right in front of my house and within a hundred feet of it.  Any of our hunters will wade into a pond where there are fifty alligators, to drag out one they have shot; many of them will tackle, with nothing but a stick, any ’gator under six feet that they can catch on a prairie or asleep on a bank, and a few of the boys will wade bare-footed and bare-handed into a pond on the prairie and bring out little alligators.  Johnny is a dabster at that.  Likely you’ll see him do it before many days.

“Of course rattlesnakes are bad, but they always give warning, usually a good long one.  I’ve killed hundreds, perhaps thousands of them and never been bitten.  Cotton-mouth moccasins are poisonous, but they are sluggish and not so very plenty.  You’ll have to get used to the smaller moccasins.  You will find lots of them.  I’ve kicked them out of my path on the prairies and in the marshes for a good many years without having been bitten by one.

“Sharks have a bad name, and Florida waters are full of them, but there is no authentic instance on record of their having killed a man, woman, or child in this country.  There are convicts and other outlaws in the Ten Thousand Islands.  They may steal something from your camp, but they won’t harm you.  Some of them are bad men, and when they kill their own kind, people here don’t mind it, but the outlaws know that the community wouldn’t stand for their hurting any of you boys.”

Dick was ashamed when he got up to breakfast to find that Mr. Streeter and Johnny had been at work for an hour and had got everything ready for a start, even to the mosquito-bar, which one of the family had already made.

The outfit consisted of a fly-rod, with reel, line and flies; rifle and shot-gun, with fifty cartridges for each; pair grains, harpoon, line and pole; cast-net, fish hooks and lines; forks, tin-cups and plates, two each; light axe, saucepan and frying-pan; piece of waterproofed canvas, six by eight feet; lantern, kerosene, and bag of salt; white bacon, hominy and corn meal, five lbs. each; canoe, two paddles and one long oar; five gallon can of water, and bucket; waterproof box filled with matches.

Each of the boys carried a clasp knife and a pocket, watertight match safe.

Nothing had been loaded on the canoe, as Mr. Streeter wanted to be sure that Dick could stay in it, before he filled it with goods that water might harm.  He was soon satisfied on this point, for although Dick got into the canoe with exceeding care, he kept his balance perfectly, and after the first few strokes appeared perfectly at home in the craft.  He paddled for a few minutes kneeling on the bottom of the boat, then sitting on a thwart, and finally came back to the dock sitting on the stern, while the bow of the canoe tilted up in the air.  Then Johnny got in with him and the boys maneuvered the craft until Mr. Streeter called out to them: 

“You kids are all right and don’t need to waste any more time.  Better pack up and be off, and save half a day.”  They loaded the canoe carefully and took their positions, Dick in the stern and Johnny in the bow.  Then lifting their caps to the family, who had come down to the dock to see them off, the boys dipped their paddles together in the river and began Dick’s hunt for his chum.