Paddling under Palmettos — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

14 Paddling Under Palmettos. Poor fellow! It was his first trip to Florida. The others looked at him with a smile, and then Dick winked in the direction of Ned. They had been there themselves. “Wait! said the former. Archie puzzled over that word, but he failed to grasp its meaning until the next morning. Then he knew. “Say, what’s all this?” exclaimed Ned, suddenly, as they were swiftly cleaving the dark waters of the St. Johns. “Halloo! What's wrong?” from Dick. “Mark front,’ said Ned, using a term with which he had grown familiar in his many duck shooting ex- periences. Looking down the river their eyes were pleased to see several small boats under full sail, beating up against a head-wind. “Canoes, as I live!” cried Archie. “A canoe race. I have it. We're near the boat- house. The boys are having a race on the river. Listen—you can hear their friends cheering.” Sure enough, from a point just beyond the inter- Eomicvooks:.co