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 the mud, and I had a good laugh at him—­afterwards.  Chris killed that snake.  It was a short, thick snake and about as pretty as a Bologna sausage, but its mouth opened five inches and its long, needle-like fangs were dripping with venom.  I am hungry all the time and enjoy our bill of fare very much, although it is only bacon, grits and coffee, morning, noon and night.  We are traveling light, for we carry all our baggage on our backs.  We see deer and wild turkey every day and it’s pretty hard to keep my hands off my rifle, but I promised Dad not to shoot anything out of season.  In three weeks the law will be off and then it will be bad for the first buck I meet.  Chris says it’s good for me to see a lot of deer before I shoot at any.  He says I won’t be so likely to miss or only wound them when I really hunt them.  I guess he’s about right, for when I first saw a deer—­it was a big buck and only twenty yards away—­I had a regular attack of buck ague and I couldn’t have hit the side of a house even if I’d been inside it.  Now I can look at one, point a stick at him and say bang, with my nerves just as quiet as if it were a cow.  I have seen a few bears, but they are very shy.  We’ll turn loose on them, too, when we get round to hunting, but in the mean time we are sticking to our timber job for all there is in it.

An old alligator hunter is camping beside us to-night.  He is bound for Boat Landing, with a lot of alligator hides and otter skins, and I am finishing up this letter to send by him.  Just as soon as this surveying business is over I am going to have a glorious hunt.  If only you were here we would start out by our lonesomes and have all the adventures we ever talked about.  Probably Chris will go with me.  I haven’t quite the pluck to try it alone, as I know you would do in my place.  I may brace up to it, though.  Dad has given me permission to do just as I please.  He says he trusts me not to be foolish or foolhardy and to keep him informed of my plans.  Isn’t he a good Dad?  Come if you can.  Come when you can.

   Always and forever your chum,

Ned.
#/

Dick’s mother read Ned’s letter and was quiet and sad all the rest of the day.  After Dick had gone to bed she went into his room, sat down on the bed beside him, kissed him and said: 

“Dicky boy, mother wants you to take a good, long vacation.  You’ve worked hard and been a great comfort to her since you left school and now she’s going to send you to your chum Ned, down in Florida where she knows your heart is.  Now—­don’t speak yet—­mother knows what you want to say. dear, but she can perfectly well afford to send you and you will hurt her feelings if you don’t let her.”