Goulding Francis Robert
The Young Marooners on the Florida Coast
CHAPTER XXVII
TURKEY-PEN-SUCKING WATER THROUGH OOZY SAND-EXPLORING TOUR-APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY-"MADAME BRUIN" – SOLDIER'S REMEDY FOR CHAFED FEET-NIGHT IN THE WOODS-PRAIRIE-INDIAN HUT-FRUIT TREES-SINGULAR SPRING
It would be useless, and perhaps tedious, to trace thus day by day, and hour by hour, the history of our young friends. We will now pass over an interval of nearly three weeks, from Saturday, November sixth, when Robert's contest with the panther occurred, to Wednesday, November twenty-fourth, when their affairs received another turn.
The only incident worth relating that occurred during this period, was the construction of a pen for entrapping turkeys. It was simply a covered enclosure, of ten or twelve feet square, with a deep trench communicating from the outside to the centre. This trench was made deep enough to allow a feeding turkey to walk under the side of the pen, and next the wall, inside, it was bridged over, so that the birds in running around the enclosure, after having entered, might not fall into the trench, and see their way out. This trap is planned with a knowledge of the fact, that though a turkey looks down when feeding, it never looks down when trying to escape. This is equally true of the quail or southern partridge, and perhaps of most of the gallinaceous birds. By means of this trap the boys took so many turkeys that they were at last weary of seeing them.
In the meantime Harold's ankle had become so nearly well, that for a week it had been strong enough for all ordinary purposes; and Sam's bones, though by no means fit to be used, were rapidly knitting, and gave promise of being all that broken bones can become in the course of a few weeks. No one had yet come to their rescue. Often had they gone, singly and together, to the flag-staff, and swept the watery horizon with their glass, but no helper appeared, and no sign. Robert and Mary had learned by this time to curb their impatience, and to wait in calmness the time when they should commence working upon their proposed boat.
From the first day that they found themselves shut up upon the island, Robert and Harold had meditated an exploration of the surrounding country, but had hitherto been prevented by various causes. Among these was Mary's excessive nervousness at the idea of being left alone, and particularly so after Robert's contest with the panther; but now she said, that with Fidelle to guard, and with Sam to shoot, exclusive of what she herself might do in case of an emergency, she gave her consent to the tour.
The stock of provision laid in by this time was quite respectable. Five deer had been killed, and their hams were now in the smoke, the company having in the meantime subsisted upon the other parts of the venison, turkeys from the pen, oysters, crabs, and fish. There were also fifty dried fish, two live turkeys, and four fat "pigs" (so called) in the cage, to say nothing of the stores brought from home. Before starting, the boys provided Mary with a large supply of wood for the kitchen and smoke-house, water also, and everything else which they could foresee as needful. They loaded the remaining guns with heavy shot, and laid them aside ready for use; and, moreover, offered to build for her a palisade around the tent, by driving down stakes, and wattling them with grape vines; but to this last Mary objected, saying she was ashamed to be considered so great a coward.
It was broad daylight on the morning of Wednesday, the twenty-fourth day of November, when they set out upon their tour. Robert carried the wallet of provision, consisting of parched corn, jerked venison, and a few hard crackers of Mary's manufacture; in his belt he fastened a flat powder flask filled with water, being the best substitute he could devise for a canteen. Harold carried the blanket rolled like a wallet, and Frank's hatchet stuck in his belt.
Willing to ascertain the coastwise dimensions of the island, and also the approaches to it from sea, they directed their course along the hard smooth beach, occasionally ascending the bluff for the purpose of observing the adjacent country. Their rate of travelling was at first intentionally slow, for they were both pedestrians enough to know that the more slowly a journey is commenced, the more likely it is to be comfortably continued.
At the end of six miles they plainly discerned the southern extremity of the island, lying a mile beyond, and marked by a high bank of sand, thrown up in such profusion as almost to smother a group of dwarfish, ill-formed cedars. Beyond the bluff they saw the river setting eastward from the sea, and bordered on its further side with a dense growth of mangroves. Satisfied with this discovery, and observing that, after proceeding inland for a few miles, the river bent suddenly to the north, they turned their faces eastward, resolved to strike for some point upon the bank. The sterile soil of the beach, and its overhanging bluff, which was varied only by an occasional clump of cedars and a patch of prickly pears, with now and then a tall palmetto, that stood as a gigantic sentry over its pigmy companions, was exchanged as they receded from the coast, first for a thick undergrowth of low shrubs and a small variety of oak, then for trees still larger, which were oftentimes covered with vines, whose long festoons and pendant branches were loaded with clusters of blue and purple grapes. About midway of the island the surface made a sudden ascent, assuming that peculiar character known as "hammock," and which, to unpractised eyes, looks like a swamp upon an elevated ridge.
Before leaving the beach the boys had quenched their thirst at a spring of cool, fresh water, found by scratching in the sand at high water mark, but which they would not have been able to enjoy had it not been for a simple device of Robert's. The sand was so soft and oozy, that before the basin they had excavated was sufficiently full to dish from, its sides had fallen in. Harold had tried at several places, but failing in all, he hallooed to Robert, whom he had left behind, to know what had been his success.
"Come and see," was the reply. Harold went, but saw nothing.
"There is my spring," said Robert, pointing to the end of a reed like that of a pipe-stem, sticking out of the sand. "Suck at that," he continued, "and you will get all that you want."
Harold tried it, and rose delighted. "Capital!" he exclaimed; "but how do you keep the sand from rising with the water?"
Robert drew out the reed, and showed him a piece of cloth fastened as a strainer on its lower end. "I have often thus quenched my thirst when fishing on our sandy beaches, and have never found it to fail."
"It is exceedingly simple," remarked Harold. "I wonder I never saw it nor heard of it before."
"So do I," rejoined Robert; "and yet I question whether I should ever have heard of it myself, had it not been for the Hottentots."
Harold's eyes opened wide at the mention of Hottentots, and Robert went on to say, "A year or two since, while reading an account of the suffering of people in South Africa for the want of water, and their various devices for obtaining it, I was struck with the simplicity of one of their plans. On coming to a place where the water was near the surface, but where they could not dig a well, they would make a narrow hole a yard or more deep, and insert a small reed having a bunch of grass or moss tied around its lower end. This reed they buried, all except a short end left above ground, and packed the earth tightly around it. Then they sucked strongly at the open end, and it is said that, if the earth was sufficiently moist and if the soil was not too close, the water would soon run through the reed, cleansed of its mud and sand by passing through the rude filter attached to its lower end."
"Whoever may have been its author, it is an excellent device," said Harold. "I shall not forget it."
At noon the boys seated themselves under a heavy canopy of vines, and ate their frugal dinner in sight of a luscious-looking dessert, hanging in purple clusters above and around them, which in its turn they did not fail to enjoy.
Resuming their journey to the east, they proceeded about a mile further, when Mum, who had trotted along with quite a philosophic air, as if knowing that his masters were intent upon something other than hunting, was seen to dash forward a few steps, smell here and there intently, then with a growl of warning to come beside them for protection.
"That is a panther, I'll warrant," said Robert. "At least Mum acted exactly in that way the other day when I put him upon the panther's track. Had we not better avoid it?"
"By no means," replied Harold. "Let us see what the creature is. We are on an exploring tour, you know, and that includes animals as well as trees. A panther is a cowardly animal, unless it has very greatly the advantage; and if you could conquer one with a single load of duck-shot when alone and surprised, surely we two can manage another."
"Yes," said Robert, "but I assure you, my success was more from accident than skill; and I would rather not try it again. However, it will do no harm to push on cautiously, and see what sort of neighbours we have."
They patted their dog, and gave him a word of encouragement; the brave fellow looked up, as if to remonstrate against the dangerous undertaking, but on their persisting went cheerfully upon the trail; he took good care, however, to move very slowly, and to keep but little in advance of the guns. The two boys walked abreast, keeping their pieces ready for instant use, and proceeded thus for about fifteen minutes, when their dog came to a sudden halt, bristled from head to tail, and showed his fangs with a fierce growl; while from a thicket, not ten paces distant, there issued a deep grumbling sound, expressive of defiance and of deadly hate. Harold stooped quickly behind the dog, and saw an enormous she bear, accompanied by two cubs that were running beyond her, while she turned to keep the pursuers at bay.
"We must be cautious, Robert," said Harold; "a bear with cubs is not to be trifled with. We must either let her alone, or follow at a respectful distance. What shall we do? She has a den somewhere near at hand, and no doubt is making for it."
Robert was not very anxious for an acquaintance with so rough a neighbour, but before the fearless eye of his cousin every feeling of trepidation subsided, and he was influenced only by curiosity, which, it is well known, becomes powerfully strong when spiced with adventure. They followed, governing themselves by the cautious movements of their dog, and able to catch only a casual glimpse of the bear and her cubs, until they came within thirty paces of a poplar,9 five feet in diameter, with a hollow base, into which opened a hole large enough to admit the fugitives.
"There, now, is the country residence of Madame Bruin," said Robert, stopping at a distance to reconnoitre the premises. "Shall we knock at her door, and ask how the family are?"
"I think not," replied Harold, "the old lady is rather cross sometimes, and I suspect from the tones of her voice she is not in the sweetest humour at the present. Take care, Robert, she is coming! Climb that sapling! Quick! Quick!"
The boys each clambered into a small tree, and as soon as they were well established, Harold remarked, "Now let her come, if she loves shot. A bear cannot climb a sapling. Her arms are too stiff to grasp it; she needs a tree large enough to fill her hug."
But Madame Bruin, like the rest of her kin, was a peaceable old lady, not at all disposed to trouble those that let her alone, and on the present occasion she had two sweet little cherubs, whose comfort depended upon her safety; so she contented herself with going simply to her front door, and requesting her impertinent visitors to leave the premises. This request was couched in language which, though not English, nor remarkably polite, was perfectly intelligible.
"I suppose we shall have to go now," said Harold; "it will not be civil to keep prying into the old lady's chamber. But when Sam is able to join us, we can come prepared to make bacon of her and pets of her cubs."
They called off the dog, patted him in praise of his well-doing, and then retreated, blazing the trees all the way from the poplar to the river.
Several of these last miles Robert had walked with increasing painfulness; his feet were so much chafed as to be almost blistered.
"Stop, Harold, and let us rest here," he said, on reaching a fallen log. "I wish to try that soldier's remedy for chafed feet."
"What soldier's?" Harold inquired.
"One of those at Tampa," replied Robert. "I heard several of them relate, one day, how much they had suffered in marching with blistered feet, when one of the number remarked that whenever the signs of chafing occurred he had relieved himself by shifting his socks from one foot to the other, or by turning them inside out. Upon this another stated that he was generally able to escape all chafing by rubbing the inside of his socks with a little soap before setting out. And another still added that he had often cured his blistered feet, in time for the next day's march, by rubbing them with spirits mixed with tallow dropped from a candle into the palm of his hand. Before leaving home, today, I took the precaution to soap the inside of my socks; but now I shall have to try the efficacy of the other remedy; and sorry shall I be if there should be need for the third plan, because we have neither the tallow nor the spirits necessary for the experiment."
Robert gave the proposed plan a trial, and found, to his delight, that it saved him from all further discomfort.
Nothing more of interest occurred that day. On leaving the river, which, after making a great sweep to the south-east, came so near the bank on which they stood, as to afford a good landing for boats, they turned into the woods and kept a northern course parallel with the shore. About sunset they stopped beside a large log of resinous pine, which they selected for the place of their encampment that night, intending to set the log a-fire. Around it they cleared an irregular ring, which they fired on the inner side, thus providing a place for their sleeping free from insects, and from which fire could not escape into the surrounding forest. Next, they made themselves a tent of bushes, by bending down one sapling, fastening its top to the side of another, and then piling against it a good supply of evergreens, inclined sufficiently to allow a narrow space beneath. A neighbouring tree supplied them with moss for a superb woodland mattress, and while Robert was preparing that Harold collected a quantity of pine knots, to be reserved in case their fire should decline.
By the time these preparations were completed darkness closed around. Jupiter, at that time the evening star, glowed brightly from the western sky, while Orion, with his brilliant belt, gleamed cheerily from the east. The boys sat for some time luxuriating in their rest, listening to the musical roar of their fire, and watching the red glare which lighted up the sombre arches of the forest; then uniting in their simple repast, and giving Mum his share, they lay down to sleep, having committed themselves to the care of Him who slumbers not, and who is as near his trustful worshippers in the forest as in the city.
There is a wild pleasure in sleeping in the deep dark woods. The sense of solitude, the consciousness of exposure, the eternal rustle of the leafy canopy, or else its perfect stillness, broken only by the stealthy tread of some beast of night, or the melancholy hooting of a restless owl, give a variety which is not usual to civilized men, but which, being of a sombre character, requires for its enjoyment a bold heart and a self-relying spirit.
The boys retired to rest soon after supper, and tried to sleep; but the novelty of their circumstances kept them awake. They rose from their mossy couch, sat by the fire, and talked of their past history and of their future prospects. All around was perfect stillness. Their voices sounded weak and childlike in that deep forest; and embosomed as they were in an illuminated circle, beyond whose narrow boundary rose an impenetrable wall of darkness, they felt as if they were but specks in the midst of a vast and lonely world.
At last their nervous excitement passed away. They retired once more to bed, having their guns within reach, and Mum lying at their feet. The roar of the blaze and crackle of the wood composed them to sleep; and when they next awoke, daylight had spread far over the heavens, and the stars had faded from sight. They sprang lightly to their feet, and before the sun appeared were once more on their way northward, along the banks of the river.
Their march was now slow and toilsome. In the interior a hammock of rich land, covered with lofty trees, matted with vines, and feathered with tall grass, impeded their progress; while near the river bay-galls, stretching from the water's edge to the hammocks, fringed with gall-berries, myrtles and saw-palmettoes, and crowded internally with bays, tupeloes, and majestic cypresses (whose singular looking "knees" peeped above the mud and water like a wilderness of conical stumps), forced them to the interior. Their average rate of travel was scarcely a mile to the hour.
Several herds of deer darted before them as they passed, and once, while in the hammock, where the growth was very rank, they were almost within arm's length.
About noon they emerged into an open space, which Harold pronounced to be a small prairie; but in the act of stepping into it, rejoiced at a temporary relief from the viny forest, he grasped the arm of his cousin, and drew him behind a bush, with a hurried,
"Back! back! Look yonder!"
Robert gave one glance, and stepped back into concealment as quickly as if twenty panthers were guarding the prairie. There stood an Indian hut.
The boys gazed at each other in dismay; their hearts beat hard, and their breath grew short. Were there Indians then upon the island, and so near them? What might not have happened to Mary and Frank? But a close scrutiny from their bushy cover enabled them to breathe freely. There was a hut, but it was evidently untenanted; grass grew rank about the doorway, and the roof was falling to decay. It had been deserted for years.
The boys went boldly to it, and entered. Rain from the decayed and falling roof had produced tufts of grass in the mud plaster of the walls. In the centre was a grave, banked with great neatness, and protected by a beautifully arched pen of slender poles. At the door was a hominy mortar, made of a cypress block, slightly dished, and having a narrow, funnel-shaped cavity in its centre. Upon it, with one end resting in a crack of the wall, lay the pestle, shaped like a maul, and bearing the marks of use upon that end which white men would ordinarily regard as the handle. Overhanging the house were three peach trees, and around it the ground was covered with a profusion of gourds of all sizes, from that which is used by many as a pocket powder-flask to that which would hold several gallons. Beyond the house, and on the edge of the prairie, was a close growth of wild plums.
"This place," said Harold, musing, "must have belonged to some old chief. The common people do not live so comfortably. It is likely that he continued here after all others of his tribe had gone; and when he died, his children buried him, and they also went away. Poor fellow! here he lies. He owned a beautiful island, and we are his heirs."
"Peace to his ashes!" ejaculated Robert.
They looked sadly upon the signs of ruin and desolation. It always makes one sad to look upon a spot where our kind have dwelt, and from which they have passed away; it is symbolic of ourselves, and the grief we feel is a mourning over our own decay.
It was now twelve o'clock, and they began to feel the demands of appetite. Harold proposed to search longer, in hope of finding a spring of fresh water. "I am sure," said he, "there must be one hereabouts, and we shall find it exceedingly convenient in our frequent hunts."
They searched for nearly half an hour in vain; and as they were on the point of giving up, Harold called out, "I have found it! Come here, Robert, and see what a beauty!" Robert hastened to the shallow ravine which terminated the eastern end of the prairie. Not two steps below its green margin was a real curiosity of its kind-a rill of clear, cool-looking water, issuing from the hollow base of a large tupelo10 tree. It was a freak of nature, combining beauty, utility and convenience. The water was as sweet as it was clear.
Having quenched their thirst at this beautiful fountain, and prepared to open their wallet of provisions, Robert's eye was attracted by a glimpse of a rich golden colour, on the edge of the prairie. They went to it, and found several varieties of orange trees, bearing in great profusion, and among them were limes, whose delicate ovals asked only to be tried. Beneath these trees they dined, and afterwards plucked their fragrant dessert from the loaded branches. Then they filled their pockets with the different varieties, and started homewards.
It was scarcely a mile from these orange trees to the first that they had discovered; and thence only three miles home. They reached the tent late in the afternoon. All were rejoiced to see them. Frank made himself merry, as usual, at their expense-laughing now that two hunters should be absent two whole days, and bring back only a few wild oranges. Mary said she had missed them very much, especially when night came on, but that everything had been smooth and pleasant; she had seen no panthers, and had not even dreamed of any.