The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1885-10-08


We made trip to Pine Island, which
lies wedge-like parallel with the outer
key. Here we found the cocoa-nut and
lemon trees. the branches laden down
with magnificent fruit. Here we came
across certain diminutive Robinson
Crusoes which excited our sympathies.
On this island, with a sad looking and
dilapidated father, lived four children.
You approached the place through
shadows barely navigable with light
draught boat at high tide. A ram
shackle structure on rotten piles was
the landing. The settlement was
twenty miles from anywhere. The
house, the size of small stable, looked
rs if built years before, and was open
to oil the winds of heaven. AS the
winds, however, are never cold here,
that perhaps was not important, but
from April, as the very fiood-gates OF
heaven are open, that family must have
been drowned out for months. Some
time before, so we learned, while the
father was absent, the mother died, and
these poor BARNS with their own hands
dug grave and buried their mother.
How that family managed TO exc out
an existence God only knows. Shells
of the gopher, the land tortoise, were
strewn around, suggestive of miserable
food. Fish, though. might have been
plenty. Two grim dogs, lean and lank,
skunk around the house. The master
of these surroundings told us the dogs
were only in good condition when ALI
gators were plentiful. The house con-
tanned scarcely anything. There was
q grim table, and few boxes serving
as chairs. We saw not cup or saucer;
there were no beds. a tame crane,
that did not seem to heed our presence,
Topped around. That bird was con-
vincing proof that these little girls had
bestowed their love on something, and
this was their pet.
Fancy lad of II having for toy a
squirming alligator some three feet
longl Not very lovable companion,
nor one to be on intimate terms with.
But it was the only thing the boy could
find. Evidently it was something not
to be fooled with, for the gators jaws
were bound with bit of rag. At our
request this ligature was loosed, when
this ugly brute made at once for the
boot of one of the party, and fastened
his teeth in it, and would not let go un-
til his mouth was forced open. The
children could read little, and, strange
to say the Vicar Of Wakefield had been
their horn-book. 1t was the only
bound volume the father possessed.
There were, though, as additions to the
library, few tattered numbers of child
ren's magazines of years long gone
past. There was a slate, and at once
the artistic young fellow stacked his
gun, dropped his Abruzzi manner, and
drew for the children pretty and funny
pictures, until that poor miserable
house echoed again with laughter and
cries of delight. The lad, instead of
marbles, played with the ugly frangs
of the gator, and was himself the
slayer of saurianS To Judge from q
miserable fre-arm we saw, belonging
to the father, / should think the risk
the boy ran was greater than that of
the alligator. Then the misanthropist
of the party, who often wondered why
people ever wrote books or magazine
stories, and was always amazed why
people read them, made up his mind
that that library on Pine Island should
be increased, and if the mail facilities
have not quite gone wrong, it is sup
possible that before this these children
have a supply of juvenile literature suf-
ficient to last them for some time to
come.-Bdrnet Phillips, IN Harpe''s
Magazine.