Paddling under Palmettos — page 116: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Paddling Under Palmettos. 109 were Swarming around me in a way savage enough to make a fellow wild. Some people don’t mind their stings, but just then I seemed peculiarly suscep- tible to them. My face and hands burned like fire. In vain I drew on gloves and elevated the collar of my pea-jacket—they seemed to concentrate more furiously upon the parts still exposed, until I was ready to give up. A smudge would have sent them off, but how was I to build one watching for deer? The idea was absurd, but I determined that, as lI was only there for fun, this martyrdom was not to be endured any longer. I would strike out upon the water and call for the captain. “Standing up in the bow of the boat I gave one push with the paddle, mechanically holding my gun in the other hand. The birch-bark, light as a cork, floated out upon the water. Then I received sucha shock as I had never before experienced. Bless me, old fellow, if there on the other shore, just at the foot of the runway, didn’t I see a herd of deer—yes, actually a herd, and the leader with the biggest ant- lers I ever saw on a Florida runt deer. “The sight nearly paralyzed me, and yet, to my Gomicbooks (E(0) m