Page 204

and burned sage-brush to keep warm and I would have loved the smell of smoke...

But no more about that. We went from Key West to New Orleans and back to Jacksonville in the yellow Buick. Then by train - with a stop in Washington - from Jacksonville to New York.

It had been a nice trip. The long white beach against the intense blue of two seas. The villages with clear houses with lawns and flowers. The green land of Louisiana where trees with fronds like great gray beards appeared as sages watching as you go. The quaint streets with wrought iron balconies, the lights and songs in the New Orleans night. The intensity of the perfumes, the luxuriance of the plants, the brightness of the sky and above all that feeling of free space, lots of space.

At Marineland we had visited the large aquariums, seen multitudes of beautiful and hideous fish, the great sharks led by their little friends. Then I had roughly heard the speaker say my name. I was wanted in that direction.

There, I was told that I had been chosen from the audience to feed the dolphins. But I didn't know how to feed the dolphins, I said. Nothing could be easier, I just had to do what the instructor told me, it was explained.

As we made our way to the large dolphin pool the instructor explained to me that I had to take one fish at a time from the bucket, only one fish at a time. All you had to do was hold the fish in your hand and your arm stretched out: the dolphins would take care of the rest. But be careful and don't lower your arm, she smiled amicably, "this" could happen to me and she showed me a hand that was missing three fingers.

I immediately thought that it was preferable to give up feeding the dolphins but, raincoat on, bucket in hand,...