I was very young, and hot on the quest of new sights and doings.

As I walked down the unpaven street and through the narrow tobacco-grown lanes, the strange smell of it all intoxicated me like wine.
There was a great red sunset burning over the blue river and kindling the far forests till they glowed like jewels.

The frogs were croaking among the reeds, and the wild duck squattered in the dusk.

I passed an Indian, the first I had seen, with cock's feathers on his head, and a curiously tattooed chest, moving as light as a sleep-walker.

One or two townsfolk took the air, smoking their long pipes, and down by the water a negro girl was singing a wild melody.