the vast bowl of blue rip- 
 ples. As we looked, the wind freshened, dark 
 flurries scudded over the shining level, a little 
 sailing-boat bent to the gusts, threw up a 
 
The Land Agent Appears 
 
 furrow, and shot into the sun-path. We 
 wind and bright water ; we felt a joy 
 Is as of a sea-bird in its wings. We did 
 ay so — but our dream of farming in 
 la was blent with a vision of water, and 
 loughing of waves in this manner seemed 
 me to the purpose. 
 
 when we reached the blue frame "blocks" 
 » pier, the basking steamer, the hardware 
 , the two grocery stores, the dry-goods 
 , the druggist's, and the saloons — front- 
 le morning sun with blistered paint and 
 glass — we were already won over in 
 measure. Our hearts did not sink at the 
 nids of scarlet canned goods beneath a 
 )n of calf boots and calicoes, at the loungers 
 e unswept doorsills, at the whiff of spilled 
 •s from the saloons. Rather, we smiled at 
 
The Land Agent Appears 
 
 these things, and found them more urban than 
 we had expected. A cowboy, with a broad hat 
 and jingling spurs, gave them a fine frontier 
 flavor, as he issued from a saloon and rode 
 jauntily off, his whip-lash whirling and pistol- 
 ing about his head. 
 
 In due season the land-agent appeared, and 
 we fell into his lap like ripened fruit. It was 
 of quite a little principality that he disburden- 
 ed himself in our favor — a great lake-fronting 
 meadow, fringed about with virgin pine-lands. 
 The woods came to the water's brink at one 
 corner, with a house-site, as if we had so 
 willed it. A strip of silver sand, firm and 
 broad as a highway, coasted the meadow and 
 shelved beneath the clear lip of the lake. 
 We departed, with lightened purses, to re- 
 turn in the autumn. 
 
 S 
 
Settling 
 
 leptember I engaged the services of a 
 ung New Englander, named Rufus, and 
 ) with him at the Osseyo City Hotel, 
 p-kit followed us from the North, and a 
 lable cedar boat, with sculls and a joint- 
 5t, which we christened the Egret. We 
 a brisk-gaited gray gelding and a green 
 , and drove daily to the principality, the 
 11, and other points, upon our business 
 fcling. Rufus looked keenly about him, 
 lid little. His notion of farming was 
 al, with a rude and sceptical sense of 
 es ; mine was theoretical and optimistic, 
 nd then he dropped a piece of Yankee 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 caustic on my illusions. He looked glum over 
 the remoteness of the principality from points 
 of supply and shipment, and smiled grimly 
 when I spoke of it as "only six miles out." 
 
 At last all was made ready, and the trunks, 
 camp-kit, and provisions were loaded on the 
 green wagon. They had seemed but a few 
 trifles, of themselves — yet they made a great 
 heap, together, and gave a formidable notion 
 of housekeeping. My heart sank a little, now 
 that the time was come. Osseyo City as- 
 sumed an unwonted pleasantness ; its white 
 shanties clustered neighborly ; the hotel was 
 beginning to exhale a faint prophecy of din- 
 ner. But I was outward bound, in the part 
 of a sturdy pioneer, and 1 must cover my 
 qualms with a smiling face — like a sea- 
 traveller. I unmoored the Egret with an 
 
 10 
 
Settling 
 
 irance of unconcern, and ran out the 
 while Rufus drove off with the load, 
 alligator on the beach appeared to be 
 nly tenant of my demesne, when I ground- 
 le Egret; but as I entered the wood-edge 
 ceived oxen yoked to a load of yellow 
 er, and the driver reclining on the grass. 
 ;ame toward me with a question in his 
 which presently took shape on his lips : 
 lar'bouts do you want the lumber at ? " 
 re, indeed .' It was a matter to have 
 dered more nicely, for Southern pine is 
 y to move, and this was the planting of 
 s. I lit my pipe and brooded in perplex- 
 There was a glade among the pines, a 
 lake of clear sward, a hundred yards in- 
 from the larger lake. This, I thought, 
 the spot. The driver had his views: he 
 
 II 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 would drop the lumber where I directed, but 
 if it was his'n, he'd put it yonder on the ris- 
 ing ground ; it was pretty tol'ble dry there. 
 I looked about once more. It was dry every- 
 where, for the moment, and my eye was not 
 refined to the distinctions of flatwoods topog- 
 raphy : the glade seemed of a level with the 
 "rising ground." I understood his advice af- 
 terward, when the pools gathered in the wet 
 season, and the little grass mere was sheeted 
 with water. He knew what kept the pines 
 from growing there, but he said no more. A 
 building site was chosen, and the fresh planks 
 fell with a hollow clatter on the grass. When 
 the driver was gone, I strolled off and reassur- 
 ed myself about the spot. A small oak grove 
 was on the lakeside to the left, another to the 
 right. Two lanceolate tufts of saw-palmetto 
 
 12 
 
Settling 
 
 flanked an open way between, and the blue 
 water showed all along. The land broke from 
 a low terrace to the beach. It was a site 
 made to hand. 
 
 Rufus admitted it, when he drove up with 
 the creaking load. We accordingly fell to with 
 hammer and saw ; and when the dusk began 
 to thicken, the timber anatomy of a small cot- 
 tage glimmered already among the pines. We 
 hastened to lay planks on the joists of the up- 
 per floor, and had a tent stretched on these, 
 and the gray tethered beneath, when the night 
 closed in. Rufus made coffee upon an oil stove 
 and opened a tin of meat ; and the tent, with 
 cots neatly spread and a swinging lantern 
 above, took a homelike air, as we supped from 
 a pine box. So I tried to think, at all events, 
 and I remarked upon it to Rufus, who assented. 
 
 13 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 But this was the official view. The forest lay 
 all about, shuddering with breezes and vocal 
 with crickets and strange movings in the pal- 
 mettos, and the solitude seemed to creep into 
 the tent when the ladder was drawn up and 
 the light put out. 
 
 There is always a novelty about a morning 
 if one is disposed to enjoy it. The observer 
 perceives it to be different from the day before 
 and not quite like any other that he has seen. 
 It may be spectacular, with a sudden kindling 
 of the east, and a burst of scarlet across the 
 sky, like a military music ; it may come in 
 calmly, all golden and gleaming, and take the 
 fancy unaware. It may blur the world with 
 a mystical foggy impressionism ; or make an 
 etching of it, with a grizzle of rime and sharp 
 graver-work against the sky. It is a charm of 
 
Settling 
 
 fresh experience that it vivifies aspects, and 
 puts one in the mood to see. The sl<y was 
 exquisitely mottled, as we went down to the 
 lake, after several hours of uneasy tossing, 
 followed by a sleep. The clouds stretched high 
 and far, like a vast frost-work, over the dawn, 
 and I thought 1 had never seen anything so 
 vivid and so delicately flushed. The still lake 
 glassed it to the horizon, and the mirrored sky 
 rose like a lifted banner in the ripple from our 
 feet* The splash of the water-buckets startled 
 some long-billed birds that were spearing for 
 fish in the margin, arid we made our toilets 
 in a whirr of withdrawing wings. We kindled 
 a fire, ate and drank, and the day's work 
 began. 
 
 The woods rang with our hammers, day by 
 day ; but the little house grew slowly. The 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 grass went wintry with sawdust and shavings ; 
 billets and plank ends lay thick about our feet, 
 and the details of construction seemed similarly 
 to accumulate, and press like a fever on the 
 brain. Amateur house-building was an econo- 
 my of dollars, perhaps, but it proved to be 
 costly in time and strength. Finally, it seem- 
 ed best to call in a man of the craft. Rufus' 
 face grew visibly younger when this decision 
 was announced, and the gray showed brisk 
 heels as he galloped off for a carpenter. 
 
 The carpenter came presently — a trim fig- 
 ure of a fellow, with a shotgun over his shoul- 
 der and a half-filled game-pouch beside his 
 tool-bag. He saw the situation at a glance, 
 and met it like the quiet woods gentleman that 
 he was. I was n't a carpenter, was I ? he 
 tactfully inquired. Well, he Mowed perhaps I 
 
 16 
 
The First Crop 
 
 wasn't — and carpentering was a trade, sure 
 enough. He had worked at it, a right smart 
 while, but it was puzzling, even to him, 
 sometimes. 
 
 I was now a conoscente in joinery, and took 
 pleasure in his work. His manner of thumb- 
 ing an edge-tool breathed craftsmanship ; he 
 would sit on a heady scaffold, his long legs 
 dangling, plant a nail in the ceiling, and bring 
 his hammer nonchalantly true upon it, where 
 I must have lain on my back and bruised the 
 planks with wild target-practice. Cupboards, 
 verandas, railings, and lattices grew like ex- 
 halations. A tiny stable was set up, as one 
 builds a house of cards — and at length the 
 Gray ceased to look over his manger at our 
 dinners, and the tent was furled. 
 
The First Crop 
 
 M 
 
 Y partner, Farley, had now joined us with 
 a reinforcement of energy., and the time 
 was come to settle seriously down to the bus- 
 iness of husbandry. Practically, Farley and I 
 knew little of this business, but we had an ac- 
 quaintance with the theory, like young physi- 
 cians ready for practice. We ploughed several 
 acres of grass-land by the lake, and left the 
 turf to decay for the spring garden. We also 
 began to clear a tract of woods on the higher 
 ground, for an experiment with orange and 
 lemon trees. 
 
 The clearing made a stirring interlude be- 
 tween the carpentering and the spring farming. 
 
 18 
 
The First Crop 
 
 A little gang of woodsmen felled the pines and 
 hauled their trunks to the beach, whence they 
 were floated to a sawmill. There was a hollow 
 hurly-burly of axes and halloos, ringing all day 
 in the woods ; and ever and anon a shriek of 
 rending wood, a crash of limbs, and the thud 
 of a ponderous trunk in the palmettos. Piles 
 of roots and boughs flamed here and there. A 
 blue mist of smoke hung over the scene, and 
 gave a weirdness to the slow file of mules and 
 the log-cart, creeping with a huge pine-shaft 
 between its towering wheels. 
 
 In a pictorial view, the little lopped trees 
 from the nursery made a sorry exchange for 
 the butchered pines. But we set them hope- 
 fully out, tamped the woods-mould about their 
 yellow rootlets, and drenched them with water 
 from the lake. We began to speak imagina- 
 
 19 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 tively of the bared sand and lopped stakes, as 
 "the grove;" and bye-and-bye the stakes res- 
 ponded to the fiction so far as to put forth a 
 visible greenery. But the soil was sour with 
 old roots ; the trees grew slowly and stuntedly. 
 Some of them took a wizened, dwarfish matu- 
 rity, and all but stood still ; others branched 
 lustily, and then died back at the tips. A few 
 mysteriously waxed sturdy in stem and limb 
 and threw out a cloud of dark umbrage, as if 
 to show what the rest might have done. See- 
 ing the greater part so unrewarding, we grew 
 indifferent, in turn, and the value of oranges 
 falling, with a great increase of the crop, we 
 let them sulk in the sand, and set our thoughts 
 chiefly on tillage. 
 
 The ploughed land "turned up well," Rufus 
 said ; and in the late winter, as the sun began 
 
 20 
 
■y ''\^'i'^ 
 
The First Crop 
 
 36 from the solstice, we sowed cucumber 
 } in the warming soil. This was a pleas- 
 light labor for breezy mornings, and we 
 litted it to be irradiated with a hope of 
 t. Winter cucumbers in New York, we 
 /, were sold like choice roses. We could 
 hope for the top of the market in late 
 :h or April, it was true, but we were not 
 icious ; a few hundred dollars per acre, 
 )bserved, would do for a beginning, 
 le field lay along a low dune of beach 
 that gleamed against the lake. Tall woods 
 ed the inland boundary, and a great water- 
 prairie broadened from one end. We made 
 nds with a hoe, worked a handful of phos- 
 e into each, and leveled the top. In these 
 traced trenches with the fingers, sprinkled 
 le of seeds, and covered and "firmed" 
 
 21 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 them in. A week later, we sowed a second 
 line, and in another week a third, to make 
 triply sure against mishaps of cold. It was 
 the third sowing that found favoring heats, and 
 far on in March the vines were beginning to 
 creep outward from the hills. It was late — late 
 even for a return of a few modest hundreds of 
 dollars per acre — but we blithely hoed and 
 hoped, and the mocking-birds sang, with mel- 
 low throats, above the speckling blossoms. 
 
 The mocking-birds, much at ease, fluted in 
 the balmy noons ; and the cucumber vines, like- 
 wise much at ease, lengthened and branched, 
 till the field was a tangle of over-lapping leaves. 
 Market quotations for cucumbers went slowly 
 down, and the vines manifested no concern. 
 We made ready for the crop, with crates and 
 shipping plans — and the vines nonchalantly 
 
 22 
 
The First Crop 
 
 i their rank leaves, and bedecked them 
 'ellow bloom. "Consider the" cucumbers 
 le field : they toil not, neither do they 
 ' It was a beautiful sight, and we tried 
 < upon it as Solomon might have done, 
 irred to us that we might gather wisdom, 
 if we could not gather cucumbers. 
 1 blossoms began to fall, and we moused 
 y among the vines. And lo, on a sud- 
 
 cucumber ! Farley discovered it, and we 
 red about it with becoming emotions. 
 
 it was at last, a cucumber, an indubita- 
 jcumber, of the size of a mixed pickle — 
 :ian, indeed, but complete in all its parts, 
 
 and spiny, with a festive blossom at the 
 
 Farley and I knelt and adored it, as 
 •e. It was like the joys of paternity, 
 us looked on with a sardonic humor which 
 
 23 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 he kept for rare occasions. "Git out your 
 crates, git out your crates," he said grimly : 
 "time to ship the crop. Crop's small, but so 
 are the prices." I turned to him, unaffected by 
 the innuendo, the flush of fruition in my face. 
 "I say, Rufus, how long does it take a cu- 
 cumber to grow up ?" Rufus' face grew red, his 
 spare frame underwent a contortion, he slap- 
 ped his knee and burst into a fit of laughter. 
 " Don't you know? " he cried, choking : " Oh, 
 fifteen to twenty years, without the weather's 
 warm. If it is, four or five days." 
 
 In four or five days, the weather being warm, 
 the cucumber had grown up, and the vines 
 were teeming with pickles. We began to ship 
 the crop toward the end of April, and we ceas- 
 ed to ship it when the first returns came in. 
 We kept the wisdom for our own consumption. 
 
 24 
 
The Grubbers 
 
 WE had not given ourselves wholly to 
 the cucumbers. The woods about were 
 irregularly belittered with shrubs of the saw- 
 palmetto, a dwarf palm with a single black 
 root, creeping on the surface like a huge 
 caterpillar, and bearing a bunch of fan-like 
 leaves at the end. The leaves were of a lus- 
 trous green that caught the sun-gleams among 
 the pines, and their bristling clusters made a 
 curious and tropical scenery. But the roots 
 were cumbering, and the leaf-stems had rows 
 of spinelets that scratched like saw-teeth. They 
 were also a harborage for snakes, and in a 
 region where these were dangerous it was 
 well to have open footing about the cottage. 
 
 25 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 We accordingly contracted with certain of our 
 neiglibors — locally called Crackers — to grub 
 away the adjacent palmettos. This was a tax- 
 ing work for the back and the patience, and 
 the Crackers were of a convivial turn and averse 
 monotonous exertion. The contracts being rat- 
 ified, therefore, they encamped at hand in a 
 picturesque and roystering style, played cards, 
 discharged revolvers, came and went, and tip- 
 pled about a flaring night-fire. Sometimes they 
 disappeared for days, and we heard of them 
 vaguely, as recuperating from their labors. Now 
 and then they did a little grubbing. 
 
 When this occurred, I made a point of going 
 out to encourage them — whiling the laborious 
 hours with fables of the mythical North : tales 
 of snow and frozen streams, of towns larger 
 even than Osseyo City, of buildings taller than 
 
 26 
 
The Grubbers 
 
 the tallest yellow pines, of forests of shipping, 
 and bar-rooms with floors of marble — inter- 
 fusing these delectable fancies with ingenious 
 reflections on Northern persistence with the mat- 
 ter in hand. I cannot say that these apologues 
 iorwarded the grubbing, but they seemed to 
 give the Crackers a great conceit of my in- 
 ventive powers. There sprang up between us, 
 indeed, a very genial relation. The Crackers 
 called me by my first name, not in forwardness, 
 but with a pleasant scriptural simplicity ; they 
 leaned on their grubbing-hoes and gathered mat- 
 ter for camp-fables ; and when they had listen- 
 ed for a time they perceived themselves to be 
 exhausted with toil, and retired to mend the 
 fire for dinner. After several weeks of cam- 
 paigning in this manner they confessed them- 
 selves worsted, and the encampment broke up. 
 
 27 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 A piece of palmetto on the glade-edge re- 
 mained, and for tiiis I betook myself to one 
 Mr. Daly, a vagrant Irishman temporarily at 
 hand. I call him Mr. Daly because there was 
 much mutual dignity in our relation, and it 
 never occurred to either of us to drop the 
 mister, or to decline to the fellowship of the 
 mere Cracker. For the Cracker Mr, Daly 
 professed a fine Hibernian "contimpt," assum- 
 ing himself and me to be apart in a common 
 superiority, and respecting me next to himself, 
 as a person of like traditions. "So you're from 
 New York. Why, I'm from New York meself !" 
 he said, as he surveyed me at our first meet- 
 ing — and we treated thenceforth as from power 
 to power. It appeared that we had likewise 
 sojourned at Saratoga together, without know- 
 ing it — Mr. Daly having passed his nights 
 
 28 
 
The Grubbers 
 
 there, at a time, in the caboose of a gravel- 
 train. Mr. Daly had a thick, hairy forearm 
 and a muscular back. He spat upon his palms 
 and plied the grub-hoe manfully and steadily 
 till the ground was cleared. 
 
 29 
 
Summer and the Rains 
 
 AFTER the cucumbers were gathered the 
 weather grew summer-like. We had 
 taken the precaution to acquaint ourselves in 
 advance with the seasons by means of sundry 
 pamphlets issued to induce immigration. We 
 were aware that the Florida summer was more 
 genial than the torrid summers of the North. 
 Fanning winds spiced with the resin of the 
 woods, a shining equableness, showers with a 
 glint of lightning to manufacture ozone, brief 
 aspersions withdrawn at the sojourner's con- 
 venience, a general blueness and balminess — 
 such we understood to be the Florida summer. 
 We were a little surprised, therefore, to find 
 
 30 
 
Summer and the Rains 
 
 it hot, blazingly and blisteringly hot. The May 
 sun rose, every morning, like a huge ruddy 
 coal. Despite the resinous breezes, possibly 
 fanned by them, it burned swiftly to an intol- 
 erable incandescence, and smote us with languor 
 as we toiled forth to our tasks. It flagellated 
 our backs ; our knees weakened beneath it 
 in the field ; our lips parched with thirst ; we 
 seemed about to ignite, but when we had drunk 
 rivers of water a merciful perspiration burst 
 forth and prevented the conflagration. Yet we 
 rather liked it — it was so absurdly superla- 
 tive, and such a satire on the veracity of land 
 agents. Gradually, too, we underwent a par- 
 tial acclimating, and learned to suffer with equa- 
 nimity. 
 
 But it was otherwise with Rufus. We pru- 
 dently perspired ; Rufus insisted on sweating. 
 
 31 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 In vain I pointed out to him the greater com- 
 fortableness of perspiring, not in a euphemis- 
 tic, but a practical view. "It depends partly 
 on how you take it, " I said, as we planted 
 fence-posts together, in a flaming sun: "the 
 man who sweats is of course hot ; the man who 
 only perspires is cooled by the process. " 
 
 Rufus listened with swelling cheeks ; he 
 embraced a huge cypress post and flung it in- 
 dignantly into the hole I had dug. "You can 
 do 's you like," he said shortly: "I mean to 
 sweat! For land's sake," he added, as the 
 post rebounded and knocked off his hat: "for 
 land's sake — do let a fellow sweat, if he 
 wants to!" 
 
 I said no more : it was the irritable half hour 
 before dinner, and I perceived the jest to be 
 mis-timed. I picked up his hat and put it pro- 
 
 32 
 
Summer and the Rains 
 
 gly on his head, and we labored in 
 till the dinner-horn sounded. 
 Rufus played on the theme thereafter, 
 ver the heat was uncommonly fierce 
 lid offer the backs of his hands for in- 
 n, and ask severely what I called that! 
 V2LS early in the day, I would venture 
 
 "perspiration," and Rufus would say 
 ks!" If it was the hour of faintness 
 asperation, I would prudently say "sweat" 
 Rufus would snort, and defer the assault 
 seemed to meditate, 
 /ithstanding the heat, we accomplished 
 
 I do not know how we did it, for it 
 I a feat merely to exist. Perhaps the 
 n of this performance nerved us for fur- 
 fort. We not only existed, we cooked 
 and ate them ; we cleared them away ; 
 
 33 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 we went out to delve and plough, and to rout 
 pillaging cattle and swine ; we added a great 
 stretch of tillage-land to the cucumber field, 
 and fenced it against the pigs. 
 
 These last, ranging the woods everywhere, 
 were long a source of mingled amusement and 
 annoyance. When we first encamped they were 
 always at hand. A bevy of them fed in our 
 larder at odd moments, and trotted away with 
 tid-bits in their mouths. We were waked at 
 night by avalanches of rooted pots and crock- 
 ery. For a time this discomposed us, but we 
 soon took it with philosophy, and dropped 
 billets of wood on the depredators from the 
 sleeping-apartment above, chuckling drowsily at 
 their grunts and squeals. When the cottage 
 was finished, they had to be content with scav- 
 engering, and we opened an offensive warfare 
 
 34 
 
Summer and the Rains 
 
 with bird-shot and missiles, until the fences 
 should be built. 
 
 It was not till the rains of summer came 
 on that we fully realized the horrors of this 
 delightful season. The first showers brought 
 wafts of coolness and allayed the burning of 
 the sands. They brought, too, ,a changed as- 
 •pect of the monotonous earth and sky. The 
 white scalp of a cloudy Himalaya would appear 
 in the blue, and soon there would be a range 
 of intolerable snows beetling toward the zenith. 
 After the languorous dream of a sub-tropical 
 morning, it was stirring to see the splendid 
 energies of the air, the sweeping of the shadows, 
 and the dramatic burst of lightning and wind. 
 The ground trembled with the following thun- 
 der, and the world went out in a fog of driven 
 water. As the storm drew off, the tree-toads 
 
 35 
 
A Florida Fafm 
 
 woke in every pine and the frogs in every pool, 
 rasping like a malady of the ears. 
 
 But after a time the skyey pageants ceased 
 to be events ; the lightning began to javelin 
 the pines about the cottage, and the weather 
 fell into a lamentable aqueous intemperance. 
 The sun rose into lowering clouds ; the air 
 became a habitat of vapors — flocks of far 
 cirrus with sluggish rain-drift beneath, torn 
 wracks of old storms flying low above the 
 pines, and sulphurous thunder-heaps looming 
 perpetually at the horizon. The soil gradually 
 filled, and exuded water like a soaked sponge ; 
 every level became a lake, every hollow a pool. 
 We could go nowhither without wading. When 
 the sun came out, it was to blaze on a waste 
 of wetness and fill the air with steam. The 
 time was come to rest from our labors. We 
 
 36 
 
Summer and the Rains 
 
 abandoned the farm for a little to the elements 
 and the frogs. 
 
 37 
 
The Second Season 
 
 WE returned somewhat soberly for the 
 second season's work. Reports from 
 the farm region had been all of rains and flood- 
 ing waters. Despite its drainage canal, the lake 
 had come steadily up, like a rising tide. The 
 beach lay beneath a fathom of water ; fishes 
 swam once more in the arable land ; the canal 
 and the drainage company were a mark for 
 curses. But the weather "faired off" at last. 
 New dredge-boats smoked on the horizon and 
 drummed reassuringly across the flood, and the 
 ebb set in. 
 
 When the higher soil had dried, beds were 
 made for cabbage and cauliflower seeds. This 
 
 38 
 
The Second Season 
 
 was pretty gardening work in the mellow au- 
 tumn sunshine. The beds were heaped, leveled, 
 and overlaid with fine mould ; then they were 
 "firmed" with a trodden plank, and sprinkled 
 to a uniform moisture. A toothed implement 
 made shallow holes for the seeds, and these 
 were dropped in one by one and carefully cov- 
 ered : for the cauliflower seeds were costly. 
 Within a few days the beds were quick with 
 files and phalanges of pale shoots. 
 
 There are, I dare say, keener delights than 
 the cultivation of cabbages and cauliflowers ; 
 yet I am not sure of it, as I recall the fasci- 
 nation of pottering in the brown earth and 
 taking a hand in its miracles — not with the 
 languid sense of the sedentary man, to whom 
 a cabbage is merely a cabbage, but with facul- 
 ties quickened by fresh air and good blood, and 
 
 39 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 a pocket modestly sanguine. For the cabbage 
 and the cauliflower, and most things that grow 
 in a pot-garden, are but little known to him 
 who sees them only in the pot or on the plate. 
 To see them thus is to behold them in their 
 death, and the man who merely assists at 
 their obsequies and inters them stolidly in his 
 belly has as small notion of them as the citi- 
 zen digesting a meadow lark may have of the 
 flash of the wings and the carol in the grasses. 
 If he have a soul, and an eye which is more 
 than an optical convenience, the gardener will 
 walk among his vegetables with a joy beyond 
 the smacking of lips. He will see a country- 
 lass-like comeliness in the lusty leaves of his 
 cabbages, and thump their green polls as he 
 might fondle a cheek. He will gaze tenderly 
 into the white faces of his cauliflowers, as he 
 
 40 
 
The Second Season 
 
 wimples them with pinned leaves from the sun. 
 
 It was a high order of pleasure to sit upon 
 one end of a plank, with the new hand Lyell 
 at the other end, and fill files of seed-holes — 
 whilst the lake trembled with light to the hori- 
 zon, and the blue morning whitened to the noon. 
 To be with Lyell was always to be in choice 
 society. His kindly brown eyes, varying in a 
 wide range from mirth to reflective melancholy ; 
 his olive skin and black hair ; his sensitive 
 hands, skilful with earth ; and his weathered 
 russet coat and trousers, were above painting. 
 His converse, direct, and original with a fine 
 sincerity, quaint with rusticity and blameless 
 ignorance, gentle from native considerateness, 
 now shrewd and now unfoolishly simple, was 
 fit for patriarchs and husbandmen. 
 
 Pleasant it was to sow seeds with Lyell; 
 
 41 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 pleasant, also, in the late afternoon, to sprinkle 
 the young plants with a rain of clattering drops. 
 Farley and I would oftenest do this by our- 
 selves, our heads, necks, and forearms bared 
 to the soft wind, our legs naked above the knees 
 for the lake-wading. It was an outward trip, 
 with the empty water-cans swinging, the feet 
 first in the cushiony plough-land, and then on 
 the firm beach and in among the netting sun- 
 beams of the margin ; the eyes on the vast 
 slumbrous level, melting to violet in the offing. 
 It was an inward trip, with the muscles stiff- 
 ened to the burden, the legs and arms cooled 
 by the dip, and the eyes on the curtain of 
 pines, taking redness of the low sun. Forth 
 and back, forth and back, each turn a change 
 in the deepening color, perhaps till the sun was 
 gone and the silver of the moon was in the 
 
 42 
 
The Second Season 
 
 long ripple and the brimming cans, fa walk 
 to and fro with the watering-cans and whistle 
 in the twilight — this truly was a wage of the 
 day, if it had been wearisome and parching ; 
 for the heat and cares of it were done, and 
 here was its quintessence, in the commerce 
 with calm beauty and the fluting of mellow 
 notes — mellow notes for the maker, although 
 a sorry enough sibilation in others' ears, if 
 they had listened; for the whistler whistles to 
 kindle his fancy, and wakens fairy flutes and 
 horns, unheard by others, with the thin piping 
 of his lips. 
 
 The ears of Rufus would now and then heark- 
 en by the kitchen stove, and his mouth would 
 echo my staves — bettering them, I dare say — 
 in a mocking travesty above the frying-pan. 
 As I came in, he would eye me quizzically and 
 
 43 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 ask if I had been whistling for my supper. 
 Upon my accepting the thought, he woujd clap 
 a mound of griddle-cakes on the table, with the 
 remark, "NVeil, here it is, then." And with this 
 we would seat ourselves, Farley, Rufus, and I, 
 whilst the dogs beat their tails on the floor. 
 
 44 
 
The Cauliflower Crop 
 
 sun shot a milder and more oblique 
 f as the autumn waned, and t^^e even- 
 w chill enough for a hearth-fire of pine- 
 But the cauliflower and cabbage plants 
 /ith the copious dews, and in November 
 :ember we set them out in the field, 
 nsplanting on a jarge scale was novel to 
 a system was soon developed, and the 
 ok a military method. A little force of 
 inds was marshaled as the sun began 
 le. One hauled water and filled casks 
 d about the field ; another drew the 
 and cross-marker; others uprooted plants 
 e beds. When the sun was an hour or 
 
 45 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 so from the lake-rim, the plant-droppers went 
 ahead, like skirmishers, the main transplant- 
 ing body followed with flourishing trowels, and 
 the waterer brought up the rear. Finally, the 
 whole force turned about and filled the water- 
 ing-holes with a motion of the feet. 
 
 By the middle of December the fields bristled 
 with thrifty growth. The soil had been made 
 fat with muck from the marshes composted with 
 mineral plant-foods. The cauliflowers shot up 
 with extraordinary vigor ; their leaves rustled 
 like crisp silk, and drenched us to the waist 
 as we walked the rows in a search for heads. 
 Rufus observed the result with a respect tem- 
 pered by sarcasm. " Cauliflowers beginning 
 to caul ? " he would ask drily, as we emerged, 
 wet and sanguine, from their midst. 
 
 At length they began. Creamy buds appeared 
 
 46 
 
The Cauliflower Crop 
 
 d there at the hearts of the plants, 
 ited them out to Rufus, and he looked 
 without comment, humming the "Sweet 
 -bye," as his wont was when there 
 tiing to be said. We gathered bunches 
 
 broom-grass and cut the stiff stems 
 gths. With handfuls of these we pa- 
 :he long rows every morning, lool<ing 
 :entral curds. When one of these was 
 
 pair of leaves was drawn over it and 
 ogether with a grass-straw, to shut off 
 ling sun. Another pair of leaves was 
 ransversely over the first, and the heads 
 low-white in the green shade, 
 ent of the crop began in January. The 
 ind heads were loaded with dew in the 
 ; but at noon they had partly dried, 
 ; firmness by wilting. As the day de- 
 
 47 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 clined they would stiffen again to the crispness 
 necessary for shipment. From this time on the 
 work was sharp. Farley and I cut the stems 
 at the ground, and laid the severed plants in 
 heaps. These were taken in a wagon to the 
 packing-house ; and when they were gathered, 
 the sun was commonly at the horizon and the 
 men would be dismissed. 
 
 After supper, Farley, Rufus, and I would 
 hang lanterns in the packing-house, and labor 
 till the evening harvest was disposed of. The 
 heads were neatly trimmed of leaves, mopped 
 to remove vestiges of dew, covered with white 
 paper, and closely packed in crates or venti- 
 lated barrels. Sometimes the work would be 
 over by midnight. Often the morning sun would 
 be scarlet on the pines as we marked the last 
 barrels. The loads went off early to avoid the 
 
 48 
 
The Cauliflower Crop 
 
 noon heat, and were dispatched from Osseyo 
 City by express. 
 
 The epicure garnishing his midwinter meal 
 with cauliflower guesses little of the sedulous 
 labors that purvey it for his palate : the plough- 
 ing and reploughing in a Southern sun, the 
 transplanting with the knees in the soil, the 
 war with weeds and insects, the long wait- 
 ing upon rains and heats, the contumely of Rufus, 
 and the nodding toil beneath the stars. I once 
 sat near such a one, in a New York restaurant, 
 as he degusted the tender flowers and growled 
 at their costliness. "We have to pay well for 
 them ourselves, sir," said the waiter : "cauli- 
 flowers from Florida come high at this time of 
 year." The epicure snorted — his voice was 
 husky with animal well-being, and the thought 
 of extortion ruffled his placidity. "It's shame- 
 
 49 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 ful, simply shameful!" he declared. "The 
 growers must be a parcel of robbers!" And 
 he glanced at me, as much as to say, "You 
 feel with me, I'm sure. " But I did not. I look- 
 ed at his smug cheeks and gluttonous lips, at 
 his soft hands and bulging waistcoat, and wished 
 that he might earn his tidbits in the sun. "Sir," 
 I thought, "you are deficient in imagination; 
 you reason hastily upon abstruse matters. You 
 should take the gift of alien dews and be thank- 
 ful. The gentle cauliflower is unvengeful, but 
 there is indigestion in it, unless it be genially 
 absorbed. You are gazing on a purveyor, un- 
 aware. He wishes you no ill, but he is just : 
 he mildly disagrees with you, and prays that 
 the cauliflower may do likewise." 
 
 At this period we were uncertain of the prof- 
 itableness of cauliflowers, but we hoped much 
 
 50 
 
The Cauliflower Crop 
 
 from them. The first returns were fabulously 
 encouraging: the commission merchants poured 
 dollars and encomiums in our laps, and we 
 went about with a dream of wealth in our eyes. 
 The fame of the crop and of the returns went 
 abroad, like a murder, and the world looked in 
 upon us, on a sudden. Buggies and sailing- 
 boats brought excited investigators ; travelling 
 produce-agents gathered from all quarters. We 
 were called upon, day by day, to tell the secret 
 of our success, and blush in a circle of lis- 
 teners. If we had a key to wealth, it was plain 
 that other fingers were itching for it. We be- 
 came a mark for excursions : an enterprising 
 land-agent visited us with a steamer, a person- 
 ally conducted party, flying flags, and a report- 
 ing journalist. After this our glory was blown 
 upon the winds. The journalist wrote us up. 
 
 51 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 the land-agent cast the report liberally upon 
 the mails, and the region and ourselves were 
 enveloped in an atmosphere of fable. For a 
 long time after, we encountered this report, 
 re-copied and variously garbled — and smiled at 
 the affluence in which we were believed to be 
 rolling. It appeared that we had raised some 
 hundreds of barrels of cauliflowers per acre, 
 through the virgin richness of the soil, and 
 realized more than the profit of an acre of 
 wheat upon each barrel. Our costly applica- 
 tions of fertilizer and other minor facts were 
 overlooked in a spirit of statistical proportion, 
 and the account bristled with dollars. 
 
 52 
 
The "Freeze" 
 
 WE presently had occasion to take our 
 fame somewhat grimly, and to tarnish 
 it with a reputation for mendacity by reveal- 
 ing the facts. The earliest shipments had been 
 in cool weather ; the cauliflowers had started 
 crisp and sound on the northward journey, and 
 reached colder latitudes in a condition to go 
 safely through. But a warm spell followed, and 
 the cauliflowers began to wilt in the southern 
 part of the transit. The returns grew smaller, 
 and our consignees wrote of decay and unsala- 
 ble lots. There was still an average profit, 
 however, and we hoped for better luck. But 
 suddenly the cold returned in a long, keen- 
 
 53 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 blowing northern wind, and tlie bulk of the 
 crop was harvested with a sickle of frost. 
 
 It was our first taste of freezing weather in 
 Florida. The winter before had been cool at 
 times. We had looked out in many a sharp 
 dawn, expecting to see a rime on the fields ; 
 but there had not been so much as a feathered 
 grass-spear. The frost that killed our cauli- 
 flowers was without a fellow for fifty years 
 back, and we inevitably took it for the excep- 
 tion to the rule of mildness. This was the 
 general view of it, till it was found to be the 
 beginning of a term of cold winters, and but 
 a balmy forerunner of the greater "freezes" 
 which followed. 
 
 As it settled down upon us, we rallied cheer- 
 ily to fight it. The sting of the pure cold 
 invigorated us and gave us courage. The day 
 
 54 
 
The "Freeze" 
 
 went down in a yellow burnished glow beyond 
 the woods. The northern wind flowed out of 
 the twilight in a broad stream, and the crisp 
 grasses and pine-needles sang with it. We 
 made haste to gather wagon-loads of Spanish 
 moss and fat pine wood. The orange trees 
 were swathed in moss, and moss was heaped 
 over the maturer cauliflowers. Great fires were 
 kindled along the northern edges of the field, 
 and a curtain of smoke drifted all night beneath 
 the stars. But when the morning showed along 
 the east the soil was stiff with frost in the 
 very lee of the flames. 
 
 The sky darkened as if for snow, on the 
 following day, and the wind whitened the lake 
 in a steady roaring blast that sheeted the pier 
 with frozen spray. No snow fell upon the farm, 
 although a native, riding near by, saw a flurry 
 
 55 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 of feathers which he suspected — for he had 
 never seen it — to be snow. But otherwise the 
 distinctions of a thousand southerly miles were 
 done away, and for two days we had the 
 biting winds and iron furrows of New England. 
 It is a point of the art of living to take a 
 pleasure as though it cost nothing, if the price 
 of it must be paid, whether or no, or if it has 
 once been paid. In this vein we took the cold, 
 not from a spirit of virtue, but because we 
 must have been something else than Hyper- 
 boreans in blood and desire, not to feel the zest 
 of bluff air and the bleak beauty of a frozen 
 world. We had sighed sometimes for the North- 
 ern winter, and here it was, come down to us 
 with wonted aspects of earth and sky and the 
 rude mirth of buffetting winds. We set the 
 hearth flaming with a hearty Northern blaze, 
 
 56 
 
The "Freeze" 
 
 and drank to Winter, howling in the flue ; we 
 filled our lungs with the winey northern wind 
 and ran races on the beach ; we plucked icicles 
 from the pier, and longed for the snow that 
 hung in the gray clouds. We had paid our 
 crops for these pleasures, but the extravagance 
 was blameless — our purses had been used with- 
 out leave asked, and we might as well have 
 the good of it. 
 
 On the third day the thermometer rose above 
 the freezing-point, a warm sun shone out, and 
 the air was once more a tepid, unthrilling 
 draught. The dead cauliflowers, which had 
 been embalmed by the frost, drooped and fell 
 into decay, and we began to practice philoso- 
 phy. The cauliflower field was replanted with 
 potatoes, beans, cucumbers, and other garden 
 crops, and something was saved from the sea- 
 
 57 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 son's wreck. The returns, indeed, were con- 
 siderable, and a qualified success with the frosted 
 cabbages further heartened us. 
 
 58 
 
Some Neighbors 
 
 WE had not been long in the cottage 
 when there appeared, loosely racking 
 toward us on a diminutive white pony, a little 
 old man who looked as if he had ridden out of 
 a canvas of Teniers. He wore a slouch hat of 
 a velvet rustiness, a weathered coat, and huge 
 calf boots which dangled from his shrunken 
 pantaloons and rhythmically prodded the pony's 
 belly. He drew up at the cottage, and dis- 
 mounted by the simple process of tumbling 
 down. Then he hung the bridle-rein on his 
 elbow and came to the doorstep. 
 
 59 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 " I heered consider'ble hammerin' down yere 
 in this old 'meta (palmetto) patch ", he observ- 
 ed, with a twinkle: "an' I tuk a notion I'd 
 drop in an' see what was goin' on." 
 
 I held out my hand and shook a bunch of 
 gnarled fingers. " Very glad to see you, " 1 said. 
 " How do you do ?" 
 
 "Wal, I'm just so's to be about," he re- 
 joined : "my bones sorter ache. I'm an old man, 
 but pretty toler'ble peart." 
 
 "I'm very glad to see you," I repeated: 
 "Won't you come in ? " 
 
 The old man looked about him, with a slow, 
 non-committal survey. "I reckon I cain't stop," 
 he said reflectively : " I'm out huntin' haugs 
 (hogs). You hain't seen a speckled sow, with 
 cropped ears — an underbit and an overbit — 
 and six shoats, have you?" 
 
 60 
 
Some Neighbors 
 
 We knew the sow very well. She had been 
 one of the earliest of our woods neighbors to 
 call upon us, and the shoats were wont to make 
 selections from our larder ; but we had not seen 
 them for a day or two. 
 
 The old man's countenance fell. "I reckon 
 I'll have to feed them. " he said thoughtfully : 
 "Ef I don't give 'em a little corn now and then, 
 they ramble powerful. Wal, " he continued, 
 brightening a bit at this determination, "it 'pears 
 like you men mean to settle. " 
 
 I said we did, and asked if he was a neigh- 
 bor. "Sorter," he replied: "1 live yonder 
 by the section-line, about three-quarters of a 
 mile over that away" (he pointed a lean arm) : 
 "It's close quarters for folks with cows and 
 haugs. But you ain't expecting to keep a big 
 bunch of critters, I don't guess." 
 
 61 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 We reassured him on this point, and he 
 glanced up at the cottage. " How do you like 
 batchin' ? " he inquired. 
 
 "Batching?" said Farley, with a puzzled 
 countenance, " I'm not sure whether we 've 
 tried it." 
 
 The old man glanced about once more. 
 "Why," he said, "you ain't married, are you ? 
 I don't see no signs of wimmin-folk about, no 
 sun-bonnets or petticoats hangin' out to dry. 
 Folks said you was just batchin' down yere 
 by yourselves." 
 
 "Quite right," said Farley, with a smile. 
 
 The old man looked at him quizzically. 
 " Better git you a wife, " he said : " better git 
 you a wife, to cook, an' tote water, an' wash 
 clo's. I alius made It a pint to have a wife. 
 It makes things a heap easier." 
 
 62 
 
Some Neighbors 
 
 1 observed that this was true, but that we 
 thought we had better begin by batching. 
 
 The old man shook his head. "'Tain't the 
 right way to farm," he averred. "Some wimmin 
 ain't no 'count, of course, but a wife that knows 
 her business, and understands cows an' chickens, 
 is might' convenient." 
 
 " I reckon I'll go 'long, " he said presently : 
 " I 'Mowed mebbe you'd want some haulin' done, 
 bom-bye. I've got a wagon an' a team of auxen. 
 Ef you let me know the day befo', so I can 
 make my arrangemeants, 1 can do haulin' fer 
 yer, most any time. There's right smart of 
 cattle on the range, an' their fertilize is power- 
 ful good for orange-trees an' vegetables. Ef 
 you want any cow-chips, 1 can send my boys 
 to pick 'em up. My name's Rowley." 
 
 We thanked the old gentleman for his offer. 
 
 63 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 and he hoisted his boots into the stirrups and 
 ambled away. 
 
 Old Man Rowley grew to be a familiar fig- 
 ure about the farm. Whenever there was odd 
 hauling to be done, he would appear punctually 
 with a yoke of tiny steers, and a bargain would 
 be struck. We always welcomed him with 
 due respect for his age and picturesqueness, 
 and shook his gnarled fingers with a cordial, 
 "How do you do.'" — to which he invariably 
 replied : " Wal, I'm just toler'ble," or, " I'm so 's 
 to be about" — backwoods rejoinders of great 
 antiquity and propriety. The negotiations being 
 prefaced with a "Wal, I don't want to be hard 
 on my fellow-man," and concluded with a rea- 
 sonable stipulation, he would seat himself cross- 
 legged on the wagon, a little heap of boots and 
 bones, and drive off with aboriginal dignity. 
 
 64 
 
Some Neighbors 
 
 The "chipping" brought us other visitors, 
 from time to time. One Jawn (John) Pepper 
 was a frequent caller upon this business. He 
 pursued the vocation with a languor proper to 
 the climate, but on the whole with more per- 
 sistence than others, assisted by certain sun- 
 bonneted Peppers who hovered in the distance. 
 His father. Old Man Pepper, now and then took 
 a hand, and various microscopical Peppers rode 
 in upon a starveling pony attached to a two- 
 wheeled loaded cart, their little bare legs dang- 
 ling upon the shafts. 
 
 The Pepper cart was constructed of sticks and 
 hewn slats, pinned with whittled plugs — incon- 
 ceivably brittle and irresponsible. Whenever 
 it encountered a root or a depression, it collap- 
 sed at once and lay down upon a fallen wheel, 
 or prematurely deposited the load at the tail- 
 
 65 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 board, whilst the long shafts rose obtestingly to 
 the sky. These misfortunes always smote the 
 Peppers with a sense of the vast difficulty of 
 life. Jawn said: "There!" as one who had 
 known how it would be, Old Man Pepper stood 
 by, wooden with impotency, and the little 
 Peppers detached the pony and rode silently 
 away, till their elders should have eaten and 
 drunk, and whittled a fresh plug. 
 
 A more stirring personage to see was Joseph 
 Maneer, a lord of herds and droves, whose 
 confines met our own, where the far lake-side 
 prairie was edged with woods. We rarely saw 
 him out of the saddle, but we often met him 
 pricking a spirited bay with a sweeping tail — 
 a burly figure of a man, with authoritative blue 
 eyes and a hawk-nose, sitting his mount like 
 a baron. Or we would come upon him as the 
 
 66 
 
Some Neighbors 
 
 ;eneralissinio of an army of cattle, two aides 
 ipurring on either wing, with exploding whips 
 ind a winding jodel of cattle cries. I amused 
 nyself by fancying him in chain-mail, with a 
 :runcheon in his fist, till I met him at last afoot, 
 ind found him quite an everyday fat person. 
 But we mostly saw him mounted, and he kept 
 I little glamor ; for his melodious cow-boys 
 odelled daily in the twilight, and if the far 
 jrairie was black with cattle, or the lake-edge 
 ustled with them, it would be remarked that 
 'them was a bunch of Maneer's cows," or 
 omebody would say: "Joe Maneer owns a 
 light of cattle ! " Also, we remembered how 
 ve had once watched him spur superbly after 
 lur town-team, just returned at the gate. It 
 lad been only to restore a spilled lard-tin, but 
 t looked like a passage-at-arms, and he had 
 
 67 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 handed over the tin, wheeling, with the bay's 
 tail in the dust, in a manner that lingered in 
 our minds and invested him with romance. 
 
 Another striking figure was Old Man Monson, 
 a transplanted Georgian, with a Roman visage 
 and a strong presence, whether afoot or in the 
 saddle. He had been twenty years settled on 
 a high " hammock " remote from the lake, and 
 to us he was of a piece with his neighbors, 
 except for a slight difference of dialect. But 
 he still spoke with amused disdain of "dese 
 yere Flurridy people" and "deir quare ways 
 o' doin'." "All Flurridy's a plumb cur'osity," 
 he was wont to say, a slow smile wrinkling 
 his thin lips: "Dat's w'at it is, hifs a plumb 
 cur'osity. " 
 
 We used sometimes to ride over to his place, 
 for a call, tieing our horses to the tall fence 
 
 68 
 
Some Neighbors 
 
 of zig-zag rails that fortified his land. We 
 might find him among slim stalks of corn, one 
 arm guiding the plough, and the fingerless 
 stump of the other bearing on the reins, stretch- 
 ed about the handles. Or he would greet us 
 at the gate with homely stateliness, and stalk 
 before us to the veranda of his rambling log- 
 house. It was a pictorial approach under live- 
 oaks dripping with moss, and deep-hued orange- 
 trees thick with golden balls. 
 
 We commonly sat in a low "po'ch," wall- 
 less at both ends, that made an airy hall-way 
 to the rear "po'ch." Fresh oranges would have 
 been plucked by the way, and we would listen 
 and respond in a gurgle of spicy pulp, as Old 
 Man Monson discoursed of corn, and orange 
 shipments, and forays of "haugs" in the pota- 
 to-patch, and "dese ole Flurridy flat-woods." 
 
 69 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 As a person of property and character, he 
 was on the school-board — although he had no 
 tincture of spelling and other learning, and 
 shared a local impression that Europe was one 
 of the United States. We found him once in- 
 censed over a mutiny of young Crackers at 
 the district-school. He had ridden to the scene 
 of it, shotgun in hand, and made a speech, and 
 he was just returned. 
 
 "Wat do you t'ink I found, over dere?" he 
 inquired, his gray eye kindling and his hand- 
 less stump sweeping with a slow gesticulation, 
 "I found dey'd turned de teacher out o' do's ! 
 Dere dey wuz — a-shootin' and a-hollerin', des 
 like a passil o' heathen. Hit wuz de low-down- 
 est t'ing 1 ever see ! 
 
 Wat did I do .? I went to de do' an' tole 
 'em dey better open it, ef dey did n't want to 
 
 70 
 
Some Neighbors 
 
 have it blowed open wi' buckshot. Dey open- 
 ed it den, might' quick ; an' w'en I went in, 
 dere de wuz, a-settin' as cool as you please, 
 like dey had n't done no devilmeant 't all ! 
 
 I looked round at 'em fer a w'ile, an' den I 
 done tole 'em w'at I thought. I said dey ought 
 to be plumb 'shamed o' deirselves. I said I 
 wuz n't a-gwine to stand no sich goin's on. I 
 tole 'em me, an' Ole Man Rowley, an' Ole 
 Man Pepper, an' Ole Man Maneer, an' all de 
 rest o' de settlemeant done paid money to have 
 'em have a teacher — an' here dey wuz a-run- 
 nin' her off, like a nigger ! 
 
 I said dey wuz n't no 'count, an dey would n't 
 be no 'count, ef dey wuz a-gwine to do like 
 dat. I tole 'em dey got to do different. I said 
 hit wuz de hardest kind o' work to git a teacher 
 to come down here in de woods — an' dis totin' 
 
 71 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 revolvers to school, an' shootln' holes in de 
 blackbo'd, an' bustin' de windeys, an spittin' 
 terbacker on de flo' wuz 'nuff to disgust any 
 respectable woman. I said she done right to 
 object to it ; an' ef any of 'em tuk to devilin' 
 her again, or usin' langwitch, or doin' sich-like 
 depredations, dey'd have to be dispelled from 
 school ! Dat's w'at I tole 'em," he concluded, 
 with an energetic wave of the stump, "dat's 
 w'at I done tole 'em ! " 
 
 We had a neighbor of a different stripe, a 
 half-mile away on the lake shore, an elderly 
 person of piratical aspect and smooth address, 
 who bore an evil fame. It was said that he 
 was "mean," in other words, treacherously 
 vengeful and underhanded. He was suspected 
 of the cardinal backwoods sin of stealing a 
 stray "haug" or so, now and then ; but he was 
 
 72 
 
Some Neighbors 
 
 a person of discretion, and took pains not to 
 be found out. 
 
 Our own relations with him were mostly 
 satisfactory, and his reputation enhanced, in 
 some sort, his sinister agreeableness. He 
 was a man of intelligence, sympathetically con- 
 versable, silvery and soothing of speech, and 
 he had a fund of war and other reminiscences. 
 His wild curling hair and chin-tuft, his genial- 
 ly dangerous eyes, and other piratical attributes 
 gave a flavor to a chat with him on the beach 
 in a lowering dusk. At the busy season, he 
 plied an occasional hoe for us with care and 
 fidielity. He had a stealthy humor and an open 
 air relish for bacon. It is my impression that an 
 occasional lost "haug" was sweet upon his lips. 
 
 73 
 
The Third Season 
 
 Two farming seasons had now, as w< 
 thought, instructed us in the business 
 We had formed opinions about the best seed: 
 and crops for our latitude and soils, abou 
 methods of sowing, cultivation, and shipment 
 All these matters, which seem simple in th( 
 gross, were an art in the detail. The plantinj 
 of potatoes, for instance, was not a thing to bi 
 well done, out of hand. The tubers must b( 
 cut with the eyes in the middle of the seed 
 pieces, and the moist surfaces then be sprinklec 
 with dry soil ; the seed must be equidistantl} 
 dropped in freshly opened earth, and coverec 
 before the sun dried the furrows. The fertili 
 
 74 
 
The Third Season 
 
 zer must be nicely calculated, so much per row 
 for a given amount per acre, and the propor- 
 tion rendered in terms of bucketfuls and strewn 
 handfuls ; it must be evenly sown and 'stirred 
 in, to avoid burning the sprouts. All parts of 
 the work must be carried on in due relation, 
 with the seed and the fertilizer barrels at con- 
 venient points, the opening-plough started soon 
 enough, but not too soon, the covering-plough 
 kept close after the last seed-droppings, the 
 rows run even and lineable, that the after cul- 
 tivation might be with horse-tools. Everything 
 must be understood, foreseen, and adapted to 
 the varying conditions of soil and weather. 
 The working-force must be organized, inspirited, 
 and watched ; errors must be corrected with- 
 out ruffling susceptibilities ; men must be moved 
 from parts of the work that advanced too quick- 
 
 75 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 \y to parts that flagged ; a general spirit o 
 carefulness, alacrity, and good-will must b( 
 maintained. What was true of this seemingl) 
 plain crop was true of the others. The farm 
 work was like a complex game with simple 
 cards, always presenting new combinations anc 
 perennially shuffled by the weather. 
 
 The management of men was a nice part oi 
 the problem, one that drew steadily on the 
 tact and the understanding. But the relation 
 was mainly one of mutual confidence, and the 
 draught, though exacting, was almost uncon- 
 scious. Farley and I were each commonly ad- 
 dressed as "Cap'n," after an example set bj 
 Lyell. The term seemed to bring us nearer t( 
 the men than our patronymics would have 
 done. It expressed our position, with a sub- 
 flavor of kindly humor unmingled with disre 
 
 7« 
 
The Third Season 
 
 spect. This last, indeed, was unknown to us 
 in the little shifting band we "captained." 
 Perhaps it does not readily make its appear- 
 ance in simple and natural relations. The daily 
 work which we shared kept us in touch with 
 the men. We had occasion to realize how much 
 endurance, fidelity, and intelligence accompanied 
 the hoe and the plough. Perceiving this, from 
 hour to hour, we felt a regard and an interest 
 which prevented artificial barriers from arising. 
 Such natural barriers as there were, in heredi- 
 tary or other difference, seemed to need no 
 emphasis. We had no theory of the matter, 
 but the men, for the most part, appeared prac- 
 tically to become our friends. We never "or- 
 dered them about," not from indisposition to 
 needful peremptoriness, but because it never 
 seemed suitable in such willing and pleasant 
 
 77 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 association. I suppose our method would have 
 been thought ludicrously polite by many a driv- 
 ing boss or foreman, but it worked well. The 
 personal part of the management was, never- 
 theless, a nice task. There were varieties 
 of aptitude to be borne in mind, and adjusted 
 for the best results. Now and then a man 
 would have a touch of grumbling low spirits 
 or absent-mindedness, and a few frank words 
 would be needed. Oftener it would be essen- 
 tial, without making too much of it, to imply 
 appreciation of skilful or faithful work, and 
 thus keep alive the most valuable elements of 
 service. 
 
 The men regularly employed were nearly 
 all of the "poor white" class, a class which 
 our experience inclined us to esteem. They 
 came from the various Southern states, and 
 
 78 
 
The Third Season 
 
 brought a habit of industry less nervous and 
 superficially energetic than the Northern, but 
 not less telling in the long result. There was 
 tact and a flavor of courtesy in their conver- 
 sation — little of the elbowing manner and crude 
 asserting and denying of the Yankee ; their way 
 of speech was unhurried and agreeable ; they 
 appeared to be devoid of grossness. In short, 
 they were men with whom a gentleman might 
 be at ease, as with a homely variety of his 
 own species. 
 
 We entered the third season with some con- 
 fidence. Various crops had been tried on small 
 areas. Cabbages and potatoes had specially 
 thriven and proved to be shipable, and the 
 greater part of the plough-land was devoted 
 to them. The fields had been extended far 
 along the lake side, to include a tract of marsh 
 
 79 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 dried by a further lowering of the water. Th« 
 soil was here a residuum of decayed bog-plants, 
 deep and mellow, which bore heavy rains 
 without saturation, and sucked up the sub- 
 moisture steadily in dry weather. It was of a 
 glowing umber color that warmed the sunlight, 
 and when it was darkened by rain the folia- 
 tions and glistening greens of the crops lay on 
 it like designs on velvet. Transplants in this 
 part of the farm started without the watering 
 that was needful in the sandier earths. The 
 setting out of cabbage-plants proceeded, accord- 
 ingly, with dispatch. 
 
 We had improved the details of the process, 
 and took satisfaction in its speed. The fields, 
 as ploughed, lay in "lands" parted by water- 
 furrows — broad brown ribbons, some hundreds 
 of yards long, slightly rounded, like the ribs ol 
 
 80 
 
The Third Season 
 
 a corduroy. Along these the row-marker was 
 drawn by a practiced hand, its teeth making 
 a pattern of equidistant parallels, accurately 
 straight from end to end. A marker was then 
 drawn cross-wise of the "lands," and plants 
 were dropped at the intersections of the lines. 
 Each transplanter moved in the space between 
 two pairs of lines, and set four plants, two 
 on either hand, before moving forward to the 
 next cross-mark. The pace was given by the 
 man naturally briskest, and the others had a 
 pride in keeping it. Each plant was caught 
 up between the left thumb and forefinger, a 
 thrust of the trowel opened a hole, the roots 
 were laid in this, and the loose earth was 
 packed to them with a pressure of the right 
 fist and the trowel-handle. Whilst you might 
 moderately count ten, every man would have 
 
 SI 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 set four plants and moved to another four. 
 This was the practical aspect. There was 
 also the picturesque side. An onlooker might 
 see Rufus, like Millet's "Sower," stalking sol- 
 emnly ahead with an armful of green stuff, his 
 right hand rhythmically drawn in and thrust 
 out, as he dropped the plants. Behind him 
 came five or six motley personages in weath- 
 ered garments of a ripe antiquity, crawling on 
 their knees, and as it w'ere viciously stabbing 
 and fisting the soft earth. Rufus, crooning a 
 Moody and Sankey hymn, might be likened to 
 a ghostly superior imposing penance ; and his 
 followers to penitents engaged in some uncouth 
 rite of self-mortification — for the prick of emu- 
 lation gave a silent Trappist fervor to the toil, 
 and the hands and legs of the toilers were 
 humbly embrued with muck. Meanwhile, the 
 
 82 
 
The Third Season 
 
 low sun struck red across the field, and a little 
 company of shadows gesticulated beside the 
 workers. When the sun was gone the group 
 dispersed ; and Farley, Rufus, and I wended 
 homeward along the beach — the embers of a 
 cloud, or, if it were late, an early star trem- 
 bling in the broad water. On the following 
 day and for two or three days after, the plants 
 drooped, if it were sunny ; but they soon . took 
 root and broadened. 
 
 83 
 
Shipments and Navigation 
 
 As the season advanced, the bulk of the 
 increased harvest made us take to the 
 water for our freighting. A lighter was built 
 and moored off the beach ; and this or a hired 
 lighter was heaped in the early morning with 
 packed crates and barrels, and taken in tow 
 for Osseyo City by a steamer. In the spring 
 the energies of the farm force were centered 
 on this task. A mountain of cage-like crates, 
 nailed together at the packing-house, was ac- 
 cumulated between shipments. The cabbage- 
 heads, gathered in sacks, were stripped of 
 loose leaves and wedged in the crates, which 
 were then closed, labeled, and carted to the 
 
 84 
 
Shipments and Navigation 
 
 lighter. The potatoes were sorted by sizes 
 and barreled. If the weather allowed, this was 
 done on the beach, with the lake shimmering 
 at hand, and perhaps the smoke of the ap- 
 proaching steamer quickening the work. Three 
 hoarse blasts of her whistle would be the sig- 
 nal for every nerve to be strained ; the last 
 loads would be hurried aboard, the mules and 
 oxen splashing the bright water ; and then all 
 would be still again, save for the farewell blast 
 and the throb of the departing engines. 
 
 The gathering of potatoes was a sociable toil. 
 The men plied their digging-hoes by twos and 
 threes in adjoining rows, with an accompani- 
 ment of gossip and ringing laughter. It had, 
 too, a zest of subterraneous exploration, like 
 mining. One stroke of the hoe would unearth 
 a disappointment, perhaps only a single big 
 
 85 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 tuber among a cluster of "seconds;" but the 
 next would make up for it, and lay bare a hat- 
 ful of fat potatoes. The tubers came clean and 
 abundant out of the brown marsh soil, and 
 made a great volume of valuable shipments. 
 
 With favoring winds, we freighted a huge 
 catamaran that spread sails like a sea-going ves- 
 sel. But these voyages, though mostly lucky 
 in the carriage of cargo, were subject to the 
 caprice of the winds. The catamaran, built for 
 shallow navigation, displaced little water and 
 much air. Her high-floating twin hulls caught 
 a head wind more copiously than the sails. 
 Before the wind, or with a beam wind, she 
 made a fme showing, and swept the cabbages 
 swellingly into port. But if the breeze shifted 
 ahead, no one could tell what would come of it. 
 Departures in her were, accordingly, under- 
 
 86 
 
Shipments and Navigation 
 
 taken only with a propitious wind. I, her in- 
 ventor, was generally her navigator and crew, 
 putting forth on the little inland main with a 
 rich senSe of adventure. The run to Osseyo 
 City was made in an hour or two, uniformly 
 without mishaps. The freight being transferred 
 to the railway station, and some house supplies 
 taken on, I made haste to re-embark, for the 
 real adventure now commonly began. 
 
 The return wind, I believe, was never known 
 to be fair. Sometimes there was none at all, or 
 a catspaw that shifted ahead with every tack; 
 sometimes there was a gale from the precisely 
 wrong quarter. The lake, always beautiful, 
 was often surpassingly so at these times. Now 
 and then it was ridged in dark ultramarine 
 furrows, lipped with foam, which the twin prows 
 cut like lances. Again, it would be dreaming 
 
 87 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 in lilac calms feathered with blue breezes, and 
 the catamaran would drift lazily hither and 
 thither — down the blazing highway that led to 
 the sinking sun ; then, with a shift of the helm, 
 out upon a plain of flaw-marbled glass ; now 
 toward a ruddy bluff of cloud ; and again, toward 
 the purple fringe of the westerly woods. One 
 thing was certain : whether it ploughed a crisp- 
 ing swell or drifted with desultory breezes, the 
 catamaran would make leeway as if that were 
 its proper business, and consume the day and 
 perhaps part of the night, whilst Farley and 
 Rufus were speculating on its whereabouts, and 
 gibing at its inventor. Two or three times it 
 had a waft of good wind after many adverse 
 hours, and bore down upon its moorings while 
 it might still be seen. But such winds blow 
 rarely for misbegotten things. Usually thed ay 
 
 88 
 
Shipments and Navigation 
 
 was gone, and the solitary mariner had long 
 been steering by the stars, when the cottage 
 beacon shone round "The Point," with hints 
 of supper and a bed in its ray. If there were 
 a moori, the night hours, however wfeary and 
 lerlten, took a spectral glamor worth the fast. 
 But under inky heavens and oncoming storm, 
 it was more moving. With aching limbs and 
 a hunger that fainted from neglect, I have 
 beaten to and fro in sheer blackness, sailing 
 on one tack till the further shore showed sud- 
 denly under the bows, and then on the other 
 till the hither shore was suspected — with thun- 
 der rolling up from the south, and only a ran- 
 dom vicious flash to show the course ; and 
 I have cast anchor far-off, and disembark- 
 ed in the small morning hours, to fmd my 
 way home by the feeling of the feet on the 
 
 89 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 beach, in torrents of rain — with a delicious 
 sense of lonely misery and misfortune. 
 
 Let no one who has not tried it fancy that 
 the luxuries of frontier life lie in cabinet organs 
 and cases of claret, in tinned plum-puddings 
 and the indigestions of civilization. The real 
 luxuries of the life are the hardships of it — 
 the long endurances of wind and sun, the gro- 
 tesque paucity of inessentials, the grim humors 
 of circumstance, the aching muscles, and the 
 blissful stupefactions of fatigue. 
 
 We now went often to town, for the mail 
 or groceries, in the little Egret ; and a sail in 
 her was a delicate water-pleasure, for she was 
 apt in all sailing points, and a light pull 
 for the oars. She would slip swiftly over the 
 shining miles, the ripples tinkling at her bow, 
 and bring us home again with no more delay 
 
 90 
 
Shipments and Navigation 
 
 than a little waiting on the wind, if it were 
 calm and we disinclined for the oars. These 
 trips to civilization polished us and sensibly 
 thinned the rust of the woods. We affected a 
 stoicism, as persons not unused to the world ; 
 but, emerging fresh from the wilderness, we 
 were secretly a little dazed as we came among 
 men. The small city gleamed pleasantly amid 
 its pines, and cast a picture on the wave. Here 
 were the triple verandas and red roofs of the 
 hotel; yonder the blue and white business 
 "blocks; "the square belfry and green blinds 
 of the Methodist church rose among its live- 
 oaks, and the Baptist church uplifted a horn ; 
 here were cottages, and even houses ; there 
 the new bank, painted in three colors, and some 
 buildings of brick. Pleasure-boats put forth 
 with a freight of muslined femininity ; people 
 
 91 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 went to and fro, in a holiday mood, on the 
 verandas ; a train drew up at the station, and 
 a locomotive bound for far cities panted on 
 the rails. 
 
 We entered these stirring scenes with a 
 certain thrill and a wary self-command, as 
 of rustics minded not to stare too curiously. 
 There were lists of supplies to be filled ; per- 
 haps a hardware and a dry-goods store to 
 be nonchalantly visited, as if it were quite an 
 every- day thing to be at leisure and make 
 purchases. And when these things were done, 
 there were newly distributed mails, with pre- 
 cious letters. Lastly came the strange expe- 
 rience of a hotel dinner, served luxuriously in 
 little oval dishes that some one else washed. 
 When this was eaten, we commonly lingered 
 on the hotel piazzas with fellow farmers, gath- 
 
 92 
 
Shipments and Navigation 
 
 ered from about the lake, and voluble upon 
 drought, freight charges, and mutilated returns. 
 Or there might be a sojourning beauty or two, 
 curious about frontier ways, and, Desdemona- 
 Uke, willing to listen sympathetically to a tale 
 of tanned Othellos. 
 
 The sinking sun roused us from these dal- 
 liances : the Egret's sail was hoisted to the 
 breeze, and her stem once more pointed for 
 the wilds. There was a strange delightfulness 
 in these twilight cruises, a sense of satisfied 
 home-returning oddly at variance with departure 
 from comfortable meals and the neighborhood 
 of men. The city sank away in a mellow 
 dusk, its lights sparkling out here and there ; 
 the bearded cypress on the halfway point grew 
 on the darkening waste ; the little Egret bound- 
 ed sanguinely over the waves; and by and 
 
 93 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 by, lo ! yonder — the far pale curve of the farm 
 beach, and Rufus' lantern twinkling like a star 1 
 
 94 
 
Some Results 
 
 THE farmer is everywhere a much enduring 
 animal. The burden of the social fabric 
 lies on his patient back. Society sits astride, 
 sleek and well-fed, and picks tid-bits from his 
 panniers. For his part, he munches thistles. 
 Now and then he ruminates upon the matter, 
 and his heels appear suddenly in the air. 
 Whereupon Society pats his rough coat and 
 flatters his long ears, and he jogs sullenly on. 
 This is perhaps a providential arrangement for 
 the farmer, as well as for Society. It gives him 
 an opportunity to practice virtue, and a license to 
 grumble. We grumbled over the returns from 
 our cabbages and potatoes ; but these mounted 
 altogether to a large figure, and they were 
 
 95 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 swelled by additions from the smaller crops : 
 the cucumbers and onions that mostly dried 
 away in a long drought, the egg-plants that 
 mostly ripened too late, the beans and toma- 
 toes that bore indifferently in the low soil, the 
 little field of cauliflowers nipped anew by the 
 frost. The money receipts were triple those 
 of the year before, and seemed to promise 
 well for the future. 
 
 In this comparatively rosy aspect of the farm 
 there was a natural blossoming of hopefulness 
 and matrimony. Rufus succumbed, and Seth, 
 and Lyell's son, Needham — and the little Love- 
 god hovered above the harvest. — Seth's woo- 
 ing had gone forward stealthily at many a 
 "frolic" in the woods cabins : for Seth was of 
 a cautious turn, and perhaps conscious of lack- 
 ing some of the elements of success. He had 
 
 96 
 
Some Results 
 
 a dear blue eye, indeed, and sterling virtues. 
 No one on the farm was steadier, no one more 
 gallant in the ticklish work of branding cattle. 
 But gray streaks were in his hair and he was 
 thin — a mere linear energy in clothes, al- 
 though hale and able. Moreover, he was 
 smitten with the belle of the woods, lustrous- 
 eyed and soft-voiced, but of uncertain mood. 
 Seth's prudence now and then sided with the 
 maiden's caprice ; hers was a dubious family 
 to marry into, a wild strain, quick with knives 
 and pistols, and desperately poor ; Madeline's 
 household virtues were unknown. But she 
 was convincingly fair. Seth resolved at last 
 that he would marry her, if he might, though 
 he should rue it for the rest of his days. This 
 we learned from his simple lips, when he came 
 one evening to tell us that he expected to "git 
 
 97 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 him a cook." We suppressed a smile at the 
 form of the tidings, and assented to a loan of the 
 horse and buggy, and Seth drove off for a few 
 days. When he returned, it was with a jus- 
 tifying piece of beauty. The two dwelt in a 
 small building within sight of the cottage. The 
 young wife seemed pensive at first, her large 
 eyes swimming in a deer-like bewilderment ; 
 but she settled quietly into matrimony and the 
 cooking of meals, and made a pleasing figure : 
 whether she trode lightly, with dangling water- 
 buckets, to the lake; or "battled clo's," with 
 tucked skirts and shapely bared arms ; or came 
 out, with sun-gleams on her print frock, to 
 hew wood with an axe. Seth took his bliss, 
 and whatever disillusions it brought, with a 
 native taciturnity. But he unbosomed himself 
 a little to Lyell. It appeared that the beauty 
 
 98 
 
Some Results 
 
 by and by grew indolent, and "lay a-bed" in 
 the morning. Finding admonishment fruitless, 
 Seth cooked the breakfasts for a time. At length, 
 with honest woods discipline, he "took the stick 
 to her," and she once more rose betimes. 
 
 Needham had been used to ramble on about 
 marriage, with a refrain of cackling laughter. 
 According to him, there was a "heap of fool- 
 ishness" in it. Some fellers made out they 
 was in love, and just let a girl do what 
 she liked with 'em. He, it seemed, knew 
 better. He meant to look about and pick him 
 out a girl with cows and right smart of land. 
 But presently he came to marriageable years, 
 a healthy youth, with curling black hair and 
 a kind of simple peasant beauty ; and a neat, 
 almost cultivated little person, landless, cow- 
 less, and as unsuitable as possible,, loved him 
 
 99 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 and was loved. Lyell objected to the affair, 
 and interposed a veto. But matters were not 
 mended thereby : the forest ways were open, 
 and Needham was not to be kept at home. 
 In his bafflement, Lyell hit on a scheme that 
 seemed to him the flower of parental subtlety. 
 The girl had been seen by Needham only in 
 Sunday gowns, or attired for the twilight woo- 
 ing. He should see her in the daily calico and 
 sun-bonnet, above the frying-pan and the tub. 
 She was accordingly invited for a visit — which, 
 in this laborious plain life, meant a sharing of 
 the house-work — and other youths were encour- 
 aged to dangle about her, to "git up a jee- 
 lousy." The "jeelousy" was Lyell's master- 
 card ; he counted on it with ludicrous confi- 
 dence. Needham, he thought, would be "plumb 
 disgusted" by it. But it proved to be other- 
 
 100 
 
Some Results 
 
 wise. The sun-bonnet added a charm, the 
 frying-pan took a glamor, and the "jeeiousy" 
 was the very shaft of Cupid. Lyell threw up 
 his hand, and the game at hearts was won. 
 
 We were perhaps more interested in the woo- 
 ing of Rufus than in any other romance of the 
 farm. On the face of it, there was an inhe- 
 rent improbability that made it piquant. Rufus 
 was naturally a misogynist, and he nursed a 
 causticity toward everything Floridian. The 
 sun-bonneted female was a standing butt for 
 his humor. He had once come upon a couple 
 of woods nymphs seated in a cabin "po'ch," 
 with pipes in their mouths ; and it was better 
 than a play to see him mimic them. But one 
 day, as he was killing a possum that had crept 
 under the kitchen, two ponies drew up at the 
 door. On one of them was a little brown- 
 
 101 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 legged boy; on the other a sun-bonneted girl, 
 seated sidewise on a man's saddle. 
 
 "Killin' a possum, are yer ? " queried the 
 little boy, unnaturally grave. 
 
 Rufus took a quizzical sense of the visitors. 
 "I call it a polecat," he observed, winking 
 toward the cottage. 
 
 The little boy looked contemplatively at the 
 possum. "What makes yer call it a polecat ? " 
 he asked. 
 
 Rufus winked again. "Because I killed it 
 with a pole." 
 
 The little boy meditated upon this ; but the 
 sun-bonnet emitted a peal of laughter like 
 blown flute-notes, and fell back from a silvery 
 blonde head. 
 
 Rufus looked at the wearer. He liked to quiz ; 
 he liked still better to have his quizzing relished. 
 
 102 
 
Some Results 
 
 The girl looked at Rufus, with a flush beneath 
 her clear tan. "You're Rufus, ain't you?" 
 she asked shyly. 
 
 Rufus nodded. "Who are you ?" he awkward- 
 ly inquired. 
 
 The girl smiled. "I 'llowed you was Rufus," 
 she observed: "Folks said you was comical. 
 My name's Maneer — Mandy," she added, as 
 if to explain. There was something touching 
 in the word : it fell softly and, as it were, ap- 
 pealingly from her lips. Everyone, it was clear, 
 was expected to have heard of Mandy. 
 
 But she seemed suddenly to bethink herself ; 
 her two hands rose to adjust the sun-bonnet, 
 and her comely brown arms showed to the 
 elbows. "I come to buy a mess o' greens," 
 she said sedately : "Maw's puny, and she cain't 
 eat bacon and sich ; and so Paw told me to go 
 
 103 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 over to Mr, Rowley's for some cabbage. But 
 Mr. Rowley's haugs has broke out and destroy- 
 ed his cabbage-patch. Mr. Rowley he studied 
 about it, and he reckoned mebbe you 'd let me 
 have a mess — bein' as you had such a heap. 
 He told me I could bring Wesley, here, with 
 me," she concluded, looking at her small escort. 
 This speech, delivered in a mellow adagio 
 which was, but should not be called, a drawl, 
 was of the sort to sharpen Rufus' satire — but 
 I noted, glancing through the blinds, that his 
 countenance was softened, perhaps a little lack- 
 adaisical. He seemed to be conscious that he 
 was not playing his usual part — for he jerked 
 the pole abruptly under the kitchen, and hum- 
 med a bar of "The Sweet By and By." "All 
 right, a-1-1 right!" he said, as he took the 
 pony's bit, to lead it to the cabbage fi^ld. 
 
 104 
 
Some Results 
 
 " Come along, Ginger ! You can stay here, 
 sonny, and see whether the pole-cat's playing 
 possum. " 
 
 But this arrangement did not suit Mandy. 
 " I reckon he better come too," she said de- 
 murely, and the little Cracker followed, 
 
 Rufus was not quite the same, after this. 
 His mimetic vein ceased to flow, he whistled 
 oftener and more sentimentally — and when 
 we remarked on it, he asked curtly what we 
 we would have a fellow do with his mouth. 
 He borrowed the horse and buggy now and 
 then. It was observable that he generally bor- 
 rowed a cabbage or a cauliflower at the same 
 time. The sequel showed that these clandestine 
 shipments were successful — but there was that 
 about Rufus which forbade inquiry, at the time. 
 
 105 
 
The Fourth Season 
 
 THUS far the outlook had been pleasantly 
 auroral, but it now began to change. 
 Little by little, in our three laborious seasons, 
 we had learned to encounter the difficulties of 
 our undertaking, and we fancied that we knew 
 them all. The farm had raised increasing har- 
 vests of vegetables, and it now began to raise 
 a little thrifty livestock: cattle ranging the 
 grass-land, swine fattening on the crop waste, 
 and tow-haired children of the hands, indirectly 
 sprung from the returns. These things had 
 been fought for and wrung from a raw soil and 
 a climate which was an ambush of surprises. 
 The farm had also begun to yield a crop of 
 
 106 
 
The Fourth Season 
 
 expectations, and it seemed as if these were 
 to be harvested. To recur to the metaphor 
 I have used, the aspects were those of a slow 
 sunrise, bound to be accompanied with a little 
 gold at last. But it was really a sunset time, 
 and the prospect was brightening only to dark- 
 en the more blankly. 
 
 When we gathered for the fourth season, we 
 found the lake overbrimmed and rippling far 
 inland. The unsubmerged fallows were too soft 
 for the foot ; even the sandier earths were sod- 
 den with long rains. The wet season had been 
 phenomenal, and it was still at its height a 
 month after it commonly closed. There was 
 nothing for it but to sow seeds for transplants, 
 and trust that there might by and by be dry 
 land to receive them. 
 
 The rain paused, the lake fell, the fields here 
 
 107 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 and there upbore the plough, and we hastened 
 to make up for lost weeks. The rain paused 
 till we had planted large tracts. Then it fell 
 upon our work, and undid it. It held off again, 
 and again we planted ; and once more it fell 
 upon us, like a lurking cat upon mice. Writ- 
 ing after the event, I should seem to tell only 
 of fatuities if I were to say how often we re- 
 planted, and how often we were redeluged. We 
 seized upon each fair day, we contested every 
 inch, as it were, of the season and the farm, 
 till the lake had risen from the lowland to the 
 upland, and the last tilled acre was expunged. 
 The normal rainy season is of about four 
 months' length ; the heavy rains of this year 
 lasted for eight months. When it was too late 
 to plant for market, the skies cleared and the 
 lake withdrew with our costly flotsams. 
 
 108 
 

The Fourth Season 
 
 Certain weeks of this flood-time were cu- 
 riously pleasant. After the agony of the struggle 
 there came a truce. The season was lost, the 
 farm-hands were dispersed, and our hopes and 
 cares were ended for a time. We lay on our 
 arms and looked indifferently on the victorious 
 waters. Farley sat all day before an easel in 
 the still lakeside chamber, I thumbed old classics 
 by a crackling hearth, and the rains tinkled on 
 the roof. By turns, we went down to light 
 the kitchen fire and tend the kettle and the 
 skillets. We grumbled at these tasks, yet we 
 r?ither enjoyed the making of meals. When the 
 table was cleared, we washed the dishes so- 
 ciably in a little red kitchen like a ship's galley. 
 Afterward, Farley mounted the latticed stair, 
 and I paced the veranda, above the flood, as 
 Noah may have paced the Ark's quarter-deck. 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 The scene had a primeval quality that fits the 
 parallel. The cottage lawn, indeed, was mown 
 and set with orange-trees, but all beyond was 
 the immemorial wilderness of the Seminoles. 
 Their arrow-heads lay thick in the beach sand, 
 some sharp as if just chipped for the shaft, 
 others broken as they may have rebounded 
 from Spanish corselets. The barky pillars of 
 the pines loomed sparsely from the near pal- 
 mettos, and thickened to a blue curtain in the 
 distance. Gray mosses hung from their som- 
 ber needles, and dripped with the showers or 
 flaunted in the wind-gusts. Thickets of fan- 
 tastic palms broke the gray stretch of the 
 lake. Except for the farm - buildings to the 
 north, and the lawn, there was no hint of 
 man in the wide prospect only an ab- 
 original solitude of woods and water. 
 
The Fourth Season 
 
 But now and then a rifle-shot cracked acoss 
 the lake ; or a cowboy from the saloons whoop- 
 ed in the forest, and discharged the chambers 
 of his revolver, with a brisk, humanizing effect. 
 If tfie wind were right, it brought us, too, in 
 the mid-morning and the dusk, a far-away 
 thunder of trains and clarion blasts from the 
 northern express. And often the clouds would 
 lift for a few hours, the leaden water would 
 turn to silver, and the brooding pines and 
 palmettos kindled with colors. 
 
 Ill 
 
Finis 
 
 THE fifth season opened with dry soil in all 
 parts of the farm. We had received a 
 blow between the eyes, and we were still 
 somewhat staggered ; but that, clearly, was a 
 reason for new efforts. The crops were plant- 
 ed ; they came up well ; the lake drew far out 
 upon its sands. We ceased to tremble at a 
 cloud, and presently began to wish for one 
 with water in it. Sometimes the sky thicken- 
 ed, and a few drops speckled the dust; but 
 soon the sun was out again, and the soil lay 
 unslaked. The weeks went by, and no rain 
 fell but an occasional niggard sprinkle; the 
 months passed without any wetting of the 
 parched fields. The crops on the high land 
 
 112 
 
Finis 
 
 took autumnal tints, and withered; the crops 
 on the lower land dried away; the crops on 
 the fewest land still grew. It seemed that we 
 might yet make half a harvest. But far on in 
 March, when the thermometer had long been 
 in the eighties, the wind whipped suddenly into 
 the north, and the air cooled fifty degrees in a 
 night. 
 
 We were in the field, perspiring in linens, 
 when the change came, with an abrupt over- 
 casting of the sky. A whiff like the breath 
 from a glacier struck us, the wind blew each 
 moment keener, and before we fairly saw how 
 it was our teeth were chattering. It was well- 
 nigh unbelievable ; but presently there could be 
 no doubt that a January norther was upon us, 
 two months out of season. When we realized 
 this, we set all hands at work to earth over 
 
 113 
 
A Florida Farm 
 
 the half-grown potato vines. Only a few hours 
 of the day were left, but the men worked des- 
 perately with hoes and ploughs through the 
 bleak twilight, and much was done. But not 
 all. When we came out, shivering, in the first 
 daybreak, we saw that our short harvest was 
 to be lamentably shortened. 
 
 We perceived now, at last, how it was with 
 us : we were not farming, but gambling with 
 the elements. The climate had been merely 
 toying with us, a trump-card of spring frosts 
 lying in its sleeve. It had dealt with our ven- 
 ture as it dealt, on a great scale, with the ill- 
 fated orange plantations. And this was a re- 
 finement of its craft: the local temperature 
 kept a certain proportion with the latitude. By 
 the record figures the late spring frosts were 
 mild enough ; but they blighted as ruthlessly 
 
 114 
 
Finis 
 
 as severer northern frosts, for they fell in the 
 midst of hotter days and upon tenderer growths. 
 The thermometer itself had been a deceit. 
 
 The fortunes of the region were now rapidly 
 shifting. The tide of settlement which brought 
 us in had risen a little higher, and then 
 gradually ebbed. One by one, the farms 
 about the lake had been abandoned, and the 
 wide water, that used to be flecked with 
 sails on blue days, was grown desolate. The 
 Egret's weathered canvas winged it almost 
 alone. And soon this, too, was gone. 
 
 Finis