Josh's mind whirled with unanswered
questions when he thought about their future.
Certain matters haunted him.
After their skirmish with the Seminoles, for example, he wondered if the
Indians would pose a constant threat to their existence. Would they be able to defend themselves and
their livestock from the panthers, wolves, and bears? He continued to ponder the tribulations that
might be awaiting them in the wild and soon realized that the more he agonized
over those kinds of thoughts, the more negative they became. He had to quit this line of worrying and
reasoning and present himself positively to the others. He couldn't hide his feelings from Ginny for
long--they read each other's moods like words in a book.
The family had rested long enough, and now
it was time to move on.
* * *
Buck and Lil sat
cross-legged in the center of the hollowed-out cypress dugout as Long John,
their newfound Seminole friend, expertly poled the cypress boat. They glided towards the great swamp and
neared the stately bald cypress, which signaled the beginning of Atseenahoofa, the great swamp. The whiteness of the plumed parent egrets
shone like a blanket of frost on the branches of the trees. The canoe quietly skimmed the water closer to
the rookery, their intrusion caused many loud
fluttering squawks. Fortunately, no mass
exodus from their nesting haunts began.
They heard curious yelping cries and queer deep grunts. Long John explained the sounds were fuzzy
young birds, hungrily calling to their parents, their wide-open beaks ready to
accept regurgitated meals. Acres upon
acres of trees were covered with stick nests, all containing young egrets. They saw many adults, but were told that most
had flown to distant feeding grounds.
They would return by the thousands just before dark. The more mature birds were ornately clad with
long white nuptial aigrettes that grew from their heads and shoulders and would
extend, when fully mature, past their tail feathers.
Long John poled them through the dark
coppery water channels, which only someone familiar with the swamp would have
known about, to show them more. They saw
alligators and snakes resting on logs and cruised the
dark labyrinths of the great swamp. It
was a day they would relish and remember for years and years to come.
* * *
Ginny's reaction was quick and
instinctive.
An explosion reverberated throughout the
countryside and smoke rose from a blinding flash. Gun power seared the cat's fur as lead balls
pierced its side and ripped flesh from its underbelly. Still, the charging panther slammed into
Ginny, knocking her to the ground. The
cat, blinded and enraged by the lethal wound, lashed out aimlessly at the
terrified woman, slicing through Ginny's nightshirt and tearing flesh from her
thigh.