The Young Marooners on the Florida Coast

by John Henry Goldfrap

  CHAPTER XII

  RESULTS OF THE COOKERY--VOYAGE--APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY--ORANGETREES--THE BITTER SWEET--RATTLESNAKE--USUAL SIGNS FOR DISTINGUISHING AFANGED AND POISONOUS SERPENT--VARIOUS METHODS OF TREATING A SNAKEBITE--RETURN

  The morning sun found the young people preparing to carry theirresolution into effect. When Harold opened the oven the turkey wasbaked brown as a nut, and from the now tepid hole arose an odour, sotempting, that their appetites began to clamour for an enjoyment thatwas not long delayed.

  After breakfast the first work to be done was packing the boat, duringwhich time Harold, at the suggestion of Robert, took Frank, and made ashort tour through the surrounding forest, for the purpose of obtaininga breakfast for the dogs. The bark of the dogs and crack of a riflesoon announced that the hunters were successful, and in less than halfan hour they returned each with a rabbit, as we Americans call the hare."See here, brother Robert! See here, sister Mary!" was the merrychatter of Frank, the moment he came near. "I caught this myself.Fidelle ran it into a hollow tree--he is a fine rabbit dog. Mum is goodfor nothing; he will not run rabbits at all, but just stood and lookedat us while Fidelle was after it. Cousin Harold would not let me smokeout the rabbit, but showed me how to get it with a switch. Isn't it anice fellow?"

  "It is indeed," replied Robert, "and I think that before we can returnhome, you will make an excellent _supercargo_."

  Scarcely a smile followed this allusion; it was too sadly associatedwith the painful events of their forced departure from home. Thepacking completed, they called in the dogs and goats, pushed from shore,raised their sails to a favourable breeze, and moved gaily up the river.

  For a mile and a half the water over which they sailed, lay in astraight reach, due east and west, then turned rapidly round to thenorth, where its course could be traced for many a mile by the breaksamong the mangroves. Just where the river made its turn to the north, asmall creek opened into it from the south. The course of this creek wasvery serpentine; for a considerable distance hugging the shore in aclose embrace, then running off for a quarter or half a mile, and afterenclosing many hundred acres of marsh, returning to the land, within astone's throw of the place which it had left.

  As the object of the voyagers was to explore the land, they turned intothis creek, which seemed to form the eastern boundary of the island.They observed that the vegetation which was very scant and small nearthe sea, increased rapidly in variety and luxuriance as they proceededinland. Tall palmettoes, pines, hickories, oaks, tulip trees,magnolias, gums, bays, and cypresses, reared aloft their gigantic forms,their bases being concealed by myrtles, scarlet berried cascenas, dwarfpalmettoes, gallberries, and other bushes, intermingled with bowers ofyellow jessamine, grape-vine, and chainy brier; while a rich grass,dotted with variously coloured flowers, spread like a gorgeous carpetbeneath the magnificent canopy. Some of the flowers that glistened,even at this late season, above the floor of this great Gothic temple,were strikingly beautiful.

  For five miles they followed the meanderings of the creek, now rowing,now sailing, until at last it turned suddenly to the east, and dividinginto a multitude of small innavigable branches became lost in themarshes beyond. Fortunately, however, for the explorers, the channelterminated at an excellent landing-place, which was made firm by sandand shells, and where, securing their boat to a projecting root, theywent ashore to examine the character of the country. To their surprisethey had not proceeded twenty paces before discovering that this pieceof land was only a narrow tongue, not a half furlong wide, and thatbeyond it was a river in all respects like the one they had left, comingalso close to the opposite bank, and making a good landing on that side.

  "O, for strength to lift our boat over this portage!" exclaimed Robert."The river, no doubt, sweeps far around, and comes back to this point,making this an island."

  "We can settle that question tomorrow," said Harold. "It is too late toattempt it now."

  "O, brother," cried Mary, "there is an orange tree--look! look!look!--full of ripe yellow oranges."

  It was a beautiful tree, and not one only, but a cluster of seven,scattered in a kind of grove, and loaded with fruit, in that state ofhalf ripeness in which the dark green of the rind shows in strikingcontrast with the rich colour called orange. The young people thresheddown several of the ripest, and began to eat, having first forced theirfingers under the skin, and peeled it off by patches. But scarcely hadthey tasted the juicy pulp, before each made an exceeding wry face, anddashed the deceptive fruits away, as if they had been apples of Sodom,beautiful without, but ashes within. The orange was of the kind calledthe "bitter sweet," having the bitter rind and membranes of the sour,with the pleasant juice of the sweet.

  "Open the plugs, all of you, and eat it as you do the shaddock, withouttouching the skin to your lips," said Robert. "There is nothing bitterin the _juice_, I recollect now that this kind of orange is said to growplentifully in many parts of South Florida, and also that the lime isapt to be found in its company. This is another proof, Harold, that Iam right as to our whereabouts."

  "Really," said Harold, "this is a splendid country. I have another factabout it that you will be glad to learn, and that I intended as apleasant surprise to you ere long. There are plenty of _deer_ here. Isaw their signs all through the woods this morning, within a quarter ofa mile of the tent."

  They gathered about a bushel of the ripest looking of the fruit, anddeposited them in the boat; then beginning to feel hungry, they seatedthemselves on a green mound of velvet-like moss at the foot of aspreading magnolia, and there dined. Nanny and her kids were already onshore, cropping the rich grass, and the dogs were made happy with theremaining rabbit.

  Shortly after dinner, while the boys were cutting a supply of grass fortheir goats during the voyage of the following day, they heard the barkof Fidelle and the growling of Mum, uttered in such decided and angrytones as to prove that they had something at bay, with which they wereparticularly displeased. "One of us ought to go and see what those dogsare about," remarked Robert; "and since you took your turn this morning,I presume it is my business now." He had not gone long, before Haroldsaw him returning with rapid steps.

  "Do come here, cousin," said he, "there is the largest king-snake I eversaw, and desperately angry. The dogs have driven him into a thicket ofbriers, and he is fighting as if he had the venom of a thousand serpentsin his fangs. His eyes actually flash. I cut a stick and tried to killhim, but it was too short, and he struck at me so venomously, that Iconcluded to cut me a longer one. The most curious part of the businessis, that there is a large grasshopper or locust (if I may judge from thesound), in the same thicket, making himself very merry with the fight.There he is now--do you not hear him? singing away as if he would crackhis sides."

  "Locust!" exclaimed Harold, as soon as his quick ear distinguished thecharacter of the music, "you do not call that a locust. Why, Robert, itis the rattle of a rattle-snake. Did you never hear one before?"

  "Never in my life," he replied. "I have often seen their skins andrattles, but never a live rattle-snake. O, Harold," he said, shuddering,"what a narrow escape I have made. That fellow struck so near me twice,as barely to miss my clothes."

  The boys obtained each a pole of ten feet in length. They stood onopposite sides of the narrow thicket in which the venomous reptile wasmaking its defence, and as it moved, in striking, to the one side or theother, they aimed their blows, until it was stunned by a fortunatestroke from Robert, and fell writhing amid the leaves and herbage. Themoment the blow took effect, Mum, whose eyes were lighted with fieryeagerness, sprang upon the body, seized it by the middle, shook itviolently, then dropped and shook it again. It was now perfectly dead.They drew it out, and stretched it on the ground. Its body was longerthan either of theirs, and as large around as Robert's leg. The fangs,which he shuddered to behold, were half as long as his finger, andcrooked, like the nails of a cat, and the rattles were sixteen innumber.


  "This is an old soldier," said Harold; "he is seventeen or eighteenyears of age. Had we not better carry it to the boat that Mary andFrank may see it? It is well for all to be able to distinguish arattle-snake when it is met."

  The precaution was necessary. For though Mary had a salutary fear ofall reptiles, Frank had not; he would as soon have played with a snake,as with a lizard or a worm; and these last he would oftentimes hold inhis hand, admiring what he considered their beauty. They stretched iton the earth before the children; put it into its coil ready forstriking; opened its mouth; showed the horrid fangs; and squeezing thepoison bag, forced a drop of the green liquid to the end of the tooth.

  "Frank," said Harold, "if you meet a snake like this, you had better lethim alone. Rattle-snakes never run at people. They are very peaceableand only trouble those that trouble them. But they will not budge outof their way for a king; and if you wrong them, they will give you thepoint of their fangs, and a drop of their poison, and then you willswell up and die. Do you think that you will play with snakes anymore!"

  "No, indeed," he replied.

  "Harold," said Robert, "do you know how to distinguish a poisonous snakefrom a harmless one?"

  On his replying in the negative, Robert continued, "The poisonousserpents, I am told, may be usually known by their having broad angularheads, and short stumpy tails. That rattlesnake answers exactly to thedescription, and I wonder at myself for not having put my knowledge tobetter use when I met him. The only exception to this rule I know of isthe spreading adder, which is of the same shape, but harmless.Poisonous serpents must have fangs, and a poison bag. These must besomewhere in the head, without being part of the jaws themselves. Thisaddition to the head gives to it a broad corner on each side, differentfrom that of a snake which has no fangs. But _if ever you see a thickset snake with a broad head and a short stumpy tail, take care_."

  The conversation now turned upon the subject of snake-bites and theircure. "My father," said Harold, "had two negroes bitten during onesummer by highland moccasins, and each was cured by a very simpleremedy. In the first case the accident happened near the house, and myfather was in the field. He sent a runner home for a pint bottle ofsweet oil, and made him drink by little and little the whole. Besidethis there was nothing done, and the negro recovered. The other casewas more singular. Father was absent, and there was no oil to be had,but the overseer cured the fellow _with chickens_."

  "Chickens!" exclaimed Mary, laughing. "Did he make him take them thesame way?"

  "Not exactly," Harold answered; "he used them as a sort of poultice. Heordered a number of half grown fowls to be split open alive, by cuttingthem through the back, and applied them warm to the wound. Before thefirst chicken was cold, he applied another, and another, until he hadused a dozen. He said that the warm entrails sucked out the poison.Whether or not this was the true reason, the negro became immediatelybetter; and it was surprising to see how green the inside of the firstfew chickens looked, after they had lain for a little while on thewound."

  "_We_ also had a negro bitten by a ground rattle," said Robert, "andfather cured him by using hartshorn and brandy, together with an emptybottle."

  Harold looked rather surprised to hear of the empty bottle, and Robertsaid, "O, that was used only as a cupping-glass. Hot water was pouredin, and then poured out, and as the air within cooled, it made thebottle suck very strongly on the wound, to which it was applied, andwhich father had opened more widely by his lancet. While this operationwas going on, father made the fellow drink brandy enough to intoxicatehim, saying that this was the only occasion in which he thought it wasright to make a person drunk. The hartshorn, by-the-by, was used onanother occasion, when there was neither a bottle nor spirit to be had.It was applied freely to the wound itself, and also administered by aquarter of a teaspoonful at a time in water, until the person had takensix or eight doses. I recollect hearing father say that all animalpoisons are regarded as _intense acids_, for which the best antidotesare alkalies, such as hartshorn, soda saleratus, and even strong lye."

  "Last year," said Harold, "I was myself bitten by a water-moccasin. Iwas far from home, and had no one to help me; but I succeeded in curingmyself, without help."

  "Indeed! how was it?"

  "I had gone to a mill-pond to bathe, and was in the act of leaping intothe water, when I trod upon one that lay asleep at the water's edge.Although it is more than a year since, I have the feeling under my footat this moment as he twisted over and struck me. Fortunately his fangsdid not sink very deep, but there was a gash at the joint of my greattoe, of at least half an inch long. I knew in a moment that I wasbitten, and as quickly recollected hearing old Torgah say, that theIndian cure for a bite is to lay upon the wound the liver of the snakethat makes it. But I suppose that my snake had no notion of being madeinto a poultice for his own bite; for though I chased him, and triedhard to get his liver, he ran under a log and escaped. Very likely if Ihad succeeded in killing him, I might have relied upon the Indian cureand been disappointed. As it was, I jumped into the water, washed outthe poison as thoroughly as possible, and having made my foot perfectlyclean, I sucked the wound until the blood ceased to flow."

  "And did not the poison make you at all sick?"

  "Not in the least. My foot swelled a little, and at first stung a greatdeal. But that was the end of it. I was careful to swallow none of theblood, and to wash my mouth well after the sucking."

  "Do, if you please, stop talking about snakes," said Mary, "I begin tosee them wherever I look; suppose we return to our old encampment."

  The boys gathered the remainder of the hay, called Nanny and the dogs,and reached the place which they had left, about five o'clock in theafternoon--having seen no signs of human habitation, and beingexceedingly pleased with the appearance of their island; they made aslight alteration, however, in the place of their tent. Instead ofcontinuing on the beach, they pitched it upon the bluff near the spring,and under the branches of a large mossy live oak. By the time theduties of the evening were concluded, they were ready for sleep. Theycommitted themselves once more to the care of Him who has promised to bethe Father of the fatherless, and laid down in peace, to rest duringtheir third night upon the island.