Paddling under Palmettos — page 286: what you’re looking at

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

Paddling Under Palmettos. 277 wait until morning before settling their course. Much would depend upon how the day turned out. If it was squally or the wind against them, they could not dream of heading for the west, but would begin their trip up the shore of the lake, hoping to reach the mouth of the Kissimee River by the end of the second day. Then changing their course to southwest, they would coast along until they found the beginning of the great Disston Canal, that had lowered the waters of Okeechobee perceptibly and drained millions of acres of land that at one time had always been over- flowed during the wet season of the year. If the lake looked solitary and grewsome with the shades of night settling upon it, the woods toward the east were lively enough. They heard more than the usual chorus of sounds proceeding thence. Panther cries were wafted to their ears at intervals, and what, with the hooting of owls, screams of foraging wildcats, and all the other sounds incident to a night in the wilds, there was no sense of loneliness there. | Archie did not sleep well. He was glad that they were no longer lost in the Gomicbooks. co