Show THE HERMIT when ladles ladies go alligator hunting bunting they should clearly understand that people whom they find and associate with freely in an all alabama bayou should not cot always be ba bowed to in piccadilly this bounds simple an axiom in fact but because miss did such in an uncalled for bowing things happened which put two most respectable families in a condition 0 open fury andI and I 1 earned dislike as tile the origin of evil As a matter of accuracy my yacht mate was far moro more guilty than 1 I he had bad gone a fishing one lay day in ins his shirt and bad spent eight hours sandwiched bo be tween wind and water and had bad naturally returned with liis his legs bitten red raw by the sun eo be developed n temper iu in consequence that would have made him shunned in tho the pit and I 1 was drivon driven into a iced deed of temporary separation our yacht was then in the bayou of bon boa secours which opens off mobile the man with the sunburned legs said with many adjectives that movement for him was out of the question he remarked that he would flay on the sloop and fish for gaff ns as they call the catfish and cavallas ca and sheep heads and sharks and whatever else he be could get and said that polito conversation was a strain to him her he stated that our crew of ono one negro would make a suitable butt for his bid future remarks and put forward the suggestions that I 1 should take myself off go at and hunt bunt alligators up the lagoons and live a savage in the swamps and eat crackers and trout and catch fever if theres any throwing about said the man with the sunburned legs be about your form so I 1 pitied the digger and went off iu in palo pala pink pyjamas pajamas and the ton foot yawl boat the subsequent sail down the lagoon under a brazen torrent of sunshine came as one of tho the seven reven pleasures of life there was a great wall of flees on the land landward isard side i earing bearing itself from the waters lip in a hedge of undergrowth to southward from over the rambling line of dunes donee with their fringes of scrub grass and palmetto came the dim bellow of the surf as it creamed and crumbled on tho the white gulf sand and down the silver ripples of the lagoon there blew an air faintly salt Falt which chilled tho the wet cotton against ones spine tho the lagoon bayed to au an end and there opened out another channel to be punted through a narrow winding lg canal of twirls and branches through quaking marsh land a waterway rustling with fish and ablaze with yellow lilies cardinal birds peered at one from tho the bushes and purple herons thrust out curious beaks from the grass clumps it was all very peaceable and extremely hot then there came a lake with islands a lake of water called by courtesy fresh which was lemon yellow to look through and black to look upon it swarmed with fish which took the hook book and audwert were supped cupped upon for their sins and because there was no whisky in the y yawl boat for dilution it served as a beverage in all its sulphurous nastiness theu then the he sun dipped behind tile tho forests at the back and night followed like the th utting down of a box one mounted a bullseye bull lantern on the hatband which would abide down a rifles sights and put out again in the boat padd paddling liag steal stealthily abi ly it is not always casuto easy to distinguish between a firefly and tho the gleam of un an alligators eye and shots tire are apt to bo be wasted and the neighborhood seared scared but on that night for fortune time held and the lead went home six sis several times then tho the dead were made more safely dead with the ax as and their slayer laid him down to sleep on the boats floor with bis big head beside the trunk so pissed passed my InY first night away drom the sloop the morning was occupied in the process of skinning and then once moro more ou on toward the east there were moro more lakes and more canals all full of their own new wonders and ever away in the distance on tho the starboard hand was tile the noise rf of the berf as ag it broke where the logs from the gulf rivers bristle in ahe milky sand in late afternoon I 1 came cajoto to a lagoon with a wooded island in it and among the trees of the island when they grew distinct from one another I 1 saw a man mail I 1 boro bore down on him under sail tor for there was a spanking breeza coming in from tho the sea and when we were within hailing bailing distance tho the boat grounded do you want to land here bo be shouted 1 I dont mind if I 1 do then off again and drop down to the tail of tho island and luff up sharp where you soo see a barked tree on tho the beach theres no deop deep water until you como come to tb there ore I 1 did as ho be told me put the boats boates noso nose on a small beach of pebbles and waited smoking I 1 waited half au an hour maybe and then ho he strolled up very leisurely with his hia thumbs in the waist belt of ills big trousers I 1 cant say he be seemed over pleased to see bee tile me abood with point what I 1 had come for ibold I 1 told dimand him and then lien said dymbe by the way youre a varsity man mail arent you yon yes oxford the house you are too ive a notion from over the way pembroke Pom broke 11 well it if youve nothing better on leavo leave your boat cud and come up to my place sorry I 1 tumble to you yon at first bat then you dont lockover loo look kover over respectable spec table ablo just now are you much down on tour luck t ohl oh im not hunting bunting alligators professionally fessio nally im hero for or amusement I 1 I 1 concluded ho be was there so ho had bad got into trouble with tho the law of the land elsewhere horo but I 1 lid did not suggest this because it is considered rudo to touch upon family matters uninvited but after a minute he be broached the ini im hero here for amusement myself ho be said im hero permanently non t ly B by this time we had bad got into a bit of a clearing inside the wall of trees a patch of sorghum another of sweet potatoes another of corn with stalks that stood ten feet high and a goodly planting of green tobacco plants with shambling palmetto growth at the back faith I 1 said youve queer notions of a pleasure resort im a man ho be said with an imagination consequently I 1 make a most comfortable hermit come in and take a hammock whores wheres our eight on tb thu river I 1 told him and we went on hard bard at boating shop till the sun went out I 1 began to have a strong idea that the man was mad but I 1 stopped my hunger bunger on his big victuals vict nals for all that and then re lit my pipe and went on with tile the talk from the other side of the clearing came the noises of the iho night the chatter of katydids and rubble of jar flics tho love song of tree crickets and toads file deep reed notes of frogs in their patches of marsh and through all mingled the heavy dia diapason bason of the surf from across the dunes and the forest and tho the black waters of the lake mellowed by its passage through the purple night I 1 am the most practical and creature in the world as a general thing but the influence of it was too heavy for me inc I 1 started on to chat again about the boats aud and about women and yachts and books and the other interests of tile the outer world but the things fell flat and presently the talk died out of us altogether we lay there hung in silence and sensuously drinking in N what bat the night gave up we must have bare spent hours without throwing down a word then atcheson spoke that is my usual concert he be said one gets to like it I 1 did not answer at once I 1 could not although his words came clearly enough tu to my ears A sort of mesmeric doze pinned mo me down when I 1 managed to rouse I 1 felt angry with myself for weakness and spoke with a sneer nicer you must find it mighty monotonous I 1 said A mistake an utter mistake it is full fall of infinite lite variety it never repeats itself and I 1 know because I 1 have listened to it now for three years in calm in cyclone in every kind of night which led god will vill give it is his orchestra but until tho the taste has grown ono does not know t this h is another pause then are you yon going to write about this walden pond of yours I 1 asked 1 I am no thoreau with a pen bo be sides I 1 am selfish and if I 1 could set this down I 1 would not ono one man in ten thousand might understand some wild fellow who ho had lived in tho the air with the things that grow in the air away from the pestilence of cities and lie he would never lift a book but the bo others would either yawn or deride and I 1 take it this is no matter to bo be pro profaned failed and yet thero there is nothing new in it at all only the old things changed I 1 have rambled over the world and seen and tried most pleasures tho the sounds here give it all back to me again only hero it is idealized the spell of the place was closing down again and pinning me I 1 roused myself with an effort and swore for relief Ate atcheson beson I 1 said 1 I believe you are either cither the devil or circo circe with a changed sex bo be merciful and speak no more and let me sleep if I 1 listen on I 1 shall forget the place from whence I 1 am come and stay bete and become as ono one of the swine I 1 I 1 1 I am sorry atcheson said and because I 1 do not want converts or companions I 1 will eay isay nomore no more therefore sleep you IF the miasma of the lotus was in my veins and I 1 knew it and feared I 1 woke sullen and suspicious with tho the first liti lift of day and got down to my boat atcho son eon came after and cried a pleasant auf wieder selien and I 1 answered with a scowl and throw out tho the sculls I 1 was very tory angry with myself and still moro more frightened I 1 had bad been in that kind of temptation before and knew what it was afterward to with that I 1 had fallen consequently I 1 made up my mind to get back to tho yacht without a halt and so put in a day of savage toil and because tho the sun above burned like a bettio of molten brass and tho the air baked the material pains of the body gave mo me other matters to think about and when I 1 made out tho the sloops riding light dancing on her forestay forc slay I 1 knew there was anether antidote close at liand hand teoman the man with the sunburned legs was a very carnal and practical sort of person ho he received me affably he fed me first with is iab sumptuousness sumptuous noss referred to the decrease of his big own affliction and then than told we me that wo e and the oysterman no longer had the bayou to our ourselves bolves tho vau van have como in with their fcc bc booner 11 lie he said and a girl on board who says she knows you a miss Wilco sn ali ah I 1 said 1 I know her well weil enough wo we used to see a goodish deal of ono one another once it if you mean that you were ere spoons on tile the lady laid eaid tho the nan man with tho the sunburned legs 1698 1 I guess better forget that ashes engaged to a yankee man mail from massachusetts now a person with culture mid and dollars heaps of dollars about of loin cm so eo I 1 believe and being anno bum 28 she bhe knows what is a soft thing and is not dot likely to chuck it up tako take off those rage raga and put on something respectable and well make the digger cull us across she said eaid I 1 was to bring you when you turned up not now at present I 1 am going to curnin turn in to sleep probably yI I 1 ahall dio in the course of the night it will save cave me the trouble and pain of kicking my self I 1 do did you said eald the man with the sunburned 10 logs 9 in tile tho course of your wanderings find bd a place where they sold corn whisky ohl ob youre fc noring already are you surely its drunk you are my son b because otherwise youve come back very vary do dotty t ty what rot t to 0 go and live like a hermit all by your lonesome sona 0 Is miss was wag a young woman with is great notion of having her own way had I 1 known her less lefts I 1 should have tried to avoid speaking on an a matter which I 1 preferred to keep silence upon being acquainted as wo we were I 1 did not bring out any futile stubbornness sho she wanted to know what there was waa to bo be seen in tile lagoons ind and lakes and I 1 told her with one trot but my tale did not quite hold water and she bhe twigged that there was something left out and demanded to hear bear what it was whereupon I 1 shrugged rugged Fb my shoulders helplessly and told her about atcy eson chapter commas and verse merely lying in the boli bottary tary instance int ink tance of 0 a personal name you say that he ha is a christchurch Christ church miu man she demanded when I 1 bad finished did I 1 say so you did and you mentioned also that lie ho rowed against you yon at henleys Hen leys for the stewards and ladies plate that fixes him it if done me the compliment to remember I 1 was waa down thero there on a houseboat that year and bo bol of course his name foote at all perhaps its got cot changed I 1 admitted weakly I 1 mens alens names do you know when they climb down tile the scale as hes done hum bum she said and pulled polled down a chart of tho the northern gulf coast from its cleat in the cabin roof now show exactly where this hermit lives to tho the charts all wrong the place there surveyed precisely but youve been there and you know the lay of it dont bo be shy your powers my dear mac in that direction are notorious heres a poncil pencil pill fill it in accurately and tell me the landmarks from the gulf sido bido if you go up there and see this thia fellow aud and sleep oven one night in those swamps catch fever and die also tho the mosquitoes and the sand flies will eat most of you before death comes what more do you want to know about the man stay here and I 1 will toll tell you my excellent mae mac I 1 have pumped you dry for the rest I 1 must see him myself and I 1 shall not die of fever because I 1 shall get this yacht to take mo me around to the outside and go from there and so not have to spend a night ashore at all nor will vill the insects of the swamp devour me because I 1 own brimmed hat bat and a large and most excellent veil in an hours time the two yachts were standing out board ima and board over the tha bar which guards the entrance to bayou eon don secours there was a romping breeze from the norard and wo we sped at eight knots past the low thore shore where only the bo tree stems show above the water then wo we slipped out through the channel between dauphin island and fort morgan and lifted to tho the swing of the outer sea een running east along the gulf coast of course miss did go to see atcheson Ate beson I 1 took her to the be island myself through an all intolerable maze of lakes and waterways and told tho the van that we hoped to slay alligators by daylight which is probably the hald est excuse a grown man with a pretty invention ever made but I 1 will give the girl credit for ono one thing sho stay talking to the fellow for more than ten tell minutes what ibe said to him bim I 1 dont know because my instructions were to stay by tile the boat aud and see that it drift away but when bhe came back and we rowed off she found cause to comment that Atch atcheson esou was a curious handful 1 I told you that before I 1 said now youve learned it for yourself I 1 trust youre satisfied 1 I am entirely mae mac I 1 hope you are I 1 I 1 too but when I 1 got back to town oad and to my vast astonishment saw atcheson there then a light began to dawn upon me he be was marching down pall mall na as large as life and very resplendent ho bad on a frock coat down to his heels beels the last gift of the gods in the way of hat and tie and a new reaped chin which stood out refreshingly white against the rest of his big countenance he shook me by tho the hand and said I 1 was a great man then wo we went into a club and talked for several hours without a stop and he be explained to tb me how a |