Now I don't mean to be an expense to her or anyone
else hereafter. I won't take a penny that I don't earn, from
anybody, and I won't go on any trip, even with you, until I can pay
my own way, every cent of it."

"But, Dick, your companionship and the work you can do will be worth
all it costs, twice over, to me and to Dad and he will feel just
that way about it."

"It's like you, Ned, to say all that, but it's no use and you know
it. You've been mighty good to me ever since I came to this school
and I'm going to keep your good opinion by not accepting your offer
to go with you now. Some time, when I can keep up my end, I'll be
with you bigger than an Injun. If you ever find strange footprints
down in those Everglades, better foller 'em up. They'll likely be
mine. Good-bye, Ned."

The boys clasped hands and as Dick walked away tears rolled down his
freckled cheeks.

Four months after the parting of the two friends, at Belleville,
Dick received a letter postmarked "Immokalee, Florida," which was
headed:

/#
Big Cypress Swamp, 20 miles from anywhere,

October 10th.

DEAR CHUM:

Here I am! on a prairie inside the Big Cypress Swamp, about
which we used to talk and where we planned to camp some day.
Well, it's bigger than anything we ever dreamed of and every
foot of it is alive. Sometimes I sleep in a tent, but more
often under the stars. Last night I heard the scream of a
panther, so near that it made me shiver, and the next minute
a frog dropped from the branch of a tree over my head and
fell on my face. I must have screamed louder than the
panther, for I scared Chris Meyer, the surveyor, who is
camping with me, pretty badly. The guide we expected didn't
come, so we are guiding for ourselves. I hope Chris knows
where we are, for I am sure I don't. We measure the big
cypress trees with a tape line and Chris calculates the
number of feet of lumber in each tree. Then we estimate the
trees in an acre and guess at the number of acres. At least
that's the way the business looks to me. Sometimes the
walking is easy, but to-day we had to wade through mud
waist-deep and the moccasins were pretty thick. I watched out
for the ugly things and it kept me on the jump, but Chris
marched straight ahead and paid no attention to them,
excepting once when a big cotton-mouth that was coiled on top
of a stump struck at him. Then he fell over backward into