I50 FLORIDA DAYS.

 A cypress knee is glorified sometimes by a
 cluster of these sky creatures resting upon it
 so that it seems to be decked with a jewelled
 crown or girdled by living fire.

 Cypress knees line the edge 'of the creek,
 row upon row, until their numbers vanish i4
 the gray stillness of the woods. It is easy td
 see their meaning,-these dull, living things4
 with no smallest share in the beauty of flower
 and leaf all about them. They are the pur-
veyors and guardians of the great, grave trees
from the roots of which they spring; they
catch every floating leaf, every stray twig, all
the soft debris of the creek or swamp, until
by slow accumulation it forms a strip of earthy
rich and black, to feed the trees and bushes
which lift their green crowns into the sunshine.,
Sometimes the knees are quite covered by their
earth which they have gathered, so that they
themselves crumble and rot, and add their own
lives to the mass of death upon which the giants
flourish.
 The middle of the creek is dappled with flecks