In the Wonderful Land of Hez; Or, The Mystery of the Fountain of Youth

Professor Remington Easy is not easy to follow. The stout eccentric and his lanky companion Martin Haypole have paddled into the Florida Everglades chasing a legend: the Fountain of Youth, hidden somewhere in the vast wetlands beyond Lake Okechobee. What they find instead is chaos, a capsized boat, and a very hungry alligator with poor manners. Yet the professor presses on, certain that something miraculous waits in that strange green labyrinth of cypress and sawgrass. Their bumbling quest intersects with two young adventurers, Leo Malvern and Dick Vincey, who have set up camp nearby. The four unlikely companions form an expedition and venture deeper into the mystery, facing swamp fever, treacherous waters, and the lingering question of whether the Fountain is real, a fairy tale, or something far stranger than anyone imagined. Written in 1915 with irrepressible energy and dry comic timing, this is adventure fiction at its most joyful: a story about the pleasure of getting lost, the thrill of a mystery, and the particular magic of the Florida Everglades before the modern world arrived. Perfect for readers who want to disappear into a world where anything might be waiting just around the next bend.