University of Virginia Library

47. CHAPTER XLVII.

Late at night we arrived safe at Dr. Charille's. The
next day we set out for Woodville, choosing on the return
other paths, to avoid former difficulties and dangers; by
which prudence, however, we only reversed matters; for
instance, instead of water before a swamp, we got the
swamp before the water. And, also, we thus often set out
before day-light in the dark, instead of travelling in the
dark after day-light—travelling occasionally to reach a
settlement in the dark at both ends of the day. Besides
our new route threw us away up Nut Creek, where, contrary
to all expectation, it was found necessary either to
swim below a mill-dam, or be canoed across above the dam.
The latter was our choice; and as it afforded a pleasant
variety in the horse and log navigation, we shall give the
adventure and then skip all the way to Woodville.

The whole plain[14] of water to be crossed was about one
hundred and twenty yards wide. But it consisted of three
divisions, the Creek Proper, twenty yards wide and now
eighteen feet deep; and two lagoons, each full, on opposite
sides of the creek, and averaging each fifty yards in width,
although in most places, the banks being low, the lagoons
could not be distinguished from the creek, but the three divisions
seemed one water, lake, or sea. Our transit spot
was a place, where, from the edge of the hither lagoon
could be discerned by a careful observer, a modest little
grassy mound in the water, a kind of frog-island, which the

miller said was the nearest bank of the creek; and that
from this mound another on the opposite bank could be discovered,
or nearly so. And nothing, he said, would be
easier for us than first to ford over the lagoon to the nearest
mound, where he would meet us in a canoe: that here
we could strip our horses, and thence by turns every thing
could be transported to the farther mound, whence, all
matters re-arranged, we could ford the distant lagoon, and
so come finally to the dry land on the opposite hill beyond
the bottom.

This certainly was plausible, if not captivating; especially
should not the horses become entangled in the brush and
vines, forming tolerable fish-nets under water, and should
the lagoons be only four feet deep. They certainly looked,
to judge from the surface water up the trunks of trees,
somewhere about six feet deep; but then both the miller-man
and his son were “right down sartin, it wan't more
nor four feet no place, nor it moughn't be that deep, except
in them 'are blasted holes!”

Receiving ample direction for circumnavigating the holes
aforesaid, we took aim for the first isle-of-bank, and were
soon so well in for it, that the difficulty and peril of going
backward and forward were equal; and therefore, we
worked onward, tacking incessantly every way to avoid
logs, trees, and vines, and in awe all the while of “them
'are holes,” till we began to rise once more in the world,
and stood sublime in the very middle of Frog-land!

Believe me, reader! it was not void of uneasiness, we
thus sundered from the world, looked back on the woods
just left, and standing partly in and partly out of the water!
while, at our feet, and separated by a strip of grass, swept
along in the pride and fury of risen waters, the creek itself,
curling amply over a few inches of the still visible dam, and
shaking and tearing away with its yet rising tide our little
territory! And that canoe! a tiny log shell, to transport

us to the other lagoon, where four feet water, logs, trees,
vines and holes must be encountered again! How like
the realms of Pluto! and we, how like terrified ghosts
awaiting a passage across the Styx in the rickety bark of
Charon!

All ready, I attempted, bridle in hand, to step into the
canoe, but by some awkwardness, I stumbled into the far
end, and thus so violently jerked the rein, that my creature
soused in, and descended almost the length of the bridle;
but by the time she gave her first snortings, on regaining
the air, our log was over, and the creature (i. e. equa) was
pawing up the isle-of-bank number 2. Here we remained
till Mr. Frank and his horse arrived, and a third trip had
brought our saddles and baggage; and then, duly prepared,
we forded lagoon the second, and in proper season gained
our wished for hill, and —

“What stuff!”

“What stuff?” gentle reader, what better could you do
with a mud and water subject?”

“Yes—but what's the use of such things?”

La! that's so like what Aunt Kitty said, when I got to
Woodville, all dirty and tired—my new boots thick with
exterior mud—my best coat altogether spoiled—my fur
hat crushed into fancy shapes, and the seat of my corduroy
inexpressibles abraded to the finest degree of tenuosity at
all consistent with comfort and decorum!