I did about two hours' work the next morning and then walked back to Sanford, where I secured a place as help boy on one of the fishing boats. We stayed out on the first trip three days, and I was so desperately sea-sick all the time I was of little help to them. The master of the boat was a good old fellow and he paid me for my three days just the same, one dollar and fifty cents, half a dollar a day. With this fortune in my jeans, I felt very prosperous, and strolled down the main street, where I bought half a pound of mixed candies for five cents. As I walked casually along the main street chewing the sweets, a pair of tan shoes for one dollar and twenty-five cents caught my eye. These I purchased and went triumphantly squeaking out into the street.
It was difficult to catch a freight or passenger train out of Sanford as all trains were closely watched, so I decided to foot it to the first station where southbound trains stopped for signals and orders. This I understood was about ten miles. I struck up a lively pace down the track, through the work yards, out of the city limits and into the open country.
The big heavy tan shoes I had recently purchased felt comfortable and evidently were made for walking cross-ties, for the cinders in the track could not cut through the heavy soles. I made good time on this piece of road-bed, for the ties were just about the right distance apart to fit my steps. Along the railroad there were numberless orange groves with loads of large luscious oranges, and occasionally I refreshed myself. Finally, I came to a big orange grove. A number of the limbs were hanging so near the track, one passing on a train could almost have plucked an orange from the coach window.
I filled my pockets with fruit, and noticing a little pond a few steps from the track, I went over and sat down by its border, on a springboard, one end of which was made fast to the bank. There I sat and ate oranges to my heart's content, and never did stolen fruit taste sweeter. The sun was now almost perpendicular, and its golden rays beating profusely down on my top knot, put me in the notion of taking a swim.
Taking off my clothes, I plunged from the end of the spring-board and paddled around in the lucid and refreshing water. The bottom of the lake was sandy and cool, and it felt awfully good to my feet, especially after a walk over cross-ties in those new tan shoes. I paddled around the water enjoying every moment to myself till I saw several little alligators around me, then I made a bee-line for the land. Just as I was nearing the bank a big ugly looking alligator bobbed his head up out of the water directly in front of me cutting off escape. For a moment I was so stunned with fear I could not move. There was that big ugly mouth with its even row of sharp white teeth. Gee whiz! he was big enough to swallow me whole, but he was not going to get a chance if I could help myself. Realizing my danger, I stood perfectly still and didn't move a muscle. I couldn't. My heart seemed to stop beating. Without my mind's command my body plunged forward, and before I knew it I was standing on the bank, shivering with fright.
"Gee Whiz! He was big Enough to Swallow me Whole."
(Wanderlust)
The alligator wiggled over to the other side of the bank and lay in the sun while I made ready to put on my garments. This indeed did not consume much time, for my costuming was scant. As I was about to depart from the field of my recent adventure, a native black informed me that I was intruding on private grounds and I must "git out."
Emerging from the tall tropical bushes which were on either side of the railroad track, I saw a man standing there, and I was not long in learning that he was the owner of the grounds on which I had been intruding, and when I told him of my adventure with the alligator in the pond, he laughed heartily. In reciting my story to him he interrupted me by asking if I had thought of Jonah and the whale when that big pet alligator of his was staring me in the face. Well, not on your life!
I learned that the station was only a ten minute walk, and I made a bee-line for it. I soon arrived, and behind some box cars I sat down to await the train, but, hungry again, I stole over to a small house nearby and secured a snack from the good housewife. With the food wrapped in a piece of newspaper, I returned to my seat behind the car, partook of my noontime meal, finishing off with mixed candies.