extraordinary freaks;--getting bitten by crabs, falling into the
bayou while in pursuit of "fiddlers," or losing herself at the
conclusion of desperate efforts to run races at night with the
moon, or to walk to the "end of the world." If she could only
once get to the edge of the sky, she said, she "could climb up."
She wanted to see the stars, which were the souls of good little
children; and she knew that God would let her climb up. "Just
what I am afraid of!"--thought Carmen to herself;--"He might let
her climb up,--a little ghost!" But one day naughty Chita
received a terrible lesson,--a lasting lesson,--which taught her
the value of obedience.

She had been particularly cautioned not to venture into a certain
part of the swamp in the rear of the grove, where the weeds were
very tall; for Carmen was afraid some snake might bite the child.

But Chita's bird-bright eye had discerned a gleam of white in
that direction; and she wanted to know what it was. The white
could only be seen from one point, behind the furthest house,
where the ground was high. "Never go there," said Carmen; "there
is a Dead Man there,--will bite you!" And yet, one day, while
Carmen was unusually busy, Chita went there.

In the early days of the settlement, a Spanish fisherman had
died; and his comrades had built him a little tomb with the
surplus of the same bricks and other material brought down the
bayou for the construction of Viosca's cottages. But no one,
except perhaps some wandering duck hunter, had approached the
sepulchre for years. High weeds and grasses wrestled together
all about it, and rendered it totally invisible from the