Hyacinth Drift Summary

At a time when Marjorie Rawlings is quite tormented with life, she and her friend Dessie decide to take a risky trip together up the St. John's river in Florida. They put in their boat and drft among the water hyacinths. They will have to watch for signs to get to the main channel. In marsh water as far as the eye can see, they finally come to a labyrinth of hundreds of smaller channels, and many of those on Rawlings' map no longer exist. They try to sleep in the open on bad cots in swarms of mosquitoes.

They both realize that faster-floating hyacinths indicate the river channel. This becomes their guide. They go through Puzzle Lake thinking they have crossed Lake Harney. They stop where there is an abandoned cabin. Dess carves supports for their cots; they take hot...