Do you know if you are susceptible to
poison vines?"
"I have handled anything wild as I pleased all my life," she said. "I am
sure there is no danger from that source; but Douglas, did you ever hear
of, or see, a massasauga?"
"You are perfectly safe on that score," he said. "I am going along
especially to take care of you."
"All right, then I won't be afraid of snakes," she said.
"I have waders, too," he said, "and I'm going into the swamp with you.
Wherever you wish to go, I will precede you and test the footing."
"Very well! I have lingered on the borders long enough.
To-morrow will be my initiation. By night I'll have learned the state of
my artistic ability with natural resources, and I'll know whether the
heart of the swamp is the loveliest sight I ever have seen, and I will
have proved how I 'line up' with a squaw-woman."
"Leslie, I'm now reading a most interesting human document," said Douglas,
"and in it I have reached the place where Indians in the heart of terrific
winter killed and heaped up a pile of deer in early day in Minnesota, then
went to camp rejoicing, while their squaws were left to walk twenty-eight
miles and each carry back on her shoulder a deer frozen stiff.
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