Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1896-04-29
THE HERMIT.

When ladies go alligator hunting
they should clearly understand that
people whom they find and associate
with freely in an Alabama bayou should
not always be bowed to in Piccadilly
This sounds simple-an axiom, in fact
but because Miss Wilcoxn did such an
uncalled for bowling, things happened
which put two most respectable fam
lilies i'll condition of open fury, and l
earned dislike as the origin of evil. AS
matter of accuracy, my yachtmate
was far more guilty than l. He had
gone a-fishing one day in his shirt. and
had spent eight hours sandwiched be-
tween wind and water, and had natu-
rally returned with his legs bitten red
raw by the sun. He developed temper
in consequence that would have made
him Stunned in the pit, and was driv-
EN- into deed of temporary separation.
Our yacht was then in the bayou Of
Bon Secours, which opens off Mobile
bay. and the man with the sunburned legs
said with many adjectives that move
ment for him was out of the question.
He remarked that he would stay ON the
sloop and fish for gaff tops'ls Gas they
call the catfish), and cavallos and sheep
heads and sharks and whatever else he
could get, and said that polite conyersa-
tion was strain to him. He stated that
our crew (of one negro) would make a
suitable butt for his future remarks,
and put forward the suggestions that l
should take myself off. go and hunt
alligators up the lagoons, and live saw
age in the swamps, and eat crackers and
trout, and catch fever if there's any
throwing about" said the man with
the sunburned legs. 'That'll be about
your FORM" So l pitied the niger and
went off-in pale pink pyjamas and the
ten foot yawlboat.
The subsequent sail down the lagoon,
under a brazen torrent of sunshine,
came as one Of the seven pleasures of
life. There was a great wall of trees on
the landward side, rearing itself from
the waters lip in hedge of under
growth. To southwark, from over the
rambling line of dunes, with their
fringes of scrub grass and palmetto,
came the dim below Of the surf as it
creamed and crumbled on tho white
gulf sand. And down the silver ripples
of the lagoon there blew an air, family
salt, which chilled the wet cotton against
ones spine.
The lagoon bayed to an end, and there
opened out another channel to be punted
through, a narrow winding canal of
twirls and branches through quaking
marsh land, waterway rustling with
fish and ablaze with yellow lilies. Car
dinal birds peered at one from the bushes,
and purple herons thrust out curious
beaks from the grass clumps. 1t was all
very peaceable and extremely hot.
Then there came a lake with islands,
lake of water called by courtesy fresh,
which was lemon yellow to look through
and black to look upon. 1t swarmed
with fish, which took the hook and were
supped upon for their sins, and because
there was no whisky in the yawlboat for
dilution it served as beverage in all
its sulphurous nastiness. Then the sun
dipped behind the forests at the back,
and night followed like the shutting
down of "a box. One mounted n bullseye
lantern ON the hatband, which would
shine down rifles sights, and put out
again in the boat, padding stealthily. 1t
is not always easy to distinguish be-
tween FREELY and the gleam of IN alli-
gators eye, and shots are apt to be
wasted and the neighborhood scared.
But on that night fortune held, and the
lead went home six several times. Then
tho dead were made more safely dead
with the ax, and their slayer laid him
down to sleep on the boats floor with
his head beside the centerboard trunk.
So passed my first night away from
the sloop The morning was occupied in
the process of skinning, and then once
more on toward the east. There were
more lakes and more canals all full of
their own new wonders, and ever away
in the distance on the starboard hand
was the noise Of the surf as it broke
where the logs from the gulf rivers bris-
tie in the milky sand. In late afternoon
I came to IA lagoon with wooded island
in it, and among the trees of the is
land, when they grew distinct from one
another, saw man.
l bore down on him under sail, for
there was spanking breeze coming in
from the sea, and when we were within
hailing distance the boat grounded.
"Do you want to land here?" he
shouted
"I don't mind if do.
"Then shove off again and drop down
to the tail of the island and lutf up
sharp where you see a barked tree on
the beach. There's no deep water until
you come to there.
l did US he told me, put the boat s
nose on a small beach of pebbles and
waited, smoking. waited half an hour
maybe, and then ho strolled up very
leisurely with his thumbs in the waist
belt of his trousers. l can't say he