ation. The slaves whom the colonel brought
from Virginia were now his tenants, and he leased them portions of his
arable acres. He considered this locality as healthy as any in the
Suwanee country. The old planter's home, with its hospitable doors ever
open to the stranger, was embowered in live-oaks and other trees, from
the branches of which the graceful festoons of Spanish moss waved in the
soft air, telling of a warm, moist atmosphere.

A large screw cotton-press and corn-cribs, with smoke-house and other
plantation buildings, were conveniently grouped under the spreading
branches of the protecting oaks. The estate produced cotton, corn, sweet
potatoes, cattle, hogs, and poultry. Deer sometimes approached the
enclosed fields, while the early morning call of the wild turkey came
from the thickets of the hammock. In this retired part of Florida,
cheered by the society of a devoted wife and four lovely daughters,
lived the kind-hearted gentleman who not only pressed upon us the
comforts of his well-ordered house, but also insisted upon accompanying
the paper canoe from his forest home to the sea.

When gathered around the firesides of the backwoods people, the
conversation generally runs into hunting stories, Indian reminiscences,
and wild tales of what the pioneers suffered while establishing
themselves in their forest homes. One event of startling interest had
occurred in the Suwanee country a few weeks before the paper canoe
entered its confines. Two hunters went by night to the woods to shoot
deer by firelight. As they stalked about, with light-wood torches held
above their heads, they came upon a herd of deer, which, being
bewildered by the glare of the lights, made no attempt to escape.
Sticking their torches in the ground, the hunters stretched themselves
flat upon the grass, to hide their forms from the animals they hoped to
kill at their leisure. One of the men was stationed beneath the branches
of a large tree; the other was a few yards distant.

[Illustration: THE PANTHER'S LEAP.]

Before the preconcerted signal for discharging their rifles could be
given, the sound of a heavy body falling to the ground, and an
accompanying smothered shriek, startled the hunter who was farthest from
the tree. Starting up in alarm, he flew to the assistance of his friend,
whose prostrate form was covered by a large panther, which had pounced
upon him from the overhanging limb of the great oak. It had been but the
work of