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were more lost than ever. We had to spend another terrible night in the woods, but the next day we found the road. We must have gone round and round most of the time, for when we found the road we got to town in a couple of hours.
We got there in the evening, so hungry and tired, but still we could not eat much more than usual. Williams had been very uneasy about us and had sent some men to hunt us. They came in after us. The next day we went up the bayou to get wood.
Bill and I went hunting one day. The boy, in the meantime, took some fire ashore to cook dinner. When we came back the whole ground was afire. The boy ran around and howled like he was crazy, and we were pretty scared too, as the fire would soon reach ten or fifteen cords of wood that had just been cut.
We tried to beat it out with pine branches but as soon as we thought we had it out it would blaze up in another place, as it would smolder underneath and we could not see it. We saw at last that we could not save the wood, so we gave it up. The fire soon got hold of it and burned it, then went on to the dry marsh reeds, where it flew with such swiftness we could not have run from it. I think it must be burning yet.
There is a fifty dollar fine to make a fire in the woods, except during the three spring months, so we tried to get the boy to run away, but he would not. Luckily for us, there was a quarrel between two men over the wood. One claimed it had been cut on his land, while the other said it was on government land.
The fire finished the quarrel, and there was never any more said about it. We sailed several times to New Orleans without any happenings worthy of note.
It began to be Spring. The trees were already green at the close of February. Mosquitoes and sand flies flourished, and the alligators came out of their winter sleep. Flocks of crane and other birds came, and everything took on new life. There was one kind of crane that was of immense size. They surely were five feet high. They are black and white, and the first time I saw them I took them for a flock of sheep. It was next to impossible to get near them to shoot; hence I have never seen one shot.
The snakes also came forth in numberless masses. Where there was even the smallest pool of stagnant water you could see dozens of snakes basking in the sun. In the woods one had to be fearfully careful not to step on them. Most of them are poisonous. There are many rattlesnakes also, though I saw but one, and it was only three feet long and had only three rattles on its tail. With these rattles they make a small noise of warning, but not half so loud as I had imagined. One has to know the sound well not to mistake it for a grasshopper's song, as it is very much like it. The black snake, which here grows as long as eight feet, will chase you if it is teased. But when you stand still it will stand too. Alligators are here in terrible flocks, but they are not so savage as in South America. I have never heard of them attacking a man, except one old man who stretched his mosquito net close to the bank of the river and went to sleep. I have often been swimming when I have seen them catch a pig or calf that had ventured too close.
When	you	row	up the bayous they are jumping on	all sides of	the logs
where they	lie	sunning themselves. You can	kill them	best on land.	In the
water you can shoot	them only in the back and	the ball will not enter	the scaly
hide, even	if	you	are quite close. When	you come	near one it	will lie
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