ABSTRACT
In fertile fields, venerable live oaks, bearded by Spanish moss, bend grandly to earth.
Bright green palmettos bunch cheerfully around slender brown trunks in the piney
woods, and creepers tangle everything in flowered variety and profusion. East of the
Suwannee River, the land is marshy; lakes and ponds and lazy creeks abound. West of
the Suwannee, the land starts a gradual rise, and the old east-west road, U.S. , be-
gins to undulate to the rhythm of mountains eroding into plain, a rhythm that accel-
erates slowly into rolling hills and pastured valleys over the sixty miles to Tallahassee.
Atop the first real hill in the rhythm stands the Madison County courthouse. The six
windows of its silver cupola survey the territory in all directions like six bright eyes.
