The Indianapolis sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1880-1904, 1885-01-11
Florida Robinson Crueoes

l-1AR
We made a trip 10 Pine Island, which lies
wedge-like parallel with the outer kew.
Here we found the cocos-nut and lemon
trees, the branches laden down with mag
ni6cent fruit Here we came across certain
diminutiye Robinson CrusOes which excited
our sy mpathies. On this island, with a sad
looking and dilspidated father, lived four
children. You approached the place through
shadows barely Davigsble with a light
.draught boat at high tide. A ramshackle
structure on rotten piles was the landing
This settlement was twenty miles from any.
where. The house, the size of a small stable,
looked IS ii built years before. and was open
TO all the winds of heaven. As the wines,
however, are never cold here, that perhaps
was not important. bnt from April, as the
very food. gates of heaven are open, tina,
family must have beeE drowned out foi
months. Sometime before, so we learned
while the father was absent, the mother
died. and these poor BARNS with their owl
hands dug q grave and buried their mother
How that family managed to exc out an ex
lister &c God only knows. Shells of the go
pher, tha land tortoise, were strewn around
suggestive of miserable food. Flsh
though, might have been plenty. Two gr n
ldogs, lean and laDk, skunk around the house
The master of these surroundings told Us tn
dogs were only IN good condition when ALI
gators were plentiful. TIE house contained
scarcely anything. There was a grimy table
and a few boxes serving as chairs. We saw
not q cup or saucer; there were no beds.
tame crane. that did not seem to heed on
presence, Topped around. That bird was
convincing proof that those little girls ha'
besto we'd their love on something, and thi
was their pet
Fancy q lad of twelve having for a toy
squirming alligator some three feet long
Not q very lovable companion, nor one {,
DE on intimste terms with. Bat it was tn,
only thing the boy could ind. EVIDENT,
il was something not to be fooled with, 70
the gators jaws were bound with a bit o
rag. At our request this ligature wa
loosed, when this ugly brute at once mad
for the boot OF one of the party, and fas,
ened his teeth in it, aud would not let z,
until his Mouth was forced open. The chill
dren could read a little, and strange to say
the Vicar of Wakefield had been their horn
book. 1t was the only bound volume th,
father possessed. There were, though as ad
ditions TO the library, a few tattered mum
bers of children's magazines of years Ion
gone past. There was a slate, and at one
he artistic young fellow stacked his gun
dropped mis- AbrOZzi manner, and drew 70
the children pretty and funny pictures, unit
that poor miserable house echoed again witt
laughter and cries OF delight. The lad, In
stead of marbles, played With the ugly fang
of the gator. and was himself the slayer O
saurians. To judge from a miserable fire
arm we saw belonging to the father, 1 Shout,
think the risk the boy ran was greater thai
that of the alligator. Then the misanthro
pist of the party, who often wondered VIII,
people ever wrote books or magazine stories
and was always amazed why people rea,
them, made up his mind that that librar
on Pine Island should be increased, and j
the msil facilities have not quite gone wrong
il is s~upposable that before this these Chi
sufficient to last them for some time t,
come.