as plumb
foolish to lay down just because a tree got in our way, and it was
my fault, too. It isn't going to happen again, though. Let's get
through that creek to-night, if we have to work by the light of the
lantern."

"Ain't you 'fraid o' the snakes?" said Johnny.

"No. I'm too ashamed of myself for backing out of that creek to be
afraid of anything, except doing it again."

When the boys got back to the trees which lay across the creek, they
took turns with the little axe, which was not much heavier than a
hatchet, until they had cleared an opening for the canoe. They found
other trees in their way, but they kept on. Once they unloaded the
canoe on stumps and logs until they could lift it over a log that
lay so deep in the water that it was hard to cut. Five minutes
later, and within a hundred yards of where they had turned back on
the previous day, the boys reached the end of the creek, where it
opened into a bay which seemed to Dick as beautiful as a dream. It
was dotted with little islands, on some of which were picturesque
groups of palmettos, and on others big trees filled with
white-plumaged birds. Two black dots on the surface of the water a
hundred yards from the canoe moved slowly across its bow. Johnny
stopped paddling and said:

"There's a 'gator. D'ye want him?"

"I don't see him."

"See them two black knobs on the water? The little one's his nose
'nd the big one's his eye. He's turnin' 'round 'nd showin' both
eyes, now. Shoot him in the eye if yer want t' kill him. It'll take
some time t' skin him, though, 'nd mebbe ye're in a hurry to get
along."

"I sure am," replied Dick, and as the paddles dipped together in the
water, the alligator, suspicious of them, slowly sank from their
sight.

At the end of the bay the boys found a deep, narrow river with a
current which Dick supposed was tidal, but which Johnny thought came
from the Glades. Dick tasted the water and was surprised to find
that instead of being salt it had the sweetish taste of merely
brackish water. There were birds of many kinds in the trees on the
banks of the river, and as the boys paddled against the current
Johnny saw a brace of ducks swimming ahead of the canoe. He took in
his paddle and picked up the shotgun, which, with much forethought,
he had placed beside himself in the canoe before starting out. Dick
paddled very slowly and quietly toward the ducks until they were
within easy range. Johnny had been told that if he want