Read it ?--Ah, COULDN'T they, though! I only wish I had as many dollars as they could read alligator water a mile and a half off.

Yes, and it paid them to do it, too.

A good alligator pilot could always get fifteen hundred dollars a month.

Nights, other people had to lay up for alligators, but those fellows never laid up for alligators; they never laid up for anything but fog.

They could SMELL the best alligator water it was said; I don't know whether it was so or not, and I think a body's got his hands full enough if he sticks to just what he knows himself, without going around backing up other people's say-so's, though there's a plenty that ain't backward about doing it, as long as they can roust out something wonderful to tell.