Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/34

Rh by trees and garden-plots; the most beautiful young orange trees covered with fruit shine in the sun, and the sun, that beautiful, beneficent southern sun, shines here all day long!

The Indian camp consists of thirteen bark huts, something like our booths at fairs, but always open on one side, at least during the day. Within, the huts have a very poverty-stricken appearance. The whole business and anxiety of the inmates seem to be catering for the stomach. I have been there at various times of the day, and have found them always occupied in eating or in preparing food. This morning they breakfasted on oranges, which, piled up in great heaps, seemed to have been lately fetched to the camp. I suspect that they were not of the very best quality; but it was a very lively scene, those red people eating that splendid fruit on the edge of the splendid sunbright forest. Fire is always burning in front of the bark huts, and old, shrivelled, grey-haired women sit by the fire, looking like real witches, sometimes stirring the contents of a kettle over the fire, and sometimes warming their skinny hands, and seeming as if they desired, as much as possible, to envelope themselves in the smoke. The children, who sit in groups around the fire, or leap about the green sward playing at ball, are handsome, full of animation, and have beautiful dark eyes. The young women are sometimes very much ornamented with armlets and necklaces, and have a deal of painted finery on their cheeks. One meets continually Indian women on their way to the city, carrying on their backs large baskets of light-wood billets, which they are taking thither for sale. These baskets are supported by a broad belt which they fasten round the forehead, like the Indian women of Minesota. The men at this season are out hunting in the higher mountain district of Alabama. A couple of them, who are still lingering here, have made themselves a screen of boughs and leaves among