r him.

"But I must have a place to sleep," he said. "It is only for the night.
I return on the 'Hatty.'"

"Why not stay on her then? Some do who only come up for the trip," was
the clerk's reply.

This was not a bad idea, although the stranger shuddered as he thought
of his ill-smelling stateroom and short berth. Still it was better than
camping out doors, or--the clearing--where he might be accommodated. He
shuddered again when he thought of that possibility--thanked the clerk
for his suggestion--and declined the book which had been pushed towards
him for his name. No use to register if he was not to be a guest; no use
to tell his name anyway, if he could avoid it, as he had successfully on
the boat, and with a polite good-evening he stepped outside just as
Mandy Ann, having finished her orange, peel and all, gathered herself up
with a view to starting for home.

CHAPTER II

THE PALMETTO CLEARING

The stranger had asked Ted on the boat, when he came with some lemonade
he had ordered, how far it was from the Brock House to the palmetto
clearing, and if there was any conveyance to take him there. Ted had
stared at him with wonder--first, as to what such as he could want at
the clearing, and second, if he was crazy enough to think there was a
conveyance. From being a petted cabin boy, Ted had grown to be something
of a spoiled one, and was what the passengers thought rather too "peart"
in his ways, while some of the crew insisted that he needed "takin' down
a button hole lower," whatever that might mean.

"Bless yer soul, Mas'r," he said, in reply to the question. "Thar ain't
no conveyance to the clarin'. It's off in de woods a piece, right smart.
You sticks to de road a spell, till you comes to a grave--what used to
be--but it's done sunk in now till nuffin's thar but de stun an' some
blackb'ry bushes clamberin' over it. Then you turns inter de wust piece
of road in Floridy, and turns agin whar some yaller jasmine is growin',
an fore long you're dar."

The direction was not very lucid, and the stranger thought of asking the
clerk for something more minute, but the surprise in Ted's eyes when he
inquired the way to the clearing had put him on his guard against a
greater surprise in the clerk. He would find his way somehow, and he
went out into the yard and looked in the direction of the sandy road
which led into the woods and which Mandy Ann was taking, presumably on
her way home. A second time the thou