The Mt. Sterling advocate., 1922-09-12

not see any, and we're glad we did
not, although we kept lookout for
them. Then we went to Cocoa and.
speaking Of wild ducks, I could tell
something that everybody might not
believe. As many as 300 of them
would come up and eat as we would
throw bread out to them, and they
would pile up like so many chickens
when we fed them. They we're with
in ten feet of us and we we're stand
ing in a street of the town. When
they we're scattered out swimming,
all you had to do was to throw out
piece Of bread and call them and
they would come swimming, Hopping
and flying to you. Did we shoot at
them? You had better shot at a man
on the street There we're crows on
the main streets of the town with
great gangs of young crows flying
and squawking and not being mo
Tested any more than mocking birds.
But, by the way, | don't think l saw
mocking bird while was in Flori-
da, and see as many as two at
time here at home. Then we crossed
the Indian river at Cocoa over to Mer-
rett's Island and, speaking of oranges,
again | saw them in grove on the
island five inches in diameter. There
were lemons as large as a quart cup.
We took a picture of banana grove.
Bananas grow differently from what
| thought they did, and also from
what had been told they grow. But
pineapples grow just the way | sup
posed they did, but altogether differ
ent from what | had been told. |
might say that | saw thousands of
acres of them growing in the Lader-
dale country. The man who owned
that grove and garden was New
Yorker and a jolly, joking fellow
We told stories to one another-some
that we knew to be so and some that
we had only heard of it. He showed
us some beets that he said he had
thinned from his rows about the size
of lead pencil, saying what he had
left in the ground were as large as
hen eggs. His cabbage had solid
heads eleven inches in diameter and
stood as close in the row as could
have placed them with your hands.
He said he sold crop off his garden
every month in the year. asked him
if there we're any Florida diamond
back rattlers. He said, Eyes, but we
don't pay any attention to them or
bother them, and they don't bother
u.s." He told me what layers his
chickens were. He showed them on
all the nests and said to him. "Yes,
and there stand two by some OF the
nests waiting for their turn to lay,
which was true. Then he would tell
me one of his stories and say, Can
Won beat that?" | told him the only
way I could beat it was to believe
anything he told me. He took 1t all
good-naturedly. One of his stories
was that a severe storm once blew
down a house and blew a baby forty
feet without hurting it. "Now can
you beat that?" he asked. YES
told him. 81 know a lady who was
blown for two miles and carried with
the storm and was hurt but very lit
tie, and that lady lives in Bath coun-
ty, Kentucky, today, and is well and
hearty. The lemons l spoke Of being
as large as quart cups we're as long
as the cups also. Now, can you beat
that for a lemon. Rogers said, Look
at those pumpkins On that tree" Il
did not know they grew on trees. |
thought they grew on vines in the
ground. said, "Oh, boy, you are
like Aunt Nancy Smith when she
went to New York. That is grape
fruit, not pumpkins. He asked what
grapefruit was. told him they were
overgrown oranges. He said, "Oh,
-" said, why don't you say,
oh. Billy Sunday?" The fruit was
ten inches in diameter. Then we took
a drive to Palm Beach and Miami by
way of Prospect City and other
towns. "Wednesday morning we left
Eau Gallie at sos o'clock. A man
asked where we were going. We had
SO miles of corduroy road to so over
before we came to some good looking
road. The foundation Of corduroy