JACKS BOUQUET.


miles.


This ridge is covered by open pine forests, and eastward


of it lie extensive hamaks of tropical luxuriance.


In the edge


of this hamak Jack and I were standing one day, feasting our


eyes upon its strange and wondrous beauties.


Maple and mul-


berry,


myrtle


and magnolia,


cedar and


cypress,


willow and


water-oak, mastic and acacia, palmetto and dogwood,


'and live-oak, elm and sea-ash,


red-bay


gum and hickory were thickly


crowded


together,


interlaced,


intertwined,


overrun


grape-vines, morning-glories, climbing-jack, and other creepers,
and their trunks beset and hidden by thickets of Spanish bayo-


net, satin-wood, paw-paw, Indian fig, and


cacti.


Flowers of


every hue greeted


the eye from


tree, shrub, and vine.


great snowy blossoms of sweet-bay and magnolia, the tall white


racemes of


Spanish


bayonet,


and morning-glories of


every


tint, and the gorgeous scarlet and yellow flowers of the cacti
mingled their fragrance with odors from spicy shrubs and aro-
matic leaves.
 Jack essayed to cull a bouquet of the choicest bloom, but, his
feet becoming entangled in the meshes of a climbing-jack," he
fell full length, and was lost to sight among the bushes and


vines.


He came floundering out again, with a yell of anguish,


and danced around, rubbing his legs where the acuminate, ensi-


leaves., of the


Spanish


bayonet


had pierced


them, and


picking out -the minute prickles of


the cactus from his hands


and face.
 "Ah, Jack!" said I, coimmiseratively,
 "the heart that is soonest awake to the flower,
 Iq always the first to be toueh'd by the therna.
 "Ye," answered he ruefully,
 Beholding heaven, and feeling hell!"