to start the Seminole
canoe, but the stroke was much longer, and when the stroke ended the
motion continued. The boys were game and wouldn't admit that it
tired them to keep up. But when a strand of heavy saw-grass had to
be crossed they found trouble to burn. The round, heavy wooden
cylinder of Seminole make slid slowly through the tall, stiff,
saw-edged mass. But the light canoe was thrown back from each
stroke by the elastic grass. Dick never liked to be beaten, so he
went overboard and floundered along the trail ahead of the canoe,
dragging it by the painter, while Ned got out and pushed from behind
the stern. The sharp, serrated edges of the grass cut their faces
and lacerated their hands. No air was stirring at the foot of those
tall spears, and Dick thought of his hours in the fire room of the
Southern steamer. Sometimes a big, deadly cotton-mouth, the ugliest
snake in the world, swam in front of Dick as he struggled forward,
but though his flesh quivered he said nothing lest he make Ned
nervous. Then occasionally a poisonous brown moccasin rose out of
the mud which the canoe stirred up, and, with uplifted head and open
mouth, threatened Ned as he stumbled behind the craft, but he was
silent about it lest he worry the chum who was new to the country.
The saw-grass strand was only two hundred yards across, although it
seemed a mile to the boys, who made light of it when they reached
the other canoe, but their bleeding hands, torn by the terrible
grass, told another story.

The canoes and cargoes arrived at Osceola's late in the afternoon,
and Ned and Dick saw their second Seminole camp. It was the best
camp in the Everglades, as Osceola himself was perhaps the best
specimen of the Florida Seminole.

The three buildings which constituted the camp consisted merely of
high roofs, beautifully constructed of palmetto, which came within
four feet of the ground at their outer edges. Below this they were
entirely open. These buildings were nearly filled with tables, about
four feet high, on which the Indians slept at night and occupied as
a floor during the day. The buildings were placed about a round
shed, under which the cooking for the whole camp was done. The fire
was built in the usual Seminole fashion. Logs of wood were arranged
like the spokes of a wheel, and the fire built at the hub. When the
cooking was finished the logs were drawn back a few inches and the
fire went down to coals, but continued to smolder.