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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Wakulla, by Kirk Munroe
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+Title: Wakulla
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+Author: Kirk Munroe
+
+Release Date: August, 2003 [Etext# 4393]
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+[This file was first posted on January 22, 2002]
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Wakulla, by Kirk Munroe
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+
+WAKULLA
+
+A STORY OF ADVENTURE IN FLORIDA
+
+BY KIRK MUNROE
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+    I. PREPARING TO LEAVE THE OLD HOME
+   II. THE SCHOONER "NANCY BELL"
+  III. "CAPTAIN LI'S" STORY
+   IV. A WRECK ON THE FLORIDA REEF
+    V. MARK AND RUTH ATTEND AN AUCTION
+   VI. A QUEER CHRISTMAS DAY
+  VII. ARRIVAL AT THE NEW HOME
+ VIII. THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND MORE MYSTERIES
+   IX. MARK DISCOVERS THE GHOST AND FINDS HIM IN A TRYING POSITION
+    X. A RUNAWAY'S STORY, AND ITS HAPPY ENDING
+   XI. "THE ELMER MILL AND FERRY COMPANY"
+  XII. THE GREAT MILL PICNIC
+ XIII. FIGHTING A FOREST FIRE
+  XIV. HOW THE BOYS CAUGHT AN ALLIGATOR
+   XV. A FIRE HUNT, AND MARK'S DISAPPEARANCE
+  XVI. BURIED IN AN UNDERGROUND RIVER
+ XVII. TWO LETTERS AND A JOURNEY
+XVIII. THE BURNING OF THE "WILDFIRE"
+  XIX. UNCLE CHRISTOPHER'S "GREAT SCHEME"
+   XX. EDNA MAY MARCH
+
+
+
+
+
+WAKULLA
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+PREPARING TO LEAVE THE OLD HOME.
+
+
+Over and over again had Mark and Ruth Elmer read this paragraph,
+which appeared among the "Norton Items" of the weekly paper
+published in a neighboring town:
+
+"We are sorry to learn that our esteemed fellow-townsman, Mark
+Elmer, Esq., owing to delicate health, feels compelled to remove
+to a warmer climate. Having disposed of his property in this
+place, Mr. Elmer has purchased a plantation in Florida, upon which
+he will settle immediately. As his family accompany him to this
+new home in the Land of Flowers, the many school-friends and young
+playmates of his interesting children will miss them sadly."
+
+"I tell you what, Ruth," said Mark, after they had read this item
+for a dozen times or more, "we are somebodies after all, and don't
+you forget it. We own a plantation, we do, and have disposed of
+our PROPERTY in this place."
+
+As Mark looked from the horse-block on which he was sitting at the
+little weather-beaten house, nestling in the shadow of its
+glorious trees, which, with its tiny grass-plot in front, was all
+the property Mr. Elmer had ever owned, he flung up his hat in
+ecstasy at the idea of their being property owners, and tumbled
+over backward in trying to catch it as it fell.
+
+"What I like," said Ruth, who stood quietly beside him, "is the
+part about us being interesting children, and to think that the
+girls and boys at school will miss us."
+
+"Yes, and won't they open their eyes when we write them letters
+about the alligators, and the orange groves, and palm-trees, and
+bread-fruit, and monkeys, and Indians, and pirates? Whoop-e-e-e!
+what fun we are going to have!"
+
+"Bread-fruit, and monkeys, and pirates, and Indians in Florida!
+what are you thinking of, Mark Elmer?"
+
+"Well, I guess 'Osceola the Seminole' lived in Florida, and it's
+tropical, and pirates and monkeys are tropical too, ain't they?"
+
+Just then the tea-bell rang, and the children ran in to take the
+paper which they had been reading to their father, and to eat
+their last supper in the little old house that had always been
+their home.
+
+Mr. Elmer had, for fifteen years, been cashier of the Norton Bank;
+and though his salary was not large, he had, by practising the
+little economies of a New England village, supported his family
+comfortably until this time, and laid by a sum of money for a
+rainy day. And now the "rainy day" had come. For two years past
+the steady confinement to his desk had told sadly upon the
+faithful bank cashier, and the stooping form, hollow cheeks, and
+hacking cough could no longer be disregarded. For a long time good
+old Dr. Wing had said,
+
+"You must move South, Elmer; you can't stand it up here much
+longer."
+
+Both Mr. Elmer and his wife knew that this was true; but how could
+they move South? where was the money to come from? and how were
+they to live if they did? Long and anxious had been the
+consultations after the children were tucked into their beds, and
+many were the prayers for guidance they had offered up.
+
+At last a way was opened, "and just in time, too," said the
+doctor, with a grave shake of his head. Mrs. Elmer's uncle,
+Christopher Bangs, whom the children called "Uncle Christmas,"
+heard of their trouble, and left his saw-mills and lumber camps to
+come and see "where the jam was," as he expressed it. When it was
+all explained to him, his good-natured face, which had been in a
+wrinkle of perplexity, lit up, and with a resounding slap of his
+great, hard hand on his knee, he exclaimed,
+
+"Sakes alive! why didn't you send for me, Niece Ellen? why didn't
+you tell me all this long ago, eh? I've got a place down in
+Florida, that I bought as a speculation just after the war. I
+hain't never seen it, and might have forgot it long ago but for
+the tax bills coming in reg'lar every year. It's down on the St.
+Mark's River, pretty nigh the Gulf coast, and ef you want to go
+there and farm it, I'll give you a ten years' lease for the taxes,
+with a chance to buy at your own rigger when the ten years is up."
+
+"But won't it cost a great deal to get there, uncle?" asked Mrs.
+Elmer, whose face had lighted up as this new hope entered her
+heart.
+
+"Sakes alive! no; cost nothin'! Why, it's actually what you might
+call providential the way things turns out. You can go down, slick
+as a log through a chute, in the Nancy Bell, of Bangor, which is
+fitting out in that port this blessed minit. She's bound to
+Pensacola in ballast, or with just a few notions of hardware sent
+out as a venture, for a load of pine lumber to fill out a contract
+I've taken in New York. She can run into the St. Mark's and drop
+you jest as well as not. But you'll have to pick up and raft your
+fixin's down to Bangor in a terrible hurry, for she's going to
+sail next week, Wednesday, and it's Tuesday now."
+
+So it was settled that they should go, and the following week was
+one of tremendous excitement to the children, who had never been
+from home in their lives, and were now to become such famous
+travellers.
+
+Mark Elmer, Jr., as he wrote his name, was as merry, harum-scarum,
+mischief-loving a boy as ever lived. He was fifteen years old, the
+leader of the Norton boys in all their games, and the originator
+of most of their schemes for mischief. But Mark's mischief was
+never of a kind to injure anybody, and he was as honest as the day
+is long, as well as loving and loyal to his parents and sister
+Ruth.
+
+Although a year younger than Mark, Ruth studied the same books
+that he did, and was a better scholar. In spite of this she looked
+up to him in everything, and regarded him with the greatest
+admiration. Although quiet and studious, she had crinkly brown
+hair, and a merry twinkle in her eyes that indicated a ready humor
+and a thorough appreciation of fun.
+
+It was Monday when Mark and Ruth walked home from the post-office
+together, reading the paper, for which they had gone every Monday
+evening since they could remember, and they were to leave home and
+begin their journey on the following morning.
+
+During the past week Mr. Elmer had resigned his position in the
+bank, sold the dear little house which had been a home to him and
+his wife ever since they were married, and in which their children
+had been born, and with a heavy heart made the preparations for
+departure.
+
+With the willing aid of kind neighbors Mrs. Elmer had packed what
+furniture they were to take with them, and it had been sent to
+Bangor. Mark and Ruth had not left school until Friday, and had
+been made young lions of all the week by the other children. To
+all of her girl friends Ruth had promised to write every single
+thing that happened, and Mark had promised so many alligator
+teeth, and other trophies of the chase, that, if he kept all his
+promises, there would be a decided advance in the value of Florida
+curiosities that winter.
+
+As the little house was stripped of all its furniture, except some
+few things that had been sold with it, they were all to go to Dr.
+Wing's to sleep that night, and Mrs. Wing had almost felt hurt
+that they would not take tea with her; but both Mr. and Mrs. Elmer
+wanted to take this last meal in their own home, and persuaded her
+to let them have their way. The good woman must have sent over
+most of the supper she had intended them to eat with her, and
+this, together with the good things sent in by other neighbors, so
+loaded the table that Mark declared it looked like a regular
+surprise-party supper.
+
+A surprise-party it proved to be, sure enough, for early in the
+evening neighbors and friends began to drop in to say good-bye,
+until the lower rooms of the little house were filled. As the
+chairs were all gone, they sat on trunks, boxes, and on the
+kitchen table, or stood up.
+
+Mark and Ruth had their own party, too, right in among the grown
+people; for most of the boys and girls of the village had come
+with their parents to say good-bye, and many of them had brought
+little gifts that they urged the young Elmers to take with them as
+keepsakes. Of all these none pleased Ruth so much as the album,
+filled with the pictures of her school-girl friends, that Edna May
+brought her.
+
+Edna was the adopted daughter of Captain Bill May, who had brought
+her home from one of his voyages when she was a little baby, and
+placed her in his wife's arms, saying that she was a bit of
+flotsam and jetsam that belonged to him by right of salvage. His
+ship had been in a Southern port when a woman, with this child in
+her arms, had fallen from a pier into the river. Springing into
+the water after them, Captain May had succeeded in saving the
+child, but the mother was drowned. As nothing could be learned of
+its history, and as nobody claimed it, Captain May brought the
+baby home, and she was baptized Edna May. She was now fourteen
+years old, and Ruth Elmer's most intimate friend, and the first
+picture in the album was a good photograph of herself, taken in
+Bangor. The others were only tin-types taken in the neighboring
+town of Skowhegan; but Ruth thought them all beautiful.
+
+The next morning was gray and chill, for it was late in November.
+The first snow of the season was falling in a hesitating sort of a
+way, as though it hardly knew whether to come or not, and it was
+still quite dark when Mrs. Wing woke Mark and Ruth, and told them
+to hurry, for the stage would be along directly. They were soon
+dressed and down-stairs, where they found breakfast smoking on the
+table. A moment later they were joined by their parents, neither
+of whom could eat, so full were they of the sorrow of departure.
+The children were also very quiet, even Mark's high spirits being
+dampened by thoughts of leaving old friends, and several tears
+found their way down Ruth's cheeks during the meal.
+
+After breakfast they said good-bye to the Wings, and went over to
+their own house to pack a few remaining things into hand-bags, and
+wait for the Skowhegan stage.
+
+At six o'clock sharp, with a "toot, toot, toot," of the driver's
+horn, it rattled up to the gate, followed by a wagon for the
+baggage. A few minutes later, with full hearts and tearful eyes,
+the Elmers had bidden farewell to the little old house and grand
+trees they might never see again, and were on their way down the
+village street, their long journey fairly begun.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE SCHOONER "NANCY BELL."
+
+
+It lacked a few minutes of nine o'clock when the stage in which
+the Elmers had left Norton drew up beside the platform of the
+railway station in Skowhegan. There was only time to purchase
+tickets and check the baggage, and then Mark and Ruth stepped, for
+the first time in their lives, on board a train of cars, and were
+soon enjoying the novel sensation of being whirled along at what
+seemed to them a tremendous rate of speed. To them the train-boy,
+who came through the car with books, papers, apples, and oranges,
+and wore a cap with a gilt band around it, seemed so much superior
+to ordinary boys, that, had they not been going on such a
+wonderful journey, they themselves would have envied him his life
+of constant travel and excitement.
+
+At Waterville they admired the great mills, which they fancied
+must be among the largest in the world; and when, shortly after
+noon, they reached Bangor, and saw real ships, looking very like
+the pictures in their geographies, only many times more
+interesting, their cup of happiness was full.
+
+Mark and Ruth called all the vessels they saw "ships;" but their
+father, who had made several sea-voyages as a young man, said that
+most of them were schooners, and that he would explain the
+difference to them when they got to sea and he had plenty of time.
+
+The children were bewildered by the noise of the railroad station
+and the cries of the drivers and hotel runners--all of whom made
+violent efforts to attract the attention of the Elmer party. At
+length they got themselves and their bags safely into one of the
+big yellow omnibuses, and were driven to a hotel, where they had
+dinner. Mark and Ruth did not enjoy this dinner much, on account
+of its many courses and the constant attentions of the waiters.
+
+It had stopped snowing, and after dinner the party set forth in
+search of the Nancy Bell. By making a few inquiries they soon
+found her, and were welcomed on board by her young, pleasant-
+faced captain, whose name was Eli Drew, but whom all his friends
+called "Captain Li."
+
+The Nancy Bell was a large three-masted schooner, almost new, and
+as she was the first vessel "Captain Li" had ever commanded, he
+was very proud of her. He took them at once into his own cabin,
+which was roomy and comfortable, and from which opened four state-
+rooms--two on each side. Of these the captain and his mate, John
+Somers, occupied those on the starboard, or right-hand side, and
+those on the other, or port side, had been fitted up, by the
+thoughtful kindness of Uncle Christopher, for the Elmers--one for
+Mrs. Elmer and Ruth, and the other for Mark and his father.
+
+"Ain't they perfectly lovely?" exclaimed Ruth. "Did you ever see
+such cunning little beds? They wouldn't be much too big for Edna
+May's largest doll."
+
+"You mustn't call them 'beds,' Ruth; the right name is berths,"
+said Mark, with the air of a boy to whom sea terms were familiar.
+
+"I don't care," answered his sister; "they are beds for all that,
+and have got pillows and sheets and counterpanes, just like the
+beds at home."
+
+Mr. Elmer found that his furniture, and the various packages of
+tools intended for their Southern home, were all safe on board the
+schooner and stowed down in the hold, and he soon had the trunks
+from the station and the bags from the hotel brought down in a
+wagon.
+
+The captain said they had better spend the night on board, as he
+wanted to be off by daylight, and they might as well get to
+feeling at home before they started. They thought so too; and so,
+after a walk through the city, where, among other curious sights,
+they saw a post-office built on a bridge, they returned to the
+Nancy Bell for supper.
+
+Poor Mr. Elmer, exhausted by the unusual exertions of the day, lay
+awake and coughed most of the night, but the children slept like
+tops. When Mark did wake he forgot where he was, and in trying to
+sit up and look around, bumped his head against the low ceiling of
+his berth.
+
+Daylight was streaming in at the round glass dead-eye that served
+as a window, and to Mark's great surprise he felt that the
+schooner was moving. Slipping down from his berth, and quietly
+dressing himself, so as not to disturb his father, he hurried on
+deck, where he was greeted by "Captain Li," who told him he had
+come just in time to see something interesting.
+
+The Nancy Bell was in tow of a little puffing steam-tug, and was
+already some miles from Bangor down the Penobscot River. The
+clouds of steam rising into the cold air from the surface of the
+warmer water were tinged with gold by the newly-risen sun. A heavy
+frost rested on the spruces and balsams that fringed the banks of
+the river, and as the sunlight struck one twig after another, it
+covered them with millions of points like diamonds. Many cakes of
+ice were floating in the river, showing that its navigation would
+soon be closed for the winter.
+
+To one of these cakes of ice, towards which a boat from the
+schooner was making its way, the captain directed Mark's
+attention. On this cake, which was about as large as a dinner-
+table, stood a man anxiously watching the approach of the boat.
+
+"What I can't understand," said the captain, "is where he ever
+found a cake of ice at this time of year strong enough to bear him
+up."
+
+"Who is he? How did he get there, and what is he doing?" asked
+Mark, greatly excited.
+
+"Who he is, and how he got there, are more than I know," answered
+"Captain Li." "What he is doing, is waiting to be taken off. The
+men on the tug sighted him just before you came on deck, and sung
+out to me to send a boat for him. It's a mercy we didn't come
+along an hour sooner, or we never would have seen him through the
+mist."
+
+"You mean we would have missed him," said Mark, who, even upon so
+serious an occasion, could not resist the temptation to make a
+pun.
+
+By this time the boat had rescued the man from his unpleasant
+position, and was returning with him on board. Before it reached
+the schooner Mark rushed down into the cabin and called to his
+parents and Ruth to hurry on deck. As they were already up and
+nearly dressed, they did so, and reached it in time to see the
+stranger helped from the boat and up the side of the vessel.
+
+He was so exhausted that he was taken into the cabin, rolled in
+warm blankets, and given restoratives and hot drinks before he was
+questioned in regard to his adventure.
+
+Meantime the schooner was again slipping rapidly down the broad
+river, and Mark, who remained on deck with his father, questioned
+him about the "river's breath," as he called the clouds of steam
+that arose from it.
+
+"That's exactly what it is, the 'river's breath,'" said Mr. Elmer.
+"Warm air is lighter than cold, and consequently always rises; and
+the warm, damp air rising from the surface of the river into the
+cold air above is condensed into vapor, just as your warm, damp
+breath is at this very moment."
+
+"But I should think the water would be cold with all that ice
+floating in it," said Mark.
+
+"It would seem cold if we were surrounded by the air of a hot
+summer day," answered his father; "but being of a much higher
+temperature than the air above it, it would seem quite warm to you
+now if you should put your bare hand into it. We can only say that
+a thing is warm by comparing it with something that is colder, or
+cold by comparison with that which is warmer."
+
+When Mark and his father went down to breakfast they found the
+rescued man still wrapped in blankets, but talking in a faint
+voice to the captain; and at the table the latter told the Elmers
+what he had learned from him.
+
+His name was Jan Jansen, and he was a Swede, but had served for
+several years in the United States navy. On being discharged from
+it he had made his way to New Sweden, in the northern part of
+Maine; but, a week before, he had come to Bangor, hoping to obtain
+employment for the winter in one of the saw-mills. In this he has
+been unsuccessful; and the previous night, while returning from
+the city to the house on its outskirts in which he was staying, he
+undertook to cross a small creek, in the mouth of which were a
+number of logs; these were so cemented together by recently formed
+ice that he fancied they would form a safe bridge, and tried to
+cross on it. When near the middle of the creek, to his horror the
+ice gave way with a crash, and in another moment he was floating
+away in the darkness on the cake from which he had been so
+recently rescued. That it had supported him was owing to the fact
+that it still held together two of the logs. He had not dared
+attempt to swim ashore in the dark, and so had drifted on during
+the night, keeping his feet from freezing by holding them most of
+the time in the water.
+
+After breakfast Mr. Elmer and the captain held a consultation, the
+result of which was that the former offered Jan Jansen work in
+Florida, if he chose to go to the St. Mark's with them; and
+Captain Drew offered to let him work his passage to that place as
+one of the crew of the Nancy Bell. Without much hesitation the
+poor Swede accepted both these offers, and as soon as he had
+recovered from the effects of his experience on the ice raft was
+provided with a bunk in the forecastle.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+"CAPTAIN LI'S" STORY.
+
+
+All day the Nancy Bell was towed down the broad river, the
+glorious scenery along its banks arousing the constant enthusiasm
+of our travellers. Late in the afternoon they passed the gray
+walls of Fort Knox on the right, and the pretty little town of
+Bucksport on the left. They could just see the great hotel at Fort
+Point through the gathering dusk, and soon afterwards were tossing
+on the wild, windswept waters of Penobscot Bay.
+
+As they cleared the land, so as to sight Castine Light over the
+port quarter, the tug cast loose from them and sail was made on
+the schooner. The last thing Mark Elmer saw as he left the deck,
+driven below by the bitter cold, was the gleam of the light on
+Owl's Head, outside which Captain Drew said they should find the
+sea pretty rough.
+
+The rest of the family had gone below some time before, and Mark
+found that his mother was already very sea-sick. He felt rather
+uncomfortable himself, and did not care much for the supper, of
+which his father and Ruth eat so heartily. He said he thought he
+would go to bed, before supper was half over, and did so, although
+it was only six o'clock. Poor Mark! it was a week before he again
+sat at table or went on deck.
+
+During this week the Nancy Bell sailed along the coasts of Maine,
+New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Delaware,
+Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. She went inside of
+Martha's Vineyard, through Vineyard Sound, in company with a great
+fleet of coasters; but when they passed Gay Head, and turned to
+the westward into Long Island Sound, the Nancy was headed towards
+the lonely light-house on Montauk Point, the extreme end of Long
+Island. From here her course was for the Cape May lightship on the
+New Jersey coast, and for some time she was out of sight of land.
+
+So they sailed, day after day, ever southward, and towards the
+warmth which was to make Mr. Elmer well again.
+
+Although Mark was very ill all this time, Ruth was as bright and
+well as though she were on land. This was very mortifying to her
+brother; but "Captain Li," who went in to see him every day,
+comforted him by telling him of old sailors he had known who were
+always sea-sick for the first few days of every voyage they
+undertook.
+
+The schooner was off Cape Hatteras before Mark felt able to leave
+his berth. At last, one evening when the sea was very quiet,
+"Captain Li" said, "Come, Mark, I want you to turn out and go on
+deck to see the last of Hatteras Light. You know Cape Hatteras is
+one of the worst capes along our entire Atlantic coast, and is
+probably the one most dreaded by sailors. When coming home from
+the West Indies, they sing an old song which begins:
+
+    "'Now if the Bermudas let you pass,
+    Then look for Cape Hatteras.'"
+
+Slowly dressing, with the captain's aid, Mark, feeling very weak,
+but free from the horrible sickness from which he had suffered so
+long, managed to get out on deck. He was astonished at the change
+that one week's sailing southward had made in the general
+appearance of things. When he was last on deck, it and the rigging
+were covered with snow and ice. Now not a particle of either was
+to be seen, and the air was mild and pleasant. A new moon hung low
+in the western sky, and over the smooth sea the schooner was
+rippling along merrily, under every stitch of canvas that she
+could spread.
+
+Mark received a warm welcome from his father, mother, and Ruth,
+who were all on deck, but had not expected to see him there that
+evening.
+
+"Quick, Mark! Look! Hatteras is 'most gone," said Ruth, pointing,
+as she spoke, to a little twinkle of light so far astern that it
+seemed to rest on the very waters. Half an hour later the captain
+said, "Now let's go below, where it is warmer; and if you care to
+hear it, I will spin you a yarn of Hatteras Light."
+
+"Yes, indeed," said Ruth and Mark together.
+
+"By all means; a story is just the thing," said Mr. and Mrs.
+Elmer, also together, at which they all laughed, hooked little
+fingers, and wished.
+
+When they had made themselves comfortable in the cabin, Mark being
+allowed to occupy the lounge on account of his recent illness, the
+captain began as follows:
+
+"Ten years ago this winter I made my first voyage of any length,
+though before that I had made some short runs on a little coaster
+between New York and down-East ports. Getting tired of this, and
+wanting to see something more of the world, I shipped in New York,
+early in December, on board the very prettiest craft I ever set
+eyes on, for a voyage to the West Indies. She was the hundred-ton
+schooner-yacht Mirage, and her owner had determined to try and
+make her pay him something during the winter by running her as a
+fruiter. She carried a crew of five men, besides the captain,
+mate, and steward--all young and able seamen. I was the youngest
+and least experienced, but was large for my age, and passed muster
+with the rest.
+
+"We had a pleasant run down to Havana, passing Moro Castle and
+dropping anchor on the seventh day out from New York, but found
+some trouble there in getting a cargo for the home voyage. The
+delay worried our skipper considerably, for he had calculated on
+being home with his wife and baby at Christmas; but we of the crew
+enjoyed the city, and I for one got leave to go ashore whenever I
+could, and made the most of my opportunity to see the sights.
+
+"We had laid there about ten days, when one morning, as the old
+man came up the after companion-way from the cabin, a big gray rat
+rushed out on deck ahead of him, scampered to the side, and
+plumped overboard. We all saw it in the water, swimming for the
+quay, which was but a short distance from us, and, quick as a
+thought, the skipper had jumped back into the cabin for his
+pistol, and before the beast had got more than half-way he had
+fired several shots at it. The bullets struck all around the rat,
+but didn't hit it, and we saw him disappear through a crevice
+between the stones of the quay.
+
+"Our captain was a very superstitious man, and this incident
+troubled him, for I heard him say to the mate that he never knew
+any ship to have good luck when once the rats began to leave her.
+
+"Soon after this we took in our cargo of pineapples and bananas
+and started for home. Our first three days' run was as pretty as
+ever was made, and with the Gulf Stream to help us, it seemed as
+though we might make New York in time for Christmas, after all.
+Then there came a change--first a gale that drove us to the
+westward, and then light head-winds, or no winds at all; and so we
+knocked round for three days more, and on the day before Christmas
+we hadn't rounded Hatteras, let alone made Sandy Hook, as we had
+hoped to do.
+
+"It was a curious sort of a day, mild and hazy, with the sun
+showing round and yellow as an orange. The skipper was uneasy, and
+kept squinting at the weather, first on one side and then the
+other. We heard him say to the mate that something was coming, for
+the mercury was falling faster than he had ever seen it. Things
+stood so until sunset, when the haze settled down thicker than
+ever. I was at the wheel, when the skipper came on deck and
+ordered all canvas to be stripped from her except the double-
+reefed main-sail and a corner of the jib. He sung out to me to
+keep a sharp lookout for Hatteras Light, and then went below
+again.
+
+"When I caught sight of the light, about an hour later, and
+reported it, it wasn't any brighter than it looked when you came
+on deck, a while ago, Mark, and we were heading directly for it.
+When the skipper came up and looked at it he told me to 'keep her
+so' while he took a squint at the chart.
+
+"He hadn't more than gone below again when there came such a gust
+of wind and rain, with thunder and lightning close after, as to
+hide the light and keep me busy for a few minutes holding the
+schooner up to it.
+
+"The squall passed as suddenly as it came, and there was the
+light, right over the end of the flying-jib-boom, burning as
+steady as ever, but looking mighty blue, somehow. I thought it was
+the effect of the mist, and tried to keep her headed for it. As I
+was getting terribly puzzled and fussed up by what I thought was
+the strange action of the compass, and by the way the little
+spiteful gusts of wind seemed to come from every quarter at once,
+the skipper came on deck. Before he had cleared the companion-way
+he asked,
+
+"'How does Hatteras Light bear?'
+
+"'Dead ahead, sir,' said I.
+
+"As he stepped on deck he turned to look at it, and I saw him
+start as though he saw something awful. He looked for half a
+minute, and then in a half-choked sort of voice he gasped out,
+'The Death-Light!'
+
+"At the same moment the light, that I had took to be Hatteras,
+rolled slowly, like a ball of fire, along the jib-top-sail stay to
+the top-mast head, and then I knew it was a St. Elmo's fire, a
+thing I'd heard of but never seen before.
+
+"As we all looked at it, afraid almost to say a word, there came a
+sound like a moan over the sea, and in another minute a cyclone,
+such as I hope never to see again, laid us, first on our beam
+ends, and then drove us at a fearful rate directly towards the
+coast.
+
+"We drove this way for an hour or more, unable to do a thing to
+help ourselves, and then she struck on Hatteras sands. Her masts
+went as she struck, and as they fell a huge sea, rushing over the
+poor craft, swept overboard the captain and two men. It was some
+time before we knew they were gone, for we could see nothing nor
+hear anything but the howl of the tempest.
+
+"At last we got rid of the floating wreck of spars by clearing the
+tangled rigging with our knives, and, thus relieved, the schooner
+was driven a good bit farther over the sands. Finally she struck
+solid, and began to break up. One of her boats was stove and
+worthless, and in trying to clear away the other, a metallic life-
+boat, another man was swept overboard and lost.
+
+"The mate and two of the crew besides myself finally got away from
+the wreck in this boat, and were driven in to the beach, on which
+we were at last flung more dead than alive.
+
+"The next morning we made our way to the light-house, where we
+were kindly cared for, but where our Christmas dinner was a pretty
+sad affair.
+
+"The captain's body was washed up on the beach, and a week from
+that day we took it and the news of his death together to his wife
+in New York.
+
+"Since then I have always felt easier when I have left Hatteras
+Light well astern, as we have for this time, at any rate. Well,
+there's eight bells, and I must be on deck, so good-night to you
+all, and pleasant dreams."
+
+"Is there any such thing as a 'death-light' that warns people of
+coming disaster?" asked Ruth of her father, when the captain had
+left them.
+
+"No, my dear," he answered, "there is not. The St. Elmo's light,
+or St. Elmo's fire, is frequently seen in tropical seas, though
+rarely as far north as Cape Hatteras; and as it is generally
+accompanied by cyclones or hurricanes, sailors have come to regard
+it as an omen of evil. It is not always followed by evil
+consequences, however, and to believe that it foretells death is
+as idle and foolish as superstitions of all kinds always are."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A WRECK ON THE FLORIDA REEF.
+
+
+After leaving Hatteras not another evidence of land was seen by
+the passengers of the Nancy Bell for three days. At last one
+afternoon "Captain Li" pointed out and called their attention to a
+slender shaft rising apparently from the sea itself, far to the
+westward. He told them that it was the light-house at Jupiter
+Inlet, well down on the coast of Florida, and they regarded it
+with great interest, as giving them their first glimpse of the
+land that was so soon to be their home.
+
+The weather had by this time become very warm and instead of
+wearing the thick clothing with which they had started, the Elmers
+found the very thinnest of their last summer's things all that
+they could bear.
+
+Mark had almost forgotten his sea-sickness, and spent much of his
+time with Jan Jansen, who taught him to make knots and splices, to
+box the compass and to steer. Both Mark and Ruth were tanned brown
+by the hot sun, and Mr. Elmer said the warmth of the air had
+already made a new man of him.
+
+Before the light but steady trade-wind, that kept the air
+deliciously cool, the Nancy Bell ran rapidly down the coast and
+along the great Florida Reef, which, for two hundred miles, bounds
+that coast on the south.
+
+Captain Drew stood far out from the reef, being well aware of the
+strong currents that set towards it from all directions, and which
+have enticed many a good ship to her destruction. Others, however,
+were not so wise as he, and at daylight one morning the watch on
+deck sang out,
+
+"Wreck off the starboard bow!"
+
+This brought all hands quickly on deck, and, sure enough, about
+five miles from them they saw the wreck looming high out of the
+water, and evidently stranded. As her masts, with their crossed
+yards, were still standing, "Captain Li" said she must have struck
+very easily, and stood a good chance of being saved if she could
+only be lightened before a blow came that would roll a sea in on
+her.
+
+"Are you going to her assistance?" asked Mr. Elmer.
+
+"Certainly I am," answered the captain. "I consider that one of
+the first duties of a sailor is to give aid to his fellows in
+distress. Besides, if we succeed in saving her and her cargo, we
+stand a chance of making several thousand dollars salvage money,
+which I for one do not care to throw away."
+
+"You are quite right," said Mr. Elmer. "It is seldom that we are
+offered an opportunity of doing good and being well paid for it at
+the same time, and it would be foolish, as well as heartless, not
+to render what assistance lies in our power."
+
+The schooner was already headed towards the wreck, but approached
+it very slowly, owing to the light breeze that barely filled her
+sails. As the sun rose, and cast a broad flood of light over the
+tranquil scene, the captain anxiously scanned the line of the reef
+in both directions through his glass.
+
+"Ah, I thought so!" he exclaimed; "there they come, and there, and
+there. I can count six already. Now we shall have a race for it."
+
+"Who? what?" asked Mark, not understanding the captain's
+exclamations.
+
+"Wreckers!" answered the captain. "Take the glass, and you can see
+their sails coming from every direction; and they have seen us
+long ago too. I actually believe those fellows can smell a wreck a
+hundred miles off. Halloo there, forward! Stand by to lower the
+gig."
+
+"What are you going to do?" asked Mr. Elmer.
+
+"I am going to try and reach that wreck before any of the boats
+whose sails you can see slipping out from behind those low keys.
+The first man aboard that ship is 'wreck-master,' and gets the
+largest share of salvage money."
+
+So saying, "Captain Li" swung himself over the side and into the
+light gig, which, with its crew of four lusty young Maine sailors,
+had already been got overboard and now awaited him. As he seized
+the tiller ropes he shouted, "Now, then, give way! and a hundred
+dollars extra salvage to you four if this gig is the first boat to
+lay alongside of that wreck."
+
+At these words the long ash oars bent like willow wands in the
+grasp of the young Northern giants, and the gig sprang away like a
+startled bonito, leaving a long line of bubbles to mark her
+course.
+
+The wreck was still three miles off; and, with the glass, small
+boats could be seen shooting away from several of the approaching
+wrecking vessels.
+
+"It's a race between Conchs and Yankees," said Jan Jansen to Mark.
+
+"What are Conchs?" asked the boy.
+
+"Why, those fellows in the other boats. Most of them come from the
+Bahama Islands, and all Bahamians are called 'Conchs,' because
+they eat so many of the shell-fish of that name."
+
+"Well, I'll bet on the Yankees!" cried Mark.
+
+"So will I," said the Swede. "Yankee baked beans and brown bread
+make better muscle than fish, which is about all the fellows down
+this way get to live on."
+
+As seen from the deck of the schooner, the race had by this time
+become very exciting; for, as their boat approached the wreck on
+one side, another, manned by red-shirted wreckers, who were
+exhibiting a wonderful amount of pluck and endurance for "Conchs,"
+as Jan called them, was rapidly coming up on the other. It was
+hard to tell which was the nearer; and while Mark shouted in his
+excitement, Mrs. Elmer and Ruth waved their handkerchiefs, though
+their friends were too far away to be encouraged by either the
+shouts or wavings.
+
+At last "Captain Li's" boat dashed up alongside the wreck, and
+almost at the same instant the wrecker's boat disappeared from
+view on the opposite side.
+
+With their glasses, those on the schooner saw their captain go up
+the side of the ship, hand over hand, along a rope that had been
+thrown him, and disappear over the bulwarks. They afterwards
+learned that he reached the deck of the ship, and thus made
+himself master of the wreck, just as the head of his rival
+appeared above the opposite side.
+
+The wreck proved to be the ship Goodspeed, Captain Gillis, of and
+for Liverpool, with cotton from New Orleans. During the calm of
+the preceding night she had been caught by one of the powerful
+coast currents, and stealthily but surely drawn into the toils.
+Shortly before daylight she had struck on Pickle Reef, but so
+lightly and so unexpectedly that her crew could hardly believe the
+slight jar they felt was anything more than the shock of striking
+some large fish. They soon found, however, that they were hard and
+fast aground, and had struck on the very top of the flood tide, so
+that, as it ebbed, the ship became more and more firmly fixed in
+her position. As the ship settled with the ebbing tide she began
+to leak badly, and Captain Gillis was greatly relieved when
+daylight disclosed to him the presence of the Nancy Bell, and he
+greeted her captain most cordially as the latter gained the deck
+of his ship.
+
+By the time the schooner had approached the wreck, as nearly as
+her own safety permitted, and dropped anchor for the first time
+since leaving Bangor, a dozen little wrecking craft, manned by
+crews of swarthy spongers and fishermen, had also reached the
+spot, and active preparations for lightening the stranded ship
+were being made. Her carefully battened hatches were uncovered,
+whips were rove to her lower yards, and soon the tightly pressed
+bales of cotton began to appear over her sides, and find their way
+into the light draught wrecking vessels waiting to receive them.
+As soon as one of these was loaded, she transferred her cargo to
+the Nancy Bell and returned for another.
+
+While the wreckers were busily discharging the ship's cargo, her
+own crew were overhauling long lines of chain cable, and lowering
+two large anchors and two smaller ones into one of the wrecking
+boats that had remained empty on purpose to receive them. The
+cables were paid out over the stern of the ship, and made fast to
+the great anchors, which were carried far out into the deep water
+beyond the reef. Each big anchor was backed by a smaller one, to
+which it was attached by a cable, and which was carried some
+distance beyond it before being dropped overboard.
+
+When the anchors were thus placed in position, the ends of the
+cables still remaining on board the ship were passed around
+capstans, and by means of the donkey-engine drawn taut.
+
+At high tide that night a heavy strain was brought to bear on the
+cables, in hopes that the ship might be pulled off the reef; but
+she did not move, and the work of lightening her and searching for
+the leak continued all the next day.
+
+While all this work was going on the Elmers spent most of their
+time in exploring the reef in the captain's gig, which was so
+light that Mr. Elmer and Mark could easily row it.
+
+As the clear water was without a ripple, they could look far down
+into its depths, and see the bottom of branching coral, as
+beautiful as frosted silver. From among its branches sprang great
+sea-fans, delicate as lace-work, and showing, in striking contrast
+to the pure white of the coral, the most vivid reds, greens, and
+royal purple. These, and masses of feathery seaweeds, waved to and
+fro in the water as though stirred by a light breeze, and among
+them darted and played fish as brilliant in coloring as tropical
+birds. The boat seemed suspended in midair above fairy-land, and
+even the children gazed down over its sides in silence, for fear
+lest by speaking they should break the charm, and cause the
+wonderful picture to vanish.
+
+By noon the heat of the sun was so great that they sought shelter
+from it on a little island, or key, of about an acre in extent,
+that was covered with a luxuriant vegetation, and shaded by a
+group of stately cocoa-nut palms. Mr. Elmer showed Mark how to
+climb one of these by means of a bit of rope fastened loosely
+around his body and the smooth trunk of the tree, and the boy
+succeeded in cutting off several bunches of the great nuts that
+hung just below the wide-spreading crown of leaves. They came to
+the ground with a crash, but the thick husk in which each was
+enveloped saved them from breaking. The nuts were quite green, and
+Mr. Elmer with a hatchet cut several of them open and handed them
+to his wife and children. None of them contained any meat, for
+that had not yet formed, but they were filled with a white, milky
+fluid, which, as all of the party were very thirsty, proved a most
+acceptable beverage.
+
+After eating the luncheon they had brought with them, and
+satisfying their thirst with the cocoa-nut milk, Mark and Ruth
+explored the beach of the little island in search of shells, which
+they found in countless numbers, of strange forms and most
+beautiful colors, while their parents remained seated in the shade
+of the palms.
+
+"Wouldn't it be gay if we could stay here always?" said Mark.
+
+"No," answered the more practical Ruth; "I don't think it would be
+at all. I would rather be where there are people and houses;
+besides, I heard father say that these little islands are often
+entirely covered with water during great storms, and I'm sure I
+wouldn't want to be here then."
+
+It was nearly sunset when they returned to the schooner, with
+their boat well loaded with the shells and other curiosities that
+the children had gathered.
+
+At high tide that night the strain on the cables proved sufficient
+to move the stranded ship, and, foot by foot, she was pulled off
+into deep water, much to the joy of Captain Gillis and those who
+had worked with him.
+
+The next morning the entire fleet--ship, schooner, and wrecking
+boats--set sail for Key West, which port they reached during the
+afternoon, and where they found they would be obliged to spend a
+week or more while an Admiralty Court settled the claims for
+salvage.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+MARK AND RUTH ATTEND AN AUCTION.
+
+
+Although Mr. and Mrs. Elmer regretted the delay in Key West, being
+anxious to get settled in their new home as soon as possible, the
+children did not mind it a bit; indeed, they were rather glad of
+it. In the novelty of everything they saw in this queerest of
+American cities, they found plenty to occupy and amuse them.
+
+The captain and their father were busy in the court-room nearly
+every day, and Mrs. Elmer did not care to go ashore except for a
+walk in the afternoon with her husband. So the children went off
+on long exploring expeditions by themselves, and the following
+letter, written during this time by Ruth to her dearest friend,
+Edna May, will give an idea of some of the things they saw:
+
+"KEY WEST, FLA., December 15, 188-.
+
+"MY DEAREST EDNA,--It seems almost a year since I left you in dear
+old Norton, so much has happened since then. This is the very
+first chance I have had since I left to send you a letter, so I
+will make it a real long one, and try to tell you everything.
+
+"I was not sea-sick a bit, but Mark was.
+
+"In the Penobscot River we rescued a man from a floating cake of
+ice, and brought him with us. His name is Jan Jansen, but Mark
+calls him Jack Jackson. A few days before we got here we found a
+wreck, and helped get it off, and brought it here to Key West. Now
+we are waiting for a court to say how much it was worth to do it.
+I shouldn't wonder if they allowed as much as a thousand dollars,
+for the wreck was a big ship, and it was real hard work.
+
+"This is an awfully funny place, and I just wish you were here to
+walk round with Mark and me and see it. It is on an island, and
+that is the reason it is named 'Key,' because all the islands down
+here are called keys. The Spaniards call it 'Cayo Hueso,' which
+means bone key, or bone island; but I'm sure I don't know why, for
+I haven't seen any bones here. The island is all made of coral,
+and the streets are just hard white coral worn down. The island is
+almost flat, and 'Captain Li'--he's our captain--says that the
+highest part is only sixteen feet above the ocean.
+
+"Oh, Edna! you ought to see the palm-trees. They grow everywhere,
+great cocoa-nut and date palms, and we drink the milk out of the
+cocoa-nuts when we go on picnics and get thirsty. And the roses
+are perfectly lovely, and they have great oleanders and cactuses,
+and hundreds of flowers that I don't know the names of, and they
+are all in full bloom now, though it is nearly Christmas. I don't
+suppose I shall hang up my stocking this Christmas; they don't
+seem to do it down here.
+
+"The other day we went out to the soldiers' barracks, and saw a
+banyan-tree that 'Captain Li' says is the only one in the United
+States, but we didn't see any monkeys or elephants. Mark says he
+don't think this is very tropical, because we haven't seen any
+bread-fruit-trees nor a single pirate; but they used to have them
+here--I mean pirates. Anyhow, we have custard apples, and they
+sound tropical, don't they? And we have sapadilloes that look like
+potatoes, and taste like--well, I think they taste horrid, but
+most people seem to like them.
+
+"It is real hot here, and I am wearing my last summer's best straw
+hat and my thinnest linen dresses--you know, those I had last
+vacation. The thermometer got up to 85 degrees yesterday.
+
+"Do write, and tell me all about yourself and the girls. Has Susie
+Rand got well enough to go to school yet? and who's head in the
+algebra class? Mark wants to know how's the skating, and if the
+boys have built a snow fort yet? Most all the people here are
+black, and everybody talks Spanish: it is SO funny to hear them.
+
+"Now I must say good-bye, because Mark is calling me to go to the
+fruit auction. I will tell you about it some other time.
+
+"With love to everybody, I am your own lovingest friend,
+
+"RUTH ELMER.
+
+"P.S.--Don't forget that you are coming down here to see me next
+winter."
+
+Before Ruth finished this letter Mark began calling to her to
+hurry up, for the bell had stopped ringing, and the auction would
+be all over before they got there. She hurriedly directed it, and
+put it in her pocket to mail on the way to the auction, just as
+her brother called out that he "did think girls were the very
+slowest."
+
+They had got nearly to the end of the wharf at which the schooner
+lay, when Ruth asked Mark if he had any money.
+
+"No," said he, "not a cent. I forgot all about it. Just wait here
+a minute while I run back and get some from mother."
+
+"Well," said Ruth, "if boys ain't the very carelessest!" But Mark
+was out of hearing before she finished.
+
+While she waited for him, Ruth looked in at the open door of a
+very little house, where several colored women were making
+beautiful flowers out of tiny shells and glistening fish-scales.
+She became so much interested in their work that she was almost
+sorry when Mark came running back, quite out of breath, and
+gasped, "I've got it! Now let's hurry up!"
+
+Turning to the left from the head of the wharf, they walked
+quickly through the narrow streets until they came to a square, on
+one corner of which quite a crowd of people were collected. They
+were all listening attentively to a little man with a big voice,
+who stood on a box in front of them and who was saying as fast as
+he could,
+
+"Forty, forty, forty. Shall I have the five? Yes, sir; thank you.
+Forty-five, five, five--who says fifty? Fifty, fifty, forty-five--
+going, going, gone! and sold at forty-five to Mr.--Beg pardon; the
+name, sir? Of course, certainly! And now comes the finest lot of
+oranges ever offered for sale in Key West. What am I bid per
+hundred for them? Who makes me an offer? I am a perfect Job for
+patience, gentlemen, and willing to wait all day, if necessary, to
+hear what you have to say."
+
+Of course he was an auctioneer, and this was the regular fruit
+auction that is held on this same corner every morning of the
+year. Many other things besides fruit are sold at these auctions;
+in fact, almost everything in Key West is bought or sold at
+auction; certainly all fruit is. For an hour before the time set
+for the auction a man goes through the streets ringing a bell and
+announcing what is to be sold. This morning he had announced a
+fine lot of oranges, among other things, and as Mrs. Elmer was
+anxious to get some, she had sent Mark and Ruth to attend the
+auction, with a commission to buy a hundred if the bids did not
+run too high.
+
+The children had already attended several auctions as spectators,
+and Mark knew enough not to bid on the first lot offered. He
+waited until somebody who knew more about the value of oranges
+than he should fix the price. He and Ruth pushed their way as
+close as possible to the auctioneer, and watched him attentively.
+
+"Come, gentlemen," said the little man, "give me a starter. What
+am I to have for the first lot of these prime oranges?"
+
+"Two dollars!" called a voice from the crowd.
+
+"Two," cried the auctioneer. "Two, two, two and a half. Who says
+three? Shall I hear it? And three. Who bids three? That's right.
+Do I hear the quarter? They are well worth it, gentlemen. Will no
+one give me the quarter? Well, time is money, and tempus fugit.
+Going at three--at three; going, going, and sold at three
+dollars."
+
+Several more lots sold so rapidly at three dollars that Mark had
+no opportunity of making himself heard or of catching the
+auctioneer's eye, until, finally, in a sort of despair he called
+out "Quarter," just as another lot was about to be knocked down to
+a dealer at three dollars.
+
+"Ah!" said the auctioneer, "that is something like. It takes a
+gentleman from the North to appreciate oranges at their true
+value. A quarter is bid. Shall I have a half? Do I hear it? Half,
+half, half; and sold at three dollars and a quarter to Mr.---what
+name, please? Elder. Oh yes; good old name, and one you can live
+up to more and more every day of your life. John, pick out a
+hundred of the best for Mr. Elder."
+
+The oranges selected by John were such beauties that neither Mark
+nor his mother regretted the extra quarter paid for them. After
+that, during the rest of their stay in Key West, whenever Mark
+went near a fruit auction he was addressed politely by the
+auctioneer as "Mr. Elder," and invited to examine the goods
+offered for sale that day.
+
+One day Mark and Ruth rowed out among the vessels of the sponging
+fleet that had just come in from up the coast. Here they scraped
+acquaintance with a weather-beaten old sponger, who sat in the
+stern of one of the smallest of the boats, smoking a short pipe
+and overhauling some rigging; and from him they gained much new
+information concerning sponges.
+
+"We gets them all along the reef as far as Key Biscayne," said the
+old sponger; "but the best comes from Rock Island, up the coast
+nigh to St. Mark's."
+
+"Why, that's where we're going!" interrupted Ruth.
+
+"Be you, sissy? Wal, you'll see a plenty raked up there, I reckon.
+Did you ever hear tell of a water-glass?"
+
+"No," said Ruth, "I never did."
+
+"Wal," said the old man, "here's one; maybe you'd like to look
+through it." And he showed them what looked like a wooden bucket
+with a glass bottom. "Jest take an' hold it a leetle ways down
+into the water and see what you can see."
+
+Taking the bucket which was held out to her, Ruth did as the old
+man directed, and uttered an exclamation of delight. "Why, I can
+see the bottom just as plain as looking through a window."
+
+"To be sure," said the old sponger; "an' that's the way we sees
+the sponges lying on the bottom. An' when we sees 'em we takes
+those long-handled rakes there an' hauls 'em up to the top. When
+they fust comes up they's plumb black, and about the nastiest
+things you ever did see, I reckon. We throws 'em into crawls built
+in shallow water, an' lets 'em rot till all the animal matter is
+dead, an' we stirs 'em up an beats 'em with sticks to get it out.
+Then they has to be washed an' dried an' trimmed, an' handled
+consider'ble, afore they's ready for market. Then they's sold at
+auction."
+
+The sponge crawls of which the old man spoke are square pens make
+of stakes driven into the sand side by side, and as close as
+possible together. In some of them at Key West Mark and Ruth saw
+little negro boys diving to bring up stray sponges that the rakes
+had missed. They did not seem to enjoy this half as much as Mark
+and his boy friends used to enjoy diving in the river at Norton,
+and they shivered as though they were cold, in spite of the heat
+of the day.
+
+When the children told Mr. Elmer about these little, unhappy-
+looking divers that night, he said,
+
+"That shows how what some persons regard as play, may become hard
+and unpleasant work to those who are compelled to do it."
+
+Several days after this Mr. Elmer engaged a carriage, and took his
+wife and the children on a long drive over the island. During this
+drive the most interesting things they saw were old Fort Taylor,
+which stands just outside the city, and commands the harbor, the
+abandoned salt-works, about five miles from the city, and the
+Martello towers, built along the southern coast of the island.
+These are small but very strong forts, built by the government,
+but as yet never occupied by soldiers.
+
+In one of them the Elmers were shown a large, jagged hole, broken
+through the brick floor of one of the upper stories. This, the
+sergeant in charge told them, had been made by a party of sailors
+who deserted from a man-of-war lying in the harbor, and hid
+themselves in this Martello tower. They made it so that through it
+they could point their muskets and shoot anybody sent to capture
+them as soon as he entered the lower rooms. They did not have a
+chance to use it for this purpose, however, for the officer sent
+after them just camped outside the tower and waited patiently
+until hunger compelled the runaways to surrender, when he quietly
+marched them back to the ship.
+
+In all of the forts, as well as in all the houses of Key West, are
+great cisterns for storing rain-water, for there are no wells on
+the island, and the only fresh-water to be had is what can be
+caught and stored during the rainy season.
+
+It was a week after the orange auction that Mr. Elmer came into
+the cabin of the schooner one afternoon and announced that the
+court had given its decision, and that they would sail the next
+day.
+
+This decision of the court gave to the schooner Nancy Bell five
+thousand dollars, and this, "Captain Li" said, must, according to
+wrecker's law, be divided among all who were on board the schooner
+at the time of the wreck. Accordingly, he insisted upon giving Mr.
+and Mrs. Elmer each two hundred dollars, and Mark, Ruth, and Jan
+each one hundred dollars. As neither of the children had ever
+before owned more than five dollars at one time, they now felt
+wealthy enough to buy the State of Florida, and regarded each
+other with vastly increased respect. While their father took
+charge of this money for them, he told them they might invest it
+as they saw fit, provided he and their mother thought the
+investment a good one.
+
+At daylight next morning the Nancy Bell again spread her sails,
+and soon Key West was but a low-lying cloud left far behind. For
+three days they sailed northward, with light winds, over the warm
+waters of the Gulf of Mexico. On the evening of the third day a
+bright light flashed across the waters ahead of them, and "Captain
+Li" said it was at the mouth of the St. Mark's River. As the tide
+was low, and no pilot was to be had that night, they had to stand
+off and on, and wait for daylight before crossing the bar and
+sailing up the river beyond it.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A QUEER CHRISTMAS-DAY.
+
+
+All night long the Nancy Bell sailed back and forth within sight
+of the light that marked the mouth of the river. Soon after day-
+light a pilot-boat was seen approaching her in answer to the
+signal which was flying from the main rigging. As the boat ran
+alongside, a colored pilot clambered to the deck and declared it
+did him good to see a big schooner waiting to come into the St.
+Mark's once more.
+
+"Uster be a plenty of 'em," said he to "Captain Li," "but dey's
+scurcer'n gole dollars now-adays, an' I'se proud to see 'em comin'
+ag'in."
+
+By the time breakfast was over and the Elmers came on deck, they
+found the schooner running rapidly up a broad river, between wide
+expanses of low salt-marshes, bounded by distant pine forests, and
+studded here and there with groups of cabbage palms. The channel
+was a regular zig-zag, and they ran now to one side and then far
+over to the other to escape the coral reefs and oyster bars with
+which it is filled. This occupied much time; but the breeze was
+fresh, and within an hour they had run eight miles up the river,
+and were passing the ruins of the old Spanish Fort of St. Mark's.
+A few minutes later sails were lowered, and the schooner was
+moored to one of the rotten old wharves that still remain to tell
+of St. Mark's former glory.
+
+"And is this St. Mark's?" asked Mrs. Elmer, looking with a feeling
+of keen disappointment at the dozen or so tumble-down frame
+buildings that, perched on piles above the low, wet land, looked
+like dilapidated old men with shaky legs, and formed all that was
+to be seen of the town.
+
+"Yes, miss," answered the colored pilot, who seemed to consider
+her question addressed to him. "Dis yere's St. Mark's, or what de
+gales has lef' of hit. 'Pears like dey's been mighty hard on de
+ole town, sence trade fell off, an' mos' of de folkses moved away.
+Uster be wharves all along yere, an' cotton-presses, an' big
+war'houses, an' plenty ships in de ribber; but now dey's all gone.
+Dem times we uster hab fo' trains of kyars a day; but now dere's
+only one train comes tree times in de week, an' hit's only got one
+kyar. Ole St. Mark's a-seein' bad times now, for sho."
+
+As soon as he could get ashore, Mr. Elmer, accompanied by Mark and
+the captain, went up into the village to find out what he could
+regarding their destination and future movements. In about an hour
+he returned, bringing a package of letters from the post-office,
+and the information that Uncle Christopher Bangs's place was at
+Wakulla, some six miles farther up the river. As the river above
+St. Mark's is quite crooked, and bordered on both sides by dense
+forests, and as no steam-tug could be had, the captain did not
+care to attempt to carry the schooner any farther up. Mr. Elmer
+had therefore chartered a large, flat-bottomed lighter, or scow,
+to carry to Wakulla the cargo of household goods, tools, building
+material, etc., that they had brought with them.
+
+As "Captain Li" was anxious to proceed on his voyage to Pensacola
+as quickly as possible, the lighter was at once brought alongside
+the schooner, and the work of discharging the Elmers' goods into
+her was begun.
+
+"By-the-way, Mark," said Mr. Elmer, as the schooner's hatches were
+removed, "I am just reminded that this is Christmas-day, and that
+there is a present down in the hold for you from your Uncle
+Christmas. It will be one of the first things taken out, so see if
+you can recognize it."
+
+He had hardly spoken before the sailors, who had gone down into
+the hold, passed carefully up to those on deck a beautiful birch-
+bark canoe, with the name Ruth painted on its bows.
+
+"That's it, father! that's it! I'm sure it is. Oh! isn't she a
+beauty?" shouted Mark, wild with delight. "Oh! father, how did he
+know just exactly what I wanted most?" and the excited boy rushed
+down into the cabin to beg his mother and Ruth to come on deck and
+see his Christmas present.
+
+The canoe was followed by two paddles painted a bright vermilion,
+and as they were placed in her, and she was laid to one side of
+the deck, she was indeed as pretty a little craft as can be
+imagined, and one that would delight any boy's heart.
+
+"I knew we were going to live near a river, my dear," said Mr.
+Elmer, in answer to his wife's anxious expression as she looked at
+the canoe, "and as Mark is a good swimmer and very careful in
+boats, I thought a canoe would afford him great pleasure, and
+probably prove very useful to all of us. So when Uncle Christopher
+asked me what I thought the boy would like most for a Christmas
+present, I told him a canoe."
+
+"Well, I hope it will prove safe," sighed Mrs. Elmer; "but I wish
+it were flat-bottomed, and built of thick boards instead of that
+thin bark."
+
+"Oh, mother!" said Mark, "you might as well wish it were a canal-
+boat at once."
+
+"Yes, I believe canal-boats are generally considered safer than
+canoes," answered his mother with a smile. "By-the-way, Mark"--and
+she turned to her husband--"one of the letters you brought was
+from Uncle Christopher, and he says he thinks he forgot to tell us
+that there is a house on his place, which he hopes we will find in
+a fit condition to occupy."
+
+Mr. Elmer had expected to have to build a house, and had
+accordingly brought with him sashes, doors, blinds, the necessary
+hardware, and in fact everything except lumber for that purpose.
+This material was now being transferred from the schooner to the
+lighter, and now it seemed almost a pity to have brought it; still
+they were very glad to learn that they were likely to find a house
+all ready to move into.
+
+It wanted but two hours of sundown when the last of the Elmers'
+goods were stowed in the lighter, and as there was nothing to
+detain him any longer, "Captain Li" said he should take advantage
+of the ebb tide that night to drop down the river and get started
+for Pensacola. As rowing and poling the heavy lighter up the river
+would at best prove but slow work, and as there was no hotel or
+place for them to stay in St. Mark's, Mr. Elmer thought they too
+had better make a start, and take advantage of the last of the
+flood tide and what daylight still remained.
+
+So good-byes were exchanged, and feeling very much as though they
+were leaving home for the second time, the Elmers left the
+comfortable cabin that had sheltered them for nearly a month.
+Followed by Jan, they went on board their new craft, and the lines
+were cast off. The crew of four strong colored men bent over the
+long sweeps, and followed by a hearty cheer from the crew of the
+schooner, the scow moved slowly up the river. In a few minutes a
+bend hid St. Mark's and the tall masts of the Nancy Bell from
+sight, and on either side of them appeared nothing but unbroken
+forest.
+
+The river seemed narrow and dark after the open sea to which the
+Elmers had been so long accustomed, and from its banks the dense
+growth of oak, cedar, magnolia, palm, bay, cypress, elm, and sweet
+gum trees, festooned with moss, and bound together with a net-work
+of vines, rose like walls, shutting out the sunlight. Strange
+water-fowl, long-legged and long-billed, flew screaming away as
+they advanced, and quick splashes in the water ahead of them told
+of the presence of other animal life.
+
+At sunset they were nearly two miles from St. Mark's, and opposite
+a cleared spot on the bank, where was piled a quantity of light-
+wood or pitch-pine. Here the captain and owner of the lighter, who
+was a young white man named Oliver Johnson, proposed that they
+should tie up for the night.
+
+To this Mr. Elmer consented, and as soon as the boat was made fast
+to the bank, active preparations were begun for cooking supper,
+and for making everything as snug and comfortable as possible.
+
+A large sail was stretched across some poles, in the form of a
+tent, over the after-part of the lighter, and beneath this two
+comfortable beds were made up from the abundant supply of
+mattresses and blankets belonging to the Elmers. Jan Jansen and
+Captain Johnson, who, Mark said, must be related, as their names
+were the same, spread their blankets in the forward end of the
+boat. On shore the negro crew built for themselves a thatched
+lean-to of poles and palm-leaves beside the fire, that was already
+throwing its cheerful light across the dark surface of the river.
+
+While the men were busy arranging the shelters and bedding, Mrs.
+Elmer and Ruth, assisted by one of the negroes, were cooking
+supper over a bed of coals that had been raked from the fire. A
+huge pot of coffee sent forth clouds of fragrant steam, and in two
+frying-pans some freshly caught fish sizzled and browned in a most
+gratifying and appetizing manner. In a couple of kettles hung over
+the fire hominy and sweet potatoes bubbled, boiled, and tried to
+outdo each other in getting done. Fresh-made bread and a good
+supply of butter had been brought from the schooner. When the
+supper was all ready, and spread out on a green table-cloth of
+palm-leaves, Mark and Ruth declared that this picnic was even
+jollier than the one on the island of the Florida Reef, and that
+this was after all one of the very best Christmases they had ever
+known.
+
+After supper, and when the dishes had all been washed and put
+away, the Elmers, Captain Johnson, and Jan sought the shelter of
+the canvas awning from the heavy night-dew which had begun to fall
+as soon as the sun went down. They lifted the sides, so that they
+could look out and see the fire around which the crew were
+gathered. After a while one of these started a plaintive negro
+melody, which sounded very sweetly through the still air. The
+others took it up, and they sang for an hour or more, greatly to
+the delight of the children, to whom such music was new. Many of
+the words were composed as they sang, and Mark and Ruth could not
+help laughing at some of them, which, though sung very soberly,
+sounded funny. One song which they afterwards remembered was:
+
+    "Oh, dey put John on de islan'
+      When de Bridegroom come;
+    Yes, dey put John on de islan'
+       When de Bridegroom come;
+    An' de rabens come an' fed him
+       When de Bridegroom come;
+    Yes, de rabens come an' fed him
+       When de Bridegroom come.
+    An' five of dem was wise
+       When de Bridegroom come;
+    Yes, five of dem was wise
+       When de Bridegroom come;
+    An' five of dem was foolish
+       When de Bridegroom come;
+    Yes, five of dem was foolish
+       When de Bridegroom come.
+    Oh, gib us of yo' ile
+       When de Bridegroom come;
+    Oh, gib us of yo' ile
+       When de Bridegroom come;
+    Fo' you'll nebber get to heaben
+       When de Bridegroom come;
+    No, you'll nebber get to heaben
+       When de Bridegroom come;
+    Aless you's ile a-plenty
+       When de Bridegroom come;
+    Aless you's ile a-plenty
+       When de Bridegroom come."
+
+In the midst of the singing a voice called out from the tree-tops,
+
+"Who, who, who, who's there?" or at least so it sounded.
+
+Immediately the singing stopped, and one of the negroes answered,
+
+"Some folkses from de Norf, Marse Owl, an' Cap'n Johnsin, an' me,
+an' Homer, an' Virgil, an' Pete."
+
+"What does he mean by that?" asked Mr. Elmer of the captain.
+
+"Oh," answered he, "it's one of their superstitions that they'll
+have bad luck if they don't answer an owl politely when he asks
+'Who's there?' and give the names of all the party, if they know
+them."
+
+Soon after this all hands sought their blankets, good-nights were
+said, the fire died down, and all was quiet in the camp, though
+several times some sleepy negro roused himself sufficiently to
+answer the owl's repeated question of "Who's there?"
+
+It must have been nearly midnight when the camp was startled by a
+crash, a series of smothered cries, and a loud splashing in the
+water. It was evident that something serious had happened, but
+what it was no one could make out in the darkness.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+ARRIVAL AT THE NEW HOME.
+
+
+Some light-wood splinters were quickly thrown upon the smouldering
+remains of the fire, and as it blazed up brightly, the lighter, in
+which the whites had been sleeping, was seen to be on its beam
+ends. One side rested high up on the bank and the other down in
+the mud at the bottom of the river, just on the edge of the
+channel. Some little distance down stream a sorry-looking figure,
+which was hardly recognizable as that of Jan, was floundering
+through the mud and water towards the bank. On the lower side of
+the lighter the canvas, that had been spread like a tent over the
+afterpart, had broken from its fastenings, and was now tossing and
+heaving in a most remarkable manner. From beneath it came the
+smothered cries of the Elmers, who had been suddenly wakened to
+find themselves mixed together in the most perplexing way, and
+entangled in their blankets and the loose folds of the canvas.
+
+Captain Johnson seemed to be the only person who had his wits
+about him, and who was in a condition to render any assistance. As
+soon as he could pick himself up he made his way to the other end
+of the boat and dragged the canvas from off the struggling family.
+First Mr. Elmer emerged from the confusion, then Mrs. Elmer and
+Ruth were helped out, and last of all poor Mark, who had been
+buried beneath the entire family, was dragged forth, nearly
+smothered and highly indignant.
+
+"It's a mean trick, and I didn't think--" he began, as soon as he
+got his breath; but just then his eye fell upon the comical figure
+of Jan. He was walking towards the fire, dripping mud and water
+from every point, and Mark's wrath was turned into hearty laughter
+at this sight. In it he was joined by all the others as soon as
+they saw the cause of his mirth.
+
+After the Elmers had been helped up the steep incline of the boat,
+and were comfortably fixed near the fire, Captain Johnson and Jan,
+who said he didn't mind mud now any more than an alligator, took
+light-wood torches and set out to discover what had happened. As
+Jan climbed down the bank into the mud, and held his torch beneath
+the boat, he saw in a moment the cause of the accident, and knew
+just how it had occurred.
+
+As the tide ebbed the lighter had been gradually lowered, until it
+rested on the upright branches of an old water-logged tree-top
+that was sunk in the mud at this place. The water falling lower
+and lower, the weight upon these branches became greater and
+greater, until they could support it no longer, and one side of
+the lighter went down with a crash, while the other rested against
+the bank. Jan, who had been sleeping on the upper side of the
+boat, was thrown out into the water when it fell, as some of the
+Elmers doubtless would have been had not their canvas shelter
+prevented such a catastrophe.
+
+The rest of the night was spent around the fire, which was kept up
+to enable Jan to dry his clothes. By daylight the tide had risen,
+so that the lighter again floated on an even keel. By sunrise a
+simple breakfast of bread-and-butter and coffee had been eaten,
+and our emigrants were once more afloat and moving slowly up the
+tropical-looking river.
+
+About ten o'clock Captain Johnson pointed to a huge dead cypress-
+tree standing on the bank of the river some distance ahead, and
+told the Elmers that it marked one of the boundary-lines of
+Wakulla. They gazed at it eagerly, as though expecting it to turn
+into something different from an ordinary cypress, and all felt
+more or less disappointed at not seeing any clearings or signs of
+human habitations. It was not until they were directly opposite
+the village that they saw its score or so of houses through the
+trees and undergrowth that fringed the bank.
+
+As the Bangs place, to which the children gave the name of "Go
+Bang"--a name that adhered to it ever afterwards--was across the
+river from the village, the lighter was poled over to that side.
+There was no wharf, so she was made fast to a little grassy
+promontory that Captain Johnson said was once one of the abutments
+of a bridge. There was no bridge now, however, and already Mark
+saw that his canoe was likely to prove very useful.
+
+The first thing to do after getting ashore and seeing the precious
+canoe safely landed was to find the house. As yet they had seen no
+trace of it, so heavy was the growth of trees every-where, except
+at the abutment, which was built of stone, covered with earth and
+a thick sod. From here an old road led away from the river through
+the woods, and up it Mr. and Mrs. Elmer and Captain Johnson now
+walked, Mark and Ruth having run on ahead. The elders had gone but
+a few steps when they heard a loud cry from Ruth, and hurried
+forward fearing that the children were in trouble. They met Ruth
+running back towards them, screaming, "A snake! a snake! a horrid
+big snake!"
+
+"I've got him!" shouted Mark from behind some bushes, and sure
+enough there lay a black snake almost as long as Mark was tall,
+which he had just succeeded in killing with a stick.
+
+Mrs. Elmer shuddered at the sight of the snake, though her husband
+assured her that it had been perfectly harmless even when alive.
+
+Not far from where the snake had been killed they found a spring
+of water bubbling up, as clear as crystal, from a bed of white
+sand, but giving forth such a disagreeable odor that the children
+declared it was nasty. Mr. Elmer, however, regarded it with great
+satisfaction, and told them it was a sulphur spring, stronger than
+any he had ever seen, and that they would find it very valuable.
+They all drank some of the water out of magnolia-leaf cups; but
+the children made faces at the taste, and Mark said it made him
+feel like a hard-boiled egg.
+
+A path leading from the spring at right angles to the road from
+the river took them into a large clearing that had once been a
+cultivated field, and on the farther side of this field stood the
+house. As they approached it they saw that it was quite large, two
+stories in height, with dormer windows in the roof, but that it
+bore many signs of age and long neglect. Some of the windows were
+broken and others boarded up, while the front door hung
+disconsolately on one hinge.
+
+The house stood in a grove of grand live-oaks, cedars, and
+magnolias, and had evidently been surrounded by a beautiful
+garden, enclosed by a neat picket-fence; but now the fence was
+broken down in many places, and almost hidden by a dense growth of
+vines and creepers. In the garden, rose-bushes, myrtles,
+oleanders, and camellias grew with a rank and untrained
+luxuriance, and all were matted together with vines of honeysuckle
+and clematis.
+
+The front porch of the house was so rotten and broken that, after
+forcing their way through the wild growth of the garden, the party
+had to cross it very carefully in order to enter the open door.
+The interior proved to be in a much better condition than they had
+dared hope, judging from the outside appearance of the house. It
+was filled with the close, musty odor common to deserted
+buildings, and they quickly threw wide open all the windows and
+doors that were not nailed up. On the first floor were four large
+rooms, each containing a fireplace and several closets, and up-
+stairs were four more, lighted by the dormer windows in the roof.
+A broad hall ran through the house from front to rear, opening
+upon a wide back porch which was also much out of repair. Beneath
+this porch Mr. Elmer discovered a brick cistern half full of dirty
+water, which he knew must be very foul, as the gutters along the
+roof were so rotten and broken that they could not have furnished
+a fresh supply in a long time.
+
+Behind the main house, and surrounded by large fig-trees, they
+found another building, in a fair state of preservation,
+containing two rooms, one of which had been the kitchen. In the
+huge fireplace of this kitchen they were surprised to see freshly
+burned sticks and a quantity of ashes, while about the floor were
+scattered feathers and bones, and in one corner was a pile of moss
+that looked as though it has been used for a bed. Beyond the
+kitchen were the ruins of several out-buildings that had fallen by
+reason of their age, or been blown down during a gale.
+
+Having thus made a hasty exploration of their new home, the party
+returned to the landing, to which their goods were being unloaded
+from the lighter by Jan and the crew. Leaving Mrs. Elmer and Ruth
+here, Mr. Elmer and Mark crossed the river to the village to see
+what they could procure in the way of teams and help.
+
+Of the twenty houses in the village, many of which were in a most
+dilapidated condition, only two were occupied by white families,
+the rest of the population being colored. There were no stores nor
+shops of any kind, the only building not used as a dwelling-house
+being a small church very much out of repair. The white men living
+in the village were away from home, but from among the colored
+people, who were much excited at the arrival of strangers in their
+midst, Mr. Elmer engaged two men and their wives to cross the
+river and go to work at once. He also engaged a man who owned a
+team of mules and a wagon, and who would go over as soon as the
+lighter was unloaded and could be used to ferry him across.
+
+On its return to the other side, the canoe was followed by a skiff
+containing the newly engaged colored help, whose amazement at
+everything they saw, and especially at the canoe, was unbounded.
+One of the men expressed his wonder at the little craft by saying,
+"Dat ar trick's so light, I reckon it's gwine leab de water some
+fine day, an' fly in de yair, like a duck."
+
+Mrs. Elmer provided the women with brooms, mops, and pails, and
+took them up to the house, where they proceeded to put the lower
+story in order for immediate occupation. Mr. Elmer armed the men
+with axes, and soon had them engaged in a struggle with the
+tangled growth in the front yard, through which they cut a broad
+path to the house. While they were doing this, Mr. Elmer and Jan
+cut and placed in position some temporary supports under the
+rickety porches, and Mark was set work at the windows. From these
+he knocked away all the boards, letting in floods of blessed
+sunlight, that drove from their snug retreats numbers of bats and
+several comical little owls.
+
+One of the colored women--"Aunt Chloe Cato," as she called
+herself, because she was Cato's wife--was sent into the kitchen to
+clean it and to make a fire in the great fireplace. She could not
+explain the traces of recent occupation, but "'lowed 'twere de
+ghoses, kase dis yere ole Bang place done bin hanted."
+
+"Well, it'll be 'hanted' now by the Elmer family," said Mark, who
+overheard her, "and they'll make it lively for any other 'ghoses'
+that come round."
+
+"Don't ye, now, honey I don't ye go fo' to set up yo'sef agin de
+ghoses, kase dey's powerful pernickety when dey's crassed," said
+the old woman, whom Mark, with his love for nick-names, had
+already called "Ole Clo."
+
+At noon all hands stopped work to eat a hasty lunch, and soon
+afterwards the lighter, being unloaded, was poled across the river
+for the team. With the help of Captain Johnson and his crew, who
+had agreed to remain over that night, most of the household goods
+were moved up to the house during the afternoon and placed under
+shelter.
+
+While this work was going on, one of the white men from the
+village came over to see his new neighbors. He brought with him a
+wild-turkey, half a dozen ducks, and a string of freshly caught
+fish, as cards of introduction. His name was Bevil, and he
+welcomed the Elmers most heartily, and said that he considered
+their coming a sign of better times for that section of the
+country. He told Mr. Elmer that the Bangs place used to be
+considered one of the finest plantations in the county, and that
+its lands were as rich now as ever.
+
+Before night the lower story of the old house looked quite
+comfortable, and almost homelike; and when the family sat down to
+dinner, it was with the keen appetites resulting from hard work.
+The dinner was a bountiful meal, largely composed of Mr. Bevil's
+game and fish; and before they ate it Mr. Elmer offered up a
+heart-felt thanksgiving for the mercies that had been granted them
+thus far, and prayed for a blessing on their new home.
+
+That evening he arranged with Captain Johnson to start at daylight
+and go with his lighter to the nearest saw-mill, sixty miles away,
+for a load of lumber and shingles. He also commissioned him to buy
+and bring back a large skiff, such as were used on the river.
+
+The tired household went early to bed that first night in their
+new home, and though their beds were made down on the floor, they
+all slept soundly.
+
+All but Mark, who, after sleeping for some hours, woke suddenly to
+find himself sitting bolt-upright in bed, and staring at the
+broken window in front of him, through which a flood of moonlight
+was pouring. He was as certain as he could be of anything that he
+had seen a face at that window as he started up--a wild, haggard
+face, framed by long unkempt hair. He sprang from his bed and
+looked out, but could see nobody, and heard no unusual sound
+except the distant "who-who-whoo" of an owl.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL, AND MORE MYSTERIES.
+
+
+It must be confessed that, before getting to sleep again, Mark
+thought of what Aunt Chloe had said about the "ghoses"; but having
+been taught to disbelieve in such things, and always to seek for
+some natural explanation of whatever appeared supernatural or
+unreal, he made up his mind to wait and make the attempt to
+unravel this mystery by himself before saying anything about it.
+
+The four days that remained of the week were very busy days for
+the Elmers and those whom they had employed to help them. During
+this time the interior of the old house was thoroughly cleansed
+and sweetened by the energetic use of soap and water, and straw
+matting was laid on the floors of the rooms down-stairs. The
+broken windows were all repaired by Mark, who found several boxes
+of glass and a bladder of putty among the building material they
+had brought from Bangor, and who, after a few trials, became quite
+a skilful glazier. The cistern was emptied of its stagnant water
+and thoroughly cleansed, and the gutters were repaired as well as
+they could be before the arrival of Captain Johnson and the
+lumber.
+
+It was not until the windows and gutters were repaired that Mrs.
+Elmer would allow any of the furniture, not absolutely needed, to
+be unpacked, for fear it might be injured by the dampness. Among
+the packages that thus remained boxed up, or wrapped in burlaps,
+was one which none of them could remember having seen before. It
+was large and square, and different in shape from anything that
+had stood in their house in Norton. What could it be? Mark and
+Ruth asked each other this question a dozen times a day, and, but
+for their mother's refusal to allow them to do so, would have long
+since solved the riddle by opening the package.
+
+On Friday night the house was pronounced to be practically water-
+tight, and at breakfast-time the following morning Mrs. Elmer said
+they would unpack and arrange the furniture that day.
+
+"And the mystery?" cried Mark. "May we open that first?"
+"Certainly," replied his mother; "you may, if you wish, open that
+the moment you have finished breakfast."
+
+"That's this very minute, ain't it, Ruth? Come along. We'll soon
+find out what's inside those burlaps," exclaimed the boy, pushing
+back his chair, and rising from the table as he spoke.
+
+He brought a hammer with which to knock off the rough frame of
+boards that almost formed a box around the package, and Ruth ran
+for the shears to cut the stitches of the burlaps.
+
+The frame quickly fell to pieces under Mark's vigorous blows, and
+then his penknife assisted Ruth's shears. Beneath the burlaps was
+a thick layer of straw; then came heavy wrapping-paper, and, under
+this, layers and wads of news-paper, until the children began to
+think the whole package was nothing but wrappings.
+
+At last the papers were all pulled away, and there stood revealed,
+in all its beauty of structure and finish, a little gem of a
+cabinet organ. To one of its handles was tied a card, on which was
+printed in big letters:
+
+"A Christmas Present, with wishes for a very merry Christmas, from
+Uncle 'Christmas' to his grandniece Ruth Elmer."
+
+"Oh! oh! oh! ain't it lovely?" cried Ruth. "Dear old 'Uncle
+Christmas!' And I thought he had forgotten me, and only remembered
+Mark, too."
+
+The organ was placed in the parlor, and from that day forth was a
+source of great pleasure, not only to Ruth and the Elmer family,
+but to their neighbors across the river, who frequently came over
+in the evening to hear Ruth play.
+
+Among the events of that week were two that impressed Mark deeply,
+as they seemed to be connected in some way with the face he had
+seen at the window. One of these was the mysterious disappearance,
+on that same night, of a loaf of bread and a cold roast duck from
+the kitchen. The other was the appearance, two days later, at the
+kitchen door, of a poor wounded dog, who dragged himself out from
+the woods back of the house, and lay down on the step, evidently
+in great pain.
+
+Ruth saw him as he lay there, panting and moaning, and ran to tell
+Mark, and her father and mother, of their visitor and his wretched
+plight. They all went to see him, and after a careful examination
+of the suffering animal, Mr. Elmer said he had been cruelly
+treated and badly wounded; but that, with proper treatment and
+care, he could be cured. "He is a cross between a pointer and a
+hound," continued Mr. Elmer, "and looks like a valuable dog. The
+wounds from which he is suffering are those caused by a charge of
+small shot, that must have been fired into him quite recently. I
+will do what I can for him, and then I shall turn him over to you
+and Ruth, Mark, and if he recovers he shall belong to you both.
+His present owner has forfeited all claim to him by cruel
+treatment, for without our care now the poor beast would certainly
+die. The first thing to do is to give him water, for he is very
+feverish."
+
+The dog seemed to know, as well as his human friends, that the
+pain he suffered, while most of the shot were extracted on the
+point of a pen-knife, was for his good; for while he moaned and
+whined during the operation, he lay perfectly still, and did not
+offer the slightest resistance. After his wounds had been dressed,
+he was carefully removed to a bed of soft moss on the back porch,
+and here he lay quietly, only feebly wagging his tail whenever any
+of his new friends came to see him.
+
+"Who could have shot this dog?" and "Why did the animal drag
+himself to our kitchen door?" were questions that puzzled Mark
+considerably during the rest of that day and for some days
+afterwards.
+
+During that week Jan Jansen and the two negroes had worked hard at
+cutting away the undergrowth immediately around the house, and by
+Saturday night they had wonderfully improved the general
+appearance of things. The garden in front of the house had been
+cleared of everything except the ornamental shrubs properly
+belonging there. The fence had been freed from its crushing weight
+of vines, and its broken panels repaired, so that it now only
+needed a coat of paint to make it look as good as new. Back of the
+house they had cleared an acre of what had formerly been the
+kitchen-garden, and had opened a broad avenue down to the river,
+so that the back windows of the house now looked out upon it and
+the village beyond.
+
+Late on Saturday evening Captain Johnson returned to Wakulla with
+a lighter-load of shingles, window-blinds, fence-pickets, and
+assorted lumber. He also brought the skiff that Mr. Elmer had
+commissioned him to buy.
+
+The next day being Sunday, every member of the little community
+was prepared to enjoy a well-earned rest. During the morning they
+all crossed the river to the village, leaving "Go Bang" closed,
+and unprotected save by "Bruce," as the children had named the
+wounded dog.
+
+In the village they found the little church closed and empty; so
+they went to the house of Mr. Bevil, whom they found at home, and
+who introduced them to his family. Mrs. Bevil expressed great
+pleasure at meeting Mrs. Elmer, and apologized for not having
+called; and Ruth was delighted to find that the eldest of the
+three Bevil children was a girl of about her own age, named Grace.
+
+In reply to Mr. Elmer's inquiries, the Bevils said that no regular
+services were held in the church, and that it was only opened when
+some preacher happened to visit them.
+
+Mr. Elmer proposed that they should organize a Sunday-school, to
+be held in the church every Sunday, and that they should make a
+beginning that very day.
+
+To this the Bevils gladly consented, and two servants were
+immediately sent out--one to open the church and ring the bell,
+and the other to invite all the colored people of the place to
+meet there in an hour.
+
+Then the Elmers and Bevils went together to the house of Mr.
+Carter, the other white man of the village. Here were two
+children, a girl and a boy, both younger than Ruth; and Mr. and
+Mrs. Carter readily agreed to help establish the Sunday-school,
+and promised to be at the church at the appointed time.
+
+When the Elmers entered the church they found nearly fifty men,
+women, and children assembled, and waiting with eager curiosity to
+see what was going to be done. The church was as dilapidated as
+most of the buildings in the village, and many of its windows were
+broken. In that climate, where snow is unknown and frost comes but
+seldom, this made little difference, and this Sunday was so warm
+and bright that the breeze coming in through the broken windows
+was very refreshing.
+
+Mr. Elmer made a short address to the people, telling them that he
+and his family had come to live among them, and that he thought it
+would be very pleasant for them all to meet in that house every
+Sunday, for the purpose of studying the Bible and mutually helping
+one another. Then he asked all who were willing to help him
+establish a Sunday-school to hold up their hands, and every hand
+was immediately raised.
+
+Mr. Bevil moved that Mr. Elmer be made superintendent of the
+Sunday-school, Mr. Carter seconded the motion, and it was
+unanimously carried.
+
+The rest of the hour was occupied in forming classes and giving
+out lessons to be learned for the next Sunday. As most of the
+colored people could not read, it seemed important that they
+should be taught this first, and both Mark and Ruth were made
+teachers of ABC classes composed of the younger children.
+
+Before the meeting closed Mr. Bevil made some remarks, in which he
+thanked the Elmers for what they had undertaken, reminded the
+school that the next day was the first of a new year, and said
+that, as he had already told Mr. Elmer, the coming and settling of
+these strangers among them marked the dawn of a new era of
+prosperity for Wakulla.
+
+As the Elmers neared their home after Sunday-school they heard
+Bruce bark loudly; but when they reached it they found him cowed
+and whimpering. His eyes were fixed upon the point of woods
+nearest the house, and he exhibited signs of great fear. They also
+found the kitchen door standing wide open, though Mrs. Elmer was
+certain she had fastened it before leaving.
+
+Again Mark thought of the "ghoses," but still he said nothing, and
+the opening of the door was finally credited to the wind.
+
+That afternoon Mr. Bevil came over to make a call, and was much
+interested in the improvements already made and proposed. He
+declared that it reminded him of old times, when that side of the
+river was inhabited by a dozen or more families, and when Wakulla
+was one of the most prosperous towns in the State. He showed Mr.
+Elmer the sites of the old foundry and mills that once stood on
+that side of the river, and told him of the wharves that had lined
+both banks, the great cotton-presses, and the many vessels that
+used to fill it from bank to bank as they lay awaiting their loads
+of cotton. In those days a line of steam-ships plied regularly
+between Wakulla and New Orleans, and a steam-tug was kept
+constantly busy towing vessels between the town and the mouth of
+the river. Then a fine plank-road reached back from Wakulla a
+hundred miles into the country, and the two hotels of the place
+were constantly crowded with invalids, who came to receive the
+benefits of its famous sulphur and mineral springs. In those days
+six large stores were hardly sufficient for the business of the
+place, and then the land on both sides of the river for miles was
+cultivated, and produced heavy crops of cotton.
+
+Now all that remained to tell of this former prosperity were a few
+rotten piles in the river where the wharves had stood, the bridge
+abutments, a handful of tumble-down houses, and here and there in
+the dense woods traces of cultivated fields, and an occasional
+brick chimney or pile of stone to mark the site of some old
+plantation house.
+
+Mr. Elmer was much interested in all this, and mentally resolved
+that he would do all that lay in his power to revive the old-time
+prosperity of the place in which he had established his home.
+
+"What we most need here now," concluded Mr. Bevil, "is a bridge
+over the river and a mill. It ought to be a saw-mill, grist-mill,
+and cotton-gin all in one."
+
+The next morning Mr. Elmer said that he must go to Tallahassee,
+the nearest city, on business, and that he might be absent several
+days. Before going he laid out the work that he wanted each one to
+do while he was away. Mark was to take him down the river to the
+railroad station at St. Mark's, in his canoe, and on his return he
+and Jan were to go into the woods after as many cedar fence-posts
+as they could cut. The colored men were to prepare the large
+cleared field in front of the house, in which were about ten
+acres, for ploughing, and to dig post-holes around it on lines
+that he had marked. Captain Johnson and his crew were to unload
+the lighter and haul all the lumber and shingles up to the house.
+
+When he and Mark went down to the canoe, it seemed to the latter
+that she was not just where he had left her the day before, and he
+thought she looked as though she had been recently used; but as he
+could not be certain, he said nothing about it to his father.
+
+Mr. Elmer took a light rifle with him in the canoe, saying that
+there was no knowing but what they might find a chance to use it
+going down the river, and that Mark could bring it back. Mark was
+glad of this, for he inherited a love for shooting from his
+father, and having been carefully instructed, was a capital shot.
+
+The day was unusually warm and bright for that season of the year,
+and as they floated quietly down-stream they surprised a number of
+alligators lying on the banks sunning themselves. As they were the
+first of these great reptiles that either Mr. Elmer or Mark had
+ever seen, they watched them with curiosity not unmixed with fear
+lest they should attack and upset the light canoe. They afterwards
+learned that their fears were groundless, and that cases of this
+kind are almost unknown.
+
+They reached St. Mark's in time for Mr. Elmer to catch the train,
+and after he had gone Mark got the mail, of which quite a quantity
+had collected here for them, there being no post-office in
+Wakulla, and started for home.
+
+On the way up the river the boy was strangely oppressed by the
+solitude and almost unbroken silence about him, and was very glad
+when he found himself within a mile of home.
+
+Suddenly the silence was broken by a cry so terrible and agonized
+that he was for a moment nearly petrified with fright. He quickly
+recovered his presence of mind, and the first cry being followed
+by screams for help and a crashing of the bushes on a small wooded
+point that jutted into the river just ahead of him, he hastily ran
+the canoe up to the bank, seized his rifle, and sprang ashore.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+MARK DISCOVERS THE GHOST AND FINDS HIM IN A TRYING POSITION.
+
+
+Mark dashed through the bushes for a hundred yards, heedless of
+the clinging thorns of the rattan vine that tore his clothes, and
+scratched his face and hands until they bled, before reaching the
+scene of what sounded like a terrible struggle. The screams for
+help told him that at least one of the contestants was a human
+being in sore distress, and in thus rushing to his assistance Mark
+did not give a moment's thought to his own safety. As he burst
+from the bushes he found himself in a little open glade on the
+opposite side of the point from that on which he had landed. Here
+he came upon a struggle for life such as rarely takes place even
+in the wilder regions of the South, and such as but few persons
+have ever witnessed.
+
+On the farther side of the glade, clinging with the strength of
+despair to the trunk of a young magnolia-tree, lay a boy of about
+Mark's own age. His arms were nearly torn from their sockets by
+some terrible strain, and his eyes seemed starting from his head
+with horror. As he saw Mark he screamed, "Fire! Fire quick! His
+eyes! I'm letting go."
+
+Looking along the boy's body Mark saw a pair of great jaws closed
+firmly upon his right foot, though the rest of the animal,
+whatever it was, was hidden in a thicket of bushes which were
+violently agitated. He could see the protruding eyes; and,
+springing across the opening, he placed the muzzle of the rifle
+close against one of them, and fired.
+
+The horrid head was lifted high in the air with a bellow of rage
+and pain. As it fell it disappeared in the bushes, which were
+beaten down by the animal's death struggle, and then all was
+still.
+
+Upon firing, Mark had quickly thrown another cartridge from the
+magazine into the chamber of his rifle, and held it in readiness
+for another shot. He waited a moment after the struggles ceased,
+and finding that no further attack was made, turned his attention
+to the boy, who lay motionless and as though dead at his feet. His
+eyes were closed, and Mark knew that he had fainted, though he had
+never seen a person in that condition before.
+
+His first impulse was to try and restore the boy to consciousness;
+but his second, and the one upon which he acted, was to assure
+himself that the animal he had shot was really dead, and incapable
+of making another attack. Holding his rifle in one hand, and
+cautiously parting the bushes with the other, he peered, with a
+loudly beating heart, into the thicket. There, stretched out stiff
+and motionless, he saw the body of a huge alligator. It was dead--
+dead as a mummy; there was no doubt of that; and without waiting
+to examine it further, Mark laid down his rifle and went to the
+river for water.
+
+He brought three hatfuls, and dashed them, one after another, in
+the boy's face before the latter showed any signs of
+consciousness. Then the closed eyes were slowly opened, and fixed
+for an instant upon Mark, with the same look of horror that he had
+first seen in them, and the boy tried to rise to his feet, but
+fell back with a moan of pain.
+
+Mark had already seen that the boy's right foot was terribly
+mangled and covered with blood, and he went quickly for more water
+with which to bathe it. After he had washed off the blood, and
+bound the wounded foot as well as he could with his handkerchief
+and one of his shirt sleeves torn into strips, he found that the
+boy had again opened his eyes, and seemed to have fully recovered
+his consciousness.
+
+"Do you feel better?" asked Mark.
+
+"Yes," answered the boy. "I can sit up now if you will help me."
+
+Mark helped him into a sitting position, with his back against the
+tree to which he had clung when the alligator tried to drag him
+into the water. Then he said,
+
+"Now wait here a minute while I bring round the canoe. I'll get
+you into it, and take you home, for your foot must be properly
+attended to as soon as possible."
+
+Hurrying back to where he had left the canoe, Mark brought it
+around the point, very close to where the boy was sitting, and
+pulled one end of it up on the bank. Then going to the boy, he
+said,
+
+"If you can stand up, and will put both arms around my neck, I'll
+carry you to the canoe; it's only a few steps."
+
+Although he almost cried out with the pain caused by the effort,
+the boy succeeded in doing as Mark directed, and in a few minutes
+more was seated in the bottom of the canoe, with his wounded foot
+resting on Mark's folded jacket.
+
+Carefully shoving off, and stepping gently into the other end of
+the canoe, Mark began to paddle swiftly up the river. The boy sat
+with closed eyes, and though Mark wanted to ask him how it had all
+happened, he waited patiently, fearing that his companion was too
+weak to talk. He noticed that the boy was barefooted and
+bareheaded, that his clothes were very old and ragged, and that he
+had a bag and a powder-horn slung over his shoulders. He also
+noticed that his hair was long and matted, and that his face, in
+spite of its present paleness, was tanned, as though by long
+exposure to the weather. It had a strangely familiar look to him,
+and it seemed as though he must have seen that boy somewhere
+before, but where he could not think.
+
+Just before they reached the "Go Bang" landing-place the boy
+opened his eyes, and Mark, no longer able to restrain his
+curiosity, asked,
+
+"How did the alligator happen to catch you?"
+
+"I was asleep," answered the boy, "and woke up just in time to
+catch hold of that tree as he grabbed my foot and began pulling me
+to the water. He would have had me in another minute, for I was
+letting go when you came;" and the boy shuddered at the
+remembrance.
+
+"Well," said Mark, a little boastfully, "he won't catch anybody
+else. He's as dead as a door-nail now. Here we are."
+
+Jan and Captain Johnson were at the landing, and they listened
+with astonishment to Mark's hurried explanation of what had
+happened. The captain said they would carry the boy to the house,
+while Mark ran on and told his mother who was coming, so that she
+could prepare to receive him.
+
+Mrs. Elmer was much shocked at Mark's story, and said she was very
+thankful that he had not only been the means of saving a human
+life, but had escaped unharmed himself. At the same time she made
+ready to receive the boy, and when the men brought him in she had
+a bed prepared for him, warm water and castile soap ready to bathe
+the wounds, and soft linen to bandage them.
+
+Captain Johnson, who called himself "a rough and ready surgeon,"
+carefully felt of the wounded foot to ascertain whether or not any
+bones were broken. The boy bore this patiently and without a
+murmur, though one or two gasps of pain escaped him. When the
+captain said that, though he could not feel any fractured bones,
+the ankle-joint was dislocated, and must be pulled back into place
+at once, he clinched his teeth, drew in a long breath, and nodded
+his head. Taking a firm hold above and below the dislocated joint,
+the captain gave a quick twist with his powerful hands that drew
+from the boy a sharp cry of pain.
+
+"There," said the captain, soothingly, "it's all over; now we will
+bathe it and bandage it, and in a few days you will be as good as
+you were before you met Mr. 'Gator. If not better," he added, as
+he took note of the boy's wretched clothes and general appearance.
+
+After seeing the patient made as comfortable as possible, Mark and
+the two men went out, leaving him to the gentle care of Mrs. Elmer
+and Ruth.
+
+"Mark," said Captain Johnson, "let's take the skiff and go and get
+that alligator. I guess Miss Ruth would like to see him. One of my
+men can go along to help us, or Jan, if he will."
+
+"All right," said Mark, and Jan said he would go if it wouldn't
+take too long.
+
+"We'll be back in less than an hour," said the captain, "if it's
+only a mile away, as Mark says."
+
+So they went, and it took the united strength of the three to get
+the alligator into the skiff when they found him. He measured ten
+feet and four inches in length, and Captain Johnson, who claimed
+to be an authority concerning alligators, said that was very large
+for fresh-water, though in tide-water they were sometimes found
+fifteen feet in length, and he had heard of several that were even
+longer.
+
+While Mark was showing them just where the boy lay when he first
+saw him, Jan picked up an old muzzle-loading shot-gun and a pair
+of much-worn boots, that had heretofore escaped their notice. Both
+barrels of the gun were loaded, but one only contained a charge of
+powder, which surprised them.
+
+"What do you suppose he was going to do with only a charge of
+powder?" asked Mark, when this discovery was made.
+
+"I've no idea," answered the captain; "perhaps he forgot the shot,
+or hadn't any left."
+
+When they reached home with the big alligator, the whole household
+came out to look at it, and Mrs. Elmer and Ruth shuddered when
+they saw the monster that had so nearly dragged the boy into the
+river.
+
+"Oh, Mark!" exclaimed Ruth, "just think if you hadn't come along
+just then."
+
+"How merciful that your father thought of taking the rifle!" said
+Mrs. Elmer. "I don't suppose we could keep it for Mr. Elmer to
+see, could we?" she asked of Captain Johnson.
+
+"Oh no, ma'am, not in this warm weather," answered the captain;
+"but we can cut off the head and bury it, and in two or three
+weeks you will have a nice skull to keep as a memento."
+
+"And what will you do with the body?"
+
+"Why, throw it into the river, I suppose," answered the captain.
+
+"Wouldn't it be better to bury it too?"
+
+"Hi! Miss Elmer; yo' sho'ly wouldn't tink of doin' dat ar?"
+exclaimed Aunt Chloe, who had by this time become a fixture in the
+Elmer household, and had come out with the rest to see the
+alligator.
+
+"Why not, Chloe?" asked Mrs. Elmer, in surprise.
+
+"'Kase ef you's putten um in de groun', how's Marse Tukky Buzzard
+gwine git um? Can't nebber hab no luck ef you cheat Marse Tukky
+Buzzard dat ar way."
+
+"That's another of the colored folks' superstitions," said Captain
+Johnson. "They believe that if you bury any dead animal so that
+the turkey buzzards can't get at it, they'll bring you bad luck."
+
+"'Taint no 'stition, nuther. Hit's a pop sho' fac', dat's what!"
+muttered Aunt Chloe, angrily, as she walked off towards the house.
+
+So the head of the alligator was cut off and buried, and the body
+disappeared, though whether it was buried or served to make a meal
+for the buzzards no one seemed exactly to know.
+
+That afternoon Captain Johnson went off down the river with his
+lighter, saying that he could always be found at St. Mark's when
+wanted, and Mark and Jan went into the woods to look for cedar
+fence-posts.
+
+After the day's work was finished, and the family were gathered in
+the sitting-room for the evening, Mark had a long and earnest
+conversation with his mother and Ruth. At its close Mrs. Elmer
+said, "Well, my son, wait until we hear what your father thinks of
+it;" and Ruth said, "I think it's a perfectly splendid plan."
+
+Mark slept in the room with the wounded boy, whose name they had
+learned to be Frank March, that night, and was roused several
+times before morning to give him water, for he was very feverish.
+He talked in his sleep too, as though he were having troubled
+dreams, and once Mark heard him say,
+
+"Fire quick! No, it's only powder; it won't hurt him. I didn't
+kill the dog."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+A RUNAWAY'S STORY, AND ITS HAPPY ENDING.
+
+
+During the three days that passed before Mr. Elmer's return, the
+large field was made ready for ploughing, most of the post-holes
+were dug, the soil being so light as to make that an easy matter,
+and Mark and Jan had cut a number of cedar posts, and got them
+ready to be rafted down the river.
+
+During this time, also, Frank March had improved so rapidly that
+he was able to sit up and take an interest in what was going on.
+He had become much attached to Mrs. Elmer, and seemed very happy
+in her company. Neither she nor the children had asked him any
+questions concerning his past life, preferring to wait until he
+should tell the story of his own accord.
+
+On the third evening of his being with them he was helped into the
+sitting-room, and lay on the sofa listening intently to Mrs. Elmer
+as she read to Mark and Ruth a chapter from a book of travels that
+they had begun on the schooner. As she finished and closed the
+book, the boy raised himself on his elbow, and said,
+
+"Mrs. Elmer, I want to tell you something, and I want Mark and
+Ruth to hear too."
+
+"Well, my boy," said Mrs. Elmer, kindly, "we shall be glad to hear
+whatever you have to tell, if it won't tire and excite you too
+much."
+
+"No, I don't think it will," replied Frank. "I feel as if I must
+tell you what a bad boy I have been, and how sorry I am for it.
+More than a month ago I stole father's gun and dog, and twenty
+dollars that I found in his desk, and ran away from him. Ever
+since then I have been living in the woods around here, hunting
+and fishing. When the weather was bad I slept in the kitchen of
+this house, and when you folks moved in, it seemed almost as if
+you were taking possession of what belonged to me. The first night
+you were here I crept into the kitchen and stole a loaf of bread
+and a duck."
+
+"There!" interrupted Mark, "now I know where I saw you before. It
+was you who looked into the window and frightened me that first
+night, wasn't it?"
+
+"Yes," said Frank; "and I meant to scare you worse than that, and
+should have if the alligator hadn't caught me. I saw you and your
+father go down the river that morning, and heard him say he was
+going to Tallahassee, and I waited then for you to come back
+alone. I drew out the shot from one barrel of my gun, and was
+going to fire a charge of powder at you when you got close to the
+point. I thought perhaps you would be so scared that you would
+upset your canoe and lose your rifle overboard. Then I thought I
+might get it after you had gone, for the water is shallow there,
+and I wanted a rifle awfully."
+
+"Oh! what a bad boy you are," said Ruth, shaking her pretty head.
+"Yes, I know I am," said Frank, "but I ain't going to be any
+longer if I can help it."
+
+"How did that alligator get you, anyway?" asked Mark, who was very
+curious upon this point.
+
+"Why, I pulled off my boots because they were wet and hurt my
+feet; then I lay down to wait for you, and went to sleep. I
+suppose the 'gator found it warm enough that day to come out of
+the mud, where he had been asleep all winter. Of course he felt
+hungry after such a long nap, and when he saw my bare foot thought
+it would make him a nice meal. I was waked by feeling myself
+dragged along the ground, and finding my foot in what felt like a
+vise. I caught hold of a tree, and held on until it seemed as
+though my arms would be pulled out. I yelled as loud as I could
+all the time, while the 'gator pulled. He twisted my foot until I
+thought the bones must be broken, and that I must let go. Then you
+came, Mark, and that's all I remember until I was in the canoe,
+and you were paddling up the river."
+
+"Was that the first time you were ever in that canoe?" asked Mark,
+a new suspicion dawning in his mind.
+
+"No; I had used her 'most every night, and one night I went as far
+as St. Mark's in her."
+
+"What made you bring the canoe back at all?" asked Mrs. Elmer.
+
+"'Cause everybody round here would have known her, and known that
+I had stole her if they'd seen me in her," answered the boy.
+
+"And did you shoot poor Bruce?" asked Ruth.
+
+"Who's Bruce?"
+
+"Why, our dog. He came to us more than a week ago, shot so bad
+that he could hardly walk."
+
+"Yes, I shot him because he wouldn't go into the water and fetch
+out a duck I had wounded; but his name is Jack. I didn't kill him
+though, for I saw him on your back porch last Sunday when you were
+all over the river, and he barked at me."
+
+"My poor boy," said Mrs. Elmer, "you have certainly done very
+wrong; but you have been severely punished for it, and if you are
+truly sorry and mean to try and do right in the future, you will
+as certainly be forgiven." So saying, the kind-hearted woman went
+over and sat down beside the boy, and took his hand in hers.
+
+At this caress, the first he could ever remember to have received,
+the boy burst into tears, and sobbed out,
+
+"I would have been good if I had a mother like you and a pleasant
+home like this."
+
+Mrs. Elmer soothed and quieted him, and gradually drew from him
+the rest of his story. His father had once been comfortably well
+off, and had owned a large mill in Savannah; but during the war
+the mill had been burned, and he had lost everything. For some
+years after that he was very poor, and when Frank was quite a
+small boy, and his sister a baby, his father used to drink, and
+when he came home drunk would beat him and his mother. One night,
+after a terrible scene of this kind, which Frank could just
+remember, his mother had snatched up the baby and run from the
+house. Afterwards he was told that they were dead; at any rate he
+never saw them again. Then his father left Savannah and came to
+Florida to live. He never drank any more, but was very cross, and
+hardly ever spoke to his son. He made a living by doing jobs of
+carpentering; and, ever since he had been old enough, Frank had
+worked on their little farm, about twenty miles from Wakulla. At
+last he became so tired of this sort of life, and his father's
+harshness, that he determined to run away and try to find a
+happier one.
+
+Mark and Ruth listened in silence to this story of an unhappy
+childhood, and when it was ended, Ruth went over to the sofa where
+her mother still sat, and taking Frank's other hand in hers, said,
+
+"I guess I would have run away too, if I'd had such an unpleasant
+home; but you'll stay with us now, and let mother teach you to be
+good, won't you?"
+
+For answer the boy looked up shyly into Mrs. Elmer's face, and she
+said, "We'll see when father comes home."
+
+At this moment Bruce began to bark loudly, and directly a sound of
+wheels was heard. Then a voice called out,
+
+"Halloo! Go Bang, ahoy! Bring out a lantern, somebody."
+
+"It's father! it's father!" exclaimed Mark and Ruth, rushing to
+the door with shouts of welcome. Mrs. Elmer followed them, leaving
+Frank alone in the sitting-room.
+
+"How glad they are to see him," thought the boy. "I wonder if I
+should be as glad to see my father if he was as good to me as
+theirs is to them?"
+
+While Frank's mind was full of such thoughts, he heard a quick
+step at the door, and looking up, saw the very person he had been
+thinking of--his own father!
+
+"Frank, my boy!" exclaimed Mr. March, "can it be you? Oh, Frank, I
+didn't know how much I loved you until I lost you, and I have
+tried in every way to find you and beg you to come home again."
+With these words Mr. March stooped down and kissed his son's
+forehead, saying, "I haven't kissed you since you were a baby,
+Frank, and I do it now as a sign that from this time forward I
+will try to be a good and loving father to you."
+
+"Oh, father," cried the happy boy, "do you really love me? Then if
+you will forgive me for running away and being such a wicked boy,
+I will never, never do so again."
+
+"Indeed I will," answered his father. "But what is the matter,
+Frank? Have you been ill? How came you here?"
+
+While Frank was giving his father a brief account of what had
+happened to him since he ran away from home, the Elmers were
+exchanging the most important bits of news outside the front gate.
+They waited there while Mr. Elmer and Jan unhitched from a new
+farm-wagon a pair of fine mules that the former had bought and
+driven down from Tallahassee that day.
+
+When the children ran out to greet their father, one of the first
+things Ruth said was, "Oh, we've got a new boy, father, and he's
+in the sitting-room, and his name's Frank March, and an alligator
+almost dragged him into the river, and Mark shot it."
+
+Almost without waiting to hear the end of this long sentence, a
+stranger who had come with Mr. Elmer opened the front gate, and
+quickly walking to the house, disappeared within it.
+
+"Who is that, husband, and what has he gone into the house for?"
+asked Mrs. Elmer, in surprise.
+
+"I don't know much about him," answered Mr. Elmer, "except that
+his name is March; and as he was recommended to me as being a good
+carpenter, I engaged him to come and do what work was necessary to
+repair this house."
+
+"I wonder if he is Frank's wicked father?" said Ruth; and then the
+whole story had to be told to Mr. Elmer before they went into the
+house.
+
+When he heard of Mark's bravery, he placed his hand on the boy's
+shoulder and said, "My son, I am proud of you."
+
+As they went in and entered the sitting-room, they found Mr. March
+and Frank sitting together on the sofa, talking earnestly.
+
+"I hope you will excuse my leaving you and entering your house so
+unceremoniously, Mr. Elmer," said Mr. March, rising and bowing to
+Mrs. Elmer; "but when your little girl said a boy named Frank
+March was in here I felt sure he was my son. It is he; and now
+that I have found him, I don't ever intend to lose him again."
+
+"That's right," said Mr. Elmer, heartily. "In this country boys
+are too valuable to be lost, even if they do turn up again like
+bad pennies. Master Frank, you must hurry and get well, for in his
+work here your father will need just such a valuable assistant as
+I am sure you will make."
+
+"Now, wife, how about something to eat? I am almost hungry enough
+to eat an alligator, and I expect our friend March would be
+willing to help me."
+
+Aunt Chloe had been busy ever since the travellers arrived, and
+supper was as ready for them as they were for it. After supper,
+when they were once more gathered in the sitting-room, Mr. Elmer
+said, "I got a charter granted me while I was in Tallahassee--can
+any of you guess for what?"
+
+None of them could guess, unless, as Mark suggested, it was for
+incorporating "Go Bang," and making a city of it in opposition to
+Wakulla.
+
+"It is to establish and maintain a ferry between those portions of
+the town of Wakulla lying on opposite sides of the St. Mark's
+River," said Mr. Elmer.
+
+"A FERRY?" said Mrs. Elmer.
+
+"A FERRY?" said Ruth.
+
+"A ferry?" said Mark; "what sort of a ferry steam-power, horse-
+power, or boy-power?"
+
+"I expect it will be mostly boy-power," said Mr. Elmer, laughing.
+"You see I kept thinking of what Mr. Bevil told us last Sunday,
+that what Wakulla needed most was a bridge and a mill. I knew we
+couldn't build a bridge, at least not at present; but the idea of
+a ferry seemed practicable. We have got enough lumber to build a
+large flat-boat, there are enough of us to attend to a ferry, and
+so I thought I'd get a charter, anyhow."
+
+Mark could hardly wait for his father to finish before he broke in
+with,
+
+"Speaking of mills, father, your ferry will be the very thing to
+bring people over to our mill."
+
+"Our mill!" repeated his father. "What do you mean?"
+
+"Why, Jan and I discovered an old mill about half a mile up the
+river, while we were out looking for cedar. It's out of repair,
+and the dam is partly broken away; but the machinery in it seems
+to be pretty good, and the wheel's all right. I don't believe it
+would take very much money to fix the dam; and the stream that
+supplies the mill-pond is never-failing, because it comes from a
+big sulphur spring. We found the man who owns it, and had a long
+talk with him. He says that business fell off so after the bridge
+was carried away that when his dam broke he didn't think it would
+pay to rebuild it. He says he will take five hundred dollars cash
+for the whole concern; and I want to put in my hundred dollars
+salvage money, and Ruth'll put in hers, and Jan'll put in his, and
+mother says she'll put in hers if you think the scheme is a good
+one, and we'll buy the mill. Now, your ferry can bring the people
+over; and it's just the biggest investment in all Florida. Don't
+you think so, father?"
+
+"I'll tell you what I think after I have examined into it," said
+Mr. Elmer, smiling at Mark's enthusiasm. "Now it's very late, and
+time we all invested in bed."
+
+That night Mark dreamed of ferry-boats run by alligator-power, of
+mills that ground out gold dollars, and of "ghoses" that turned
+out to be boys.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+"THE ELMER MILL AND FERRY COMPANY."
+
+
+Mr. Elmer made careful inquiries concerning the mill about which
+Mark had told him, and found that it was the only one within
+twenty miles of Wakulla. He was told that it used to do a very
+flourishing business before the bridge was carried away, and
+things in that part of the county went to ruin generally. Both Mr.
+Bevil and Mr. Carter thought that if there was any way of getting
+over to it, the mill could be made to pay, and were much pleased
+at the prospect of having it put in running order again.
+
+Mr. March having been a mill-owner, and thoroughly understanding
+machinery, visited the one in question with Mr. Elmer, and
+together they inspected it carefully. They found that it contained
+old-fashioned but good machinery for grinding corn and ginning
+cotton, but none for sawing lumber. Only about thirty feet of the
+dam had been carried away, and it could be repaired at a moderate
+expense. Mr. March said that by raising the whole dam a few feet
+the water-power would be greatly increased, and would be
+sufficient to run a saw in addition to the machinery already on
+hand. He also said that he knew of an abandoned saw-mill a few
+miles up the river, the machinery of which was still in a fair
+condition and could be bought for a trifle.
+
+The result of what he saw and heard was that Mr. Elmer decided the
+investment to be a good one, and at once took the necessary steps
+towards purchasing the property. This decision pleased Mark and
+Jan greatly, and they began to think that they were men of fine
+business ability, or, as Mark said, were "possessed of long
+heads."
+
+That same evening a meeting of the "dusty millers," as Ruth called
+them, was held in the "Go Bang" sitting-room. Mr. Elmer addressed
+the meeting and proposed that they form a mill company with a
+capital of one thousand dollars, and that the stock be valued at
+one hundred dollars a share.
+
+This proposition met with general approval, though Mark whispered
+to Ruth that he didn't see how father was going to make a thousand
+dollars' worth of capital out of five hundred unless he watered
+the stock.
+
+"Now," said Mr. Elmer, after it was agreed that they should form a
+company, "what shall the association be called?"
+
+Many names were suggested, among them that of "The Great Southern
+Mill Company," by Mark, who also proposed "The Florida and Wakulla
+Milling Association." Finally Mr. March proposed "The Elmer Mill
+Company," and after some discussion this name was adopted.
+
+Meantime Mr. Elmer had prepared a sheet of paper which he handed
+round for signatures, and when it was returned to him it read as
+follows:
+
+THE ELMER MILL COMPANY.
+
+WAKULLA, FLORIDA, January 10, 188-.
+
+The undersigned do hereby promise to pay into the capital stock of
+The Elmer Mill Company, upon demand of its Treasurer, the sums
+placed opposite their respective names:
+
+    Mark Elmer            $200
+    Ellen R. Elmer         200
+    Mark Elmer, Jun        100
+    Ruth Elmer             100
+    Harold March           100
+    Jan Jansen             100
+
+After these signatures had been obtained, Mr. March said that he
+had a proposition to lay before the company. It was that he should
+superintend the setting up of the mill machinery and its running
+for one year, for which service he should receive a salary of one
+hundred dollars. He also said that if the company saw fit to
+accept this offer he would at once subscribe the one hundred
+dollars salary to its capital stock in addition to the sum already
+set opposite his name.
+
+This proposition, being put to vote by the chairman, was
+unanimously accepted, and the amount opposite Mr. March's name on
+the subscription list was changed from one hundred dollars to two
+hundred dollars.
+
+Then Mr. Elmer said that he wished to lay some propositions before
+the company. One of them was that if they would accept the ferry
+franchise he had recently obtained, he would present it as a free
+gift. He also wished to propose to Mr. March and Master Frank
+March that they should build the ferry-boat, for which he would
+furnish the material. To the company he further proposed that if
+Mr. Frank March would agree for the sum of one hundred dollars to
+run the ferry-boat for one year from the time it was launched, his
+name should at once be placed upon the subscription list, and he
+be credited with one share of stock.
+
+All of these propositions having been accepted, the name of Frank
+March was added to the list, and the books were declared closed.
+
+Mr. Elmer said that the next business in order was the election of
+officers, and he called for nominations.
+
+Mrs. Elmer caused Mark to blush furiously by speaking of him in
+the most flattering terms as the originator of the scheme, and
+nominating him as president of the company.
+
+The list of officers, as finally prepared and submitted to the
+meeting, was as follows:
+
+    President                            Mark Elmer, Jun.
+    Vice-President and General Manager   Mark Elmer, Sen.
+    Treasurer                            Ellen R. Elmer.
+    Secretary                            Ruth Elmer.
+    Superintendent of Mills              Harold March.
+    Superintendent of Ferries            Frank March.
+
+And a Board of Directors, to consist of Jan Jansen, Esq., and the
+officers of the company ex-officio.
+
+This ticket being voted upon as a whole and unanimously elected,
+Mr. Elmer resigned his chair to the newly made President, who
+gravely asked if there was any further business before the
+meeting.
+
+"Mr. President," said Mr. March, "I wish to move that the name
+'Elmer Mill Company,' which we recently adopted, be changed so as
+to read 'Elmer Mill and Ferry Company.'"
+
+"All right," said the President; "you may move it."
+
+"I second the motion," said Mr. Elmer, laughing, "and call for the
+question." "Nobody's asked any," said Mark, looking rather
+bewildered.
+
+"I mean, Mr. President, that I call upon you to lay the motion
+just made by our distinguished superintendent of mills, and
+seconded by myself, before the meeting, that they may take action
+upon it."
+
+"Oh," said Mark; and remembering how his father had done it, he
+put the motion very properly, announced that the yeas had it, and
+that the name of the company was accordingly changed.
+
+Then the President made an address, in which he said that, after a
+most careful examination into the affairs of the Elmer Mill and
+Ferry Company, he was able to report most favorably as to its
+present condition. He found that they owned valuable mill
+buildings and machinery, and had contracted for a first-class
+ferry-boat, which was to be built immediately, and which had been
+paid for in advance. He also found that the two salaried officers
+of the company, the superintendent of mills and the superintendent
+of ferries, had been paid one year's salary in advance.
+
+In spite of these great outlays, he was informed by the treasurer
+that a cash balance of three hundred dollars remained in the
+treasury, and he congratulated the stockholders of the company
+upon its healthy and flourishing condition. This address was
+received with loud and prolonged applause.
+
+Before the meeting adjourned it was decided that the election of
+officers should be held annually, and that the Board of Directors
+should meet once a month.
+
+A meeting of this Board was held immediately upon the adjournment
+of the meeting of stockholders, and the general manager was
+instructed to purchase saw-mill machinery, and to begin the
+rebuilding of the dam at once.
+
+"Well, Ruth," said Mark, after all this business had been
+transacted, "now we ARE property owners sure enough. That
+newspaper was about right after all."
+
+After the others had gone to bed, Mr. Elmer and Mr. March talked
+for some time together, and this conversation resulted in the
+latter agreeing to move to Wakulla, and build a small house for
+himself and Frank on Mr. Elmer's land. He told Mr. Elmer that
+meeting him and his family had given him new ideas of life, and
+aroused a desire for better things both for himself and his son.
+
+The Sunday-school was well attended the next Sunday; and as Mr.
+Elmer had brought a package of song-books with him from
+Tallahassee, the scholars learned to sing several of the songs,
+and seemed to enjoy them very much.
+
+Monday was a rainy day, but as a rough shed had been built to
+serve as a temporary workshop, the ferry-boat was begun. On it Mr.
+March laid out enough work to keep all hands busy except Frank,
+who was still confined to the house.
+
+The rain fell steadily all that week, until the Elmers no longer
+wondered that bridges and dams were swept away in that country,
+and Mark said that if it did not stop pretty soon they would have
+to build an ark instead of a ferry-boat.
+
+As a result of the rainy week, the boat was finished, the seams
+were calked and pitched by Saturday night, and it was all ready to
+be launched on Monday. By that time the rain had ceased, and the
+weather was again warm and beautiful.
+
+On Monday morning Frank March left the house for the first time
+since he had been carried into it, and was invited to take a seat
+in the new boat. The mules were then hitched to it, and it was
+dragged in triumph to the edge of the river. It was followed by
+the whole family, including Aunt Chloe and Bruce, who had shown
+great delight at meeting his old master, Mr. March, and appeared
+to be ready to make up and be friends again with Frank, who had
+treated him so cruelly.
+
+At the water's edge the mules were unhitched, a long rope was
+attached to one end of the boat, stout shoulders were placed under
+the pry poles, and with a "Heave'o! and another! and still
+another!" it was finally slid into the water amid loud cheers from
+the assembled spectators. These cheers were answered from the
+other side of the river, where nearly the whole population of
+Wakulla had assembled to see the launch.
+
+Mark and Frank begged so hard to be allowed to take the boat
+across the river on a trial trip that Mr. Elmer said they might.
+Armed with long poles, they pushed off, but in a moment were swept
+down stream by the strong current in spite of all their efforts,
+and much to the dismay of Mrs. Elmer, who feared they were in
+danger.
+
+"Don't be alarmed, my dear," said her husband; "they are not in
+any danger in that boat. It will teach them a good lesson on the
+strength of currents, and they'll soon fetch up on one bank or the
+other."
+
+They did "fetch up" on the opposite side of the river after a
+while, but it was half a mile down stream. When they got the boat
+made fast to a tree, both boys were too thoroughly exhausted to
+attempt to force it back to Wakulla.
+
+Just as they had decided to leave the boat where she was and walk
+back through the woods, they heard a shout out on the river, and
+saw Jan and a colored man coming towards them in the skiff.
+
+The men took the poles and the boys, jumping into the skiff, made
+it fast to the bow of the boat with a tow-line; and, by keeping
+close to the bank, they finally succeeded, after two hours' hard
+work, in getting back to Wakulla. They left the boat on that side
+of the river for the time being, and all crossed in the skiff.
+
+The rest of that day was spent in planting two stout posts, one on
+each side of the river, close to the old bridge abutments, and in
+stretching across the river, from one post to the other, a wire
+cable that Mr. Elmer had bought for this purpose. A couple of iron
+pulley-wheels, to which were attached small but strong ropes, were
+placed on the cable, its ends were drawn taut by teams of mules,
+and anchored firmly in the ground about twenty feet behind each
+post.
+
+The ropes of the pulley-wheels were made fast to the bow and stern
+of the boat, and the forward one was drawn up short, while the
+other was left long enough to allow the boat to swing at an angle
+to the current. Then the boat was shoved off, and, without any
+poling, was carried by the force of the current quickly and
+steadily to the other side.
+
+A tin horn was attached by a light chain to each post, the ferry
+was formally delivered to Master Frank March, and it was declared
+open and ready for business.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE GREAT MILL PICNIC.
+
+
+The rates of ferriage were fixed at twenty-five cents for a team,
+fifteen cents for a man on horseback, ten cents for a single
+animal, and five cents for a foot-passenger. Two cards, with these
+rates neatly printed on them by Ruth in large letters, were tacked
+up on the anchorage posts, so that passengers might not have any
+chance to dispute with the ferryman, or "superintendent of
+ferries," as he liked to be called.
+
+Leaving him in charge of the boat--for he was not yet strong
+enough for more active work--and leaving Mr. March at work upon
+the house, Mr. Elmer, Mark, Jan, and four colored men, taking the
+mules with them, set out bright and early on Tuesday morning for
+the mill, to begin work on the dam.
+
+They found the pond empty, and exposing a large surface of black
+mud studded with the stumps of old trees, and the stream from the
+sulphur spring rippling along merrily in a channel it had cut for
+itself through the broken portion of the dam. While two men were
+set to digging a new channel for this stream, so as to lead it
+through the sluice-way, and leave the place where the work was to
+be done free from water, the others began to cut down half a dozen
+tall pines, and hew them into squared timbers.
+
+A deep trench was dug along the whole length of the broken part of
+the dam for a foundation, and into this was lowered one of the
+great squared timbers, forty feet long, that had six mortice-holes
+cut in its upper side. Into these holes were set six uprights,
+each ten feet long, and on top of these was placed as a stringer,
+another forty-foot timber. To this framework was spiked, on the
+inside, a close sheathing of plank. Heavy timber braces, the outer
+ends of which were let into mud-sills set in trenches dug thirty
+feet outside the dam, were sunk into the stringer, and the work of
+filling in with earth on the inside was begun. In two weeks the
+work was finished; the whole dam had been raised and strengthened,
+the floodgates were closed, and the pond began slowly to fill up.
+
+In the mean time the saw-mill machinery had been bought, the frame
+for the saw-mill had been cut and raised, and Mr. March, having
+finished the repairs on the house, was busy setting up the
+machinery and putting it in order.
+
+By the middle of February, or six weeks after the Elmers had
+landed in Wakulla, their influence had become very decidedly felt
+in the community. With their building, fencing, ploughing, and
+clearing, they had given employment to most of the working
+population of the place, and had put more money into circulation
+than had been seen there at any one time for years. Their house
+was now as neat and pretty as any in the county. The ten-acre
+field in front was ploughed, fenced, and planted, half in corn and
+half--no, not with orange-trees, but half was set out with young
+cabbage-plants; a homely crop, but one which Mr. Elmer had been
+advised would bring in good returns. The ferry was running
+regularly and was already much used by travellers from
+considerable distances on both sides of the river. The mill was
+finished and ready for business, and the millpond, instead of a
+mud flat, was a pretty sheet of water, fringed with palms and
+other beautiful trees. Above all, Mr. Elmer's health had so
+improved that he said he felt like a young man again, and able to
+do any amount of outdoor work.
+
+One Sunday morning after all this had been accomplished, Mr. Elmer
+announced to the Sunday-school that on the following Wednesday a
+grand picnic would be given in a pine grove midway between the
+Elmer Mill and the big sulphur spring, that the ferry would be run
+free all that day, and that all were cordially invited to come and
+enjoy themselves. He also said that the Elmer Mill would be opened
+for business on that day, and would grind, free of charge, one
+bushel of corn for every family in Wakulla who should bring it
+with them.
+
+This announcement created such a buzz of excitement that it was
+well it had not been made until after the exercises of the morning
+were over, for there could certainly have been no more Sunday-
+school that day.
+
+For the next two days the picnic was the all-absorbing topic of
+conversation, and wonderful stories were told and circulated of
+the quantities of goodies that were being made in the "Go Bang"
+kitchen. Aunt Chloe was frequently interviewed, and begged to tell
+exactly how much of these stories might be believed; but the old
+woman only shook her gayly turbaned head, and answered,
+
+"You's gwine see, chillun! you's gwine see; only jes' hab pashuns,
+an' you's gwine be 'warded by sich a sight ob fixin's as make yo'
+tink ole times back come, sho nuff."
+
+At last the eagerly expected morning dawned, and though a thick
+fog hid one bank of the river from the other, sounds of active
+stir and bustle announced to each community that the other was
+making ready for the great event.
+
+By nine o'clock the fog had lifted, and the sun shone out bright
+and warm. Before this Jan and the mules had made several trips
+between the house and the mill, each time with a heavy wagon load
+of--something. Mr. Elmer, Mr. March, and Mark had gone to the mill
+as soon as breakfast was over, and had not been seen since.
+
+Aunt Chloe had been bustling about her kitchen "sence de risin' ob
+de mo'nin' star," and was, in her own estimation, the most
+important person on the place that day. As for Bruce he was wild
+with excitement, and dashed at full speed from the house to the
+mill, and back again, barking furiously, and trying to tell
+volumes of, what seemed to him, important news.
+
+As soon as the fog lifted, the horn on the opposite side of the
+river began to blow impatient summonses for the "superintendent of
+ferries," and busy times immediately began for Frank.
+
+What funny loads of black people he brought over! Old gray-headed
+uncles, leaning on canes, who told stories of "de good ole times
+long befo' de wah"; middle-aged men and women who rejoiced in the
+present good times of freedom, and comical little pickaninnies,
+who looked forward with eagerness to the good times to come to
+them within an hour or so.
+
+And then the teams, the queer home-made carts, most of them drawn
+by a single steer or cow hitched into shafts, in which the bushels
+of corn were brought; for everybody who could obtain a bushel of
+corn had taken Mr. Elmer at his word, and brought it along to be
+ground free of charge.
+
+One of the men, after seeing his wife and numerous family of
+children safely on board the boat, went up to Frank with a beaming
+face, and said,
+
+"Misto Frank, I'se bought a ok. Dar he is hitched into dat ar
+kyart, an' oh! he do plough splendid!"
+
+The "ok," which poor Joe thought was the proper singular of
+"oxes," as he would have called a pair of them, was a meek-looking
+little creature, harnessed to an old two-wheeled cart by a perfect
+tangle of ropes and chains. He was so small that even Frank,
+accustomed as he was to the ways of the country, almost smiled at
+the idea of its "ploughing splendid."
+
+He didn't, though; for honest Joe was waiting to hear his purchase
+praised, and Frank praised it by saying it was one of the
+handsomest oxen of its size he had ever seen. Joe was fully
+satisfied with this, and when the boat reached the other side,
+hurried off to find new admirers for this first piece of actual
+property he had ever owned, and to tell them that "Misto Frank
+March, who know all about oxes, say dis yere ok de han'somes' he
+ebber seed."
+
+Of course the Bevils and Carters came over to the picnic. Grace
+Bevil, of whom Ruth had already made a great friend, waited with
+her at the house until the last boat-load of people had been
+ferried across. Then Frank called them, and after helping them
+into the canoe and telling them to sit quiet as 'possums, paddled
+it up the wild, beautiful river to the mill.
+
+This was a novel experience to the little Wakulla girl, who had
+never in her life before travelled so easily and swiftly. She
+afterwards told her mother that, as she looked far down into the
+clear depths of the water above which they glided, she thought she
+knew how angels felt flying through the air.
+
+By the time they reached the mill more than a hundred persons were
+assembled near it, and Mr. Elmer was talking to them from the
+steps. They were in time to hear him say,
+
+"The Elmer Mill is now about to be opened for business and set to
+work. A bushel of corn belonging to Uncle Silas Brim, the oldest
+man present, has been placed in the hopper, and will be the first
+ground."
+
+Then Mark, who, as president of the Elmer Mill and Ferry Company,
+was allowed the honor of so doing, pressed a lever that opened the
+floodgates. A stream of water dashed through the race, the great
+wheel began to turn, and, as they heard the whir of the machinery,
+the crowd cheered again and again. In a little while Uncle Silas
+Brim's corn was returned to him in the form of a sack of fine
+yellow meal. After that the bushels of corn poured in thick and
+fast, and for the rest of the day the Elmer Mill continued its
+pleasant work of charity.
+
+As the novelty of watching the mill at work wore off, the people
+began to stroll towards the grove near the sulphur spring, in
+which an odd-looking structure had been erected the day before,
+and now attracted much attention. It was a long, low shed, or
+booth, built of poles thatched with palm-leaves woven so close
+that its interior was completely hidden. Mrs. Elmer, Mrs. Bevil,
+Mrs. Carter, Ruth, Grace, and Aunt Chloe were known to be inside,
+but what they were doing was a mystery that no one could solve.
+
+"Reckon dey's a-fixin' up sandwitches," said one.
+
+"Yo' g'way, chile! Who ebber heerd ob sich nonsens? 'Tain't no
+witches ob no kine; hits somefin' to eat, I tell yo'. I kin smell
+hit," said an old aunty, who sniffed the air vigorously as she
+spoke.
+
+This opinion was strengthened when Aunt Chloe appeared at the
+entrance of the booth, before which hung a curtain of white
+muslin, and in a loud voice commanded all present to provide
+themselves "wif palmetter leafs fo' plateses, an' magnole leafs
+fo' cupses."
+
+When all had so provided themselves, they were formed, two by two,
+into a long procession by several young colored men whom Mr. Elmer
+had appointed to act as marshals, the white curtain was drawn
+aside, and they were invited to march into the booth. As they did
+so, a sight greeted their eyes that caused them to give a sort of
+suppressed cheer of delight. The interior was hung and trimmed
+with great bunches of sweet-scented swamp azalea, yellow jasmine,
+and other wild spring flowers, of which the woods were full. But
+it was not towards the flowers that all eyes were turned, nor they
+that drew forth the exclamations of delight; it was the table, and
+what it bore. It reached from one end of the booth to the other,
+and was loaded with such a variety and quantity of good things as
+none of them had ever seen before. On freshly-cut palm leaves were
+heaped huge piles of brown crullers, and these were flanked by
+pans of baked beans. Boiled hams appeared in such quantities that
+Uncle Silas Brim was heard to say, "Hit do my ole heart good to
+see sich a sight ob hog meat."
+
+Every bit of space not otherwise occupied was filled with pies and
+cakes. Knives and forks had been provided for everybody, and there
+were a few tin cups which were reserved for coffee. As plates were
+very scarce, palmetto leaves had to be used instead; and for those
+who wished to drink water, the magnolia leaves, bent so that the
+ends lapped, made excellent cups.
+
+How they did enjoy that dinner! How savagely the hams were
+attacked! How the beans and crullers were appreciated, and how
+rapidly the pies and cakes disappeared! How the coffee, with
+plenty of "sweet'nin'" in it, was relished. In other words, what a
+grand feast it was to them. How much and how quickly they ate on
+that occasion can still be learned from any resident of Wakulla;
+for they talk of "de feed at de openin' ob dat ar Elmer Mill" to
+this day.
+
+Mark says it was the opening of about a hundred mills, all
+provided with excellent machinery for grinding.
+
+After dinner they sang, and listened to the music of Ruth's organ,
+which had been brought from the house for the occasion, and placed
+at one end of the booth. Then some one produced a fiddle, and they
+danced. Not only a few danced, but all danced--old and young; and
+those who stopped to rest patted time on their knees to encourage
+the others.
+
+About four o'clock in the afternoon, or about "two hour by sun in
+the evening," as the Wakulla people say, the last bushel of corn
+was ground. What remained uneaten of the dinner was distributed
+among those who needed it most, and the picnic was ended. With
+many bows and courtesies to their hosts, the happy company began
+to troop, or squeak along in their little ungreased carts, towards
+the ferry, where Frank was already on hand waiting to set them
+across the river.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+FIGHTING A FOREST FIRE.
+
+
+Although the day of the picnic was warm and pleasant, a strong
+breeze from the southward had been blowing since early morning,
+and during the afternoon it increased to a high wind. As the
+Elmers rode home after the last of the happy picnickers had
+departed, they noticed a heavy cloud of smoke in the southern sky,
+and Mr. Elmer asked Mr. March what he thought it was.
+
+"It looks as though some of the settlers down there were burning
+grass, though they ought to know better than to start fires on a
+day like this," answered Mr. March.
+
+"But what do they do it for?" asked Mr. Elmer.
+
+"So as to burn off the old dead grass, and give their cattle a
+chance to get at that which immediately springs up wherever the
+fire has passed. But the practice ought to be stopped by law, for
+more timber and fences, and sometimes houses, are destroyed every
+year than all the cattle in the country are worth."
+
+"Well, I hope it won't come our way tonight," said Mr. Elmer, "and
+first thing in the morning I will set the men to work clearing and
+ploughing a wide strip entirely around the place. Then we may have
+some chance of successfully fighting this new enemy."
+
+Instead of dying out at sunset, as it usually did, the wind
+increased to a gale as darkness set in, and Mr. Elmer cast many
+troubled glances at the dull red glow in the southern sky before
+he retired that night.
+
+Mark and Frank occupied the same room, for Mr. March had not yet
+found time to build a house, and it seemed to them as though they
+had but just fallen asleep when they were aroused by Mr. Elmer's
+voice calling through the house,
+
+"Wake up! Everybody dress and come downstairs as quickly as you
+can. Mark! Frank! Hurry, boys!" "What is it, father?" asked Mark,
+as he tumbled down-stairs and burst into the sitting-room only
+about half dressed, but rapidly completing the operation as he
+ran. "What's the matter? Is the house on fire?"
+
+"No, my boy, not yet, but it's likely to be very soon if we are
+not quick in trying to save it. The piney woods to the south of us
+are all in a blaze, and this gale's driving it towards us at a
+fearful rate. I want you and Frank to go as quickly as you can
+across the river and rouse up every soul in the village. Get every
+team and plough in Wakulla, and bring them over, together with
+every man and boy who can handle an axe."
+
+Mr. Elmer had hardly finished before both boys were out of the
+house and running towards the river. Although it was still several
+miles off, they could already hear the roar of the flames rising
+above that of the wind, and could smell the smoke of the burning
+forest.
+
+They were soon across the river, and while Mark ran to the houses
+of Mr. Bevil and Mr. Carter to waken those gentlemen, Frank
+bethought himself of the church-bell, which hung from a rude frame
+outside the building, and hurrying to it, seized the rope and
+began to pull it violently.
+
+The effect of the loud clanging of the bell was almost
+instantaneous, and the colored people began pouring from their
+tumble-down old houses, and hurrying towards the church to see
+what was the matter. Many of them in their haste came just as they
+had jumped from their beds; but the darkness of the night and
+their own color combined to hide the fact that they were not fully
+dressed, until some light-wood torches were brought, when there
+was a sudden scattering among them.
+
+Frank quickly explained the cause of the alarm, and the men
+hurried off to get their teams, ploughs, and axes; for Mr. Elmer
+had been so kind to them that all were anxious to do what they
+could to help him in this time of trouble.
+
+Among the first boat-load that Frank ferried across the river was
+Black Joe, with his "ok" attached to a very small plough, with
+which he felt confident he could render most valuable assistance.
+
+By the light of the approaching flames surrounding objects could
+already be distinguished, and as they hurried up to the house the
+first comers found Mr. Elmer, Mr. March, and Jan hard at work.
+They were clearing brush and hauling logs away from the immediate
+vicinity of the out-buildings, and had got quite a space ready in
+which the ploughs could be set to work.
+
+In the house Mrs. Elmer, Ruth, and Aunt Chloe had collected all
+the carpets, blankets, and woollen goods they could lay their
+hands on, and piled them near the cistern, where they could be
+quickly soaked with water, and placed over exposed portions of the
+walls or roof. They were now busy packing up clothing and lighter
+articles of furniture, ready for instant removal.
+
+As fast as the teams and ploughs arrived, Mr. Elmer set them to
+work ploughing long furrows through the dry grass about a rod
+outside the line of fence nearest the approaching flames. Inside
+this line he and Mr. March set the grass on fire in many places.
+They could easily check these small fires as they reached the
+fence by beating them out with cedar boughs.
+
+Meantime the flames came roaring and rushing on, leaping from tree
+to tree, and fanned into fury by the fierce wind. Above them
+hundreds of birds fluttered and circled with shrill cries of
+distress, until, bewildered by the smoke and glare, they fell,
+helpless victims, into the terrible furnace.
+
+Wild animals of all kinds, among which were a small herd of deer,
+dashed out of the woods ahead of the fire, and fled across the
+open field unmolested by the men, who were too busy to give them a
+thought.
+
+In his zeal to do his utmost, and to show what a splendid animal
+he had, Black Joe was ploughing far ahead of the others, when
+suddenly he saw rushing from the forest, and coming directly
+towards him, a bear. Terror-stricken at this sight, and without
+stopping to reflect that the bear was himself too frightened to
+harm anybody just then, Joe dropped the plough-handles and ran,
+leaving his beloved ox to its fate. The ox thus left to himself
+tried to run, too, but the plough became caught on a small tree
+and held it fast.
+
+As the flames approached, the poor animal bellowed with fear and
+pain, and struggled wildly, but unsuccessfully, to get free. It
+would have certainly fallen a victim to the flames had not Mark,
+who had been busy lighting back-fires, seen its danger and ran to
+its rescue. Cutting the rope traces with his pocket-knife, he set
+the ox free; and following the example of its master, it galloped
+clumsily across the open field. The ox fled with such a bellowing
+and such a jangling of chains that poor Joe, who was hidden behind
+a great stump on the farther side of the field, was nearly
+frightened out of his few remaining senses when he saw this
+terrible monster charging out the fire and directly upon him. He
+threw himself flat on the ground, screaming "g'way fum yere! g'way
+fum yere! Luff dis po' niggah be; he ain't a-doin' nuffin."
+
+Afterwards he was never known to speak of this adventure but once,
+when he said,
+
+"I allus knowed dat ar ok was somfin better'n common; but when I
+see him come a-rarin' an' a-tarin', an' a-janglin' right fo' me, I
+'lowed 'twas ole Nick hise'f come fo' Black Joe, sho nuff."
+
+As the other ploughmen were driven from their work by the heat and
+the swirling smoke, they set back-fires all along the line, and
+retreated in good order to the house. Here, although the heat was
+intense and the smoke almost suffocating, they made a stand. Mrs.
+Elmer and Ruth had already taken refuge on the ferry-boat, from
+which they watched the progress of the flames with the most
+intense anxiety.
+
+Under Mr. Elmer's direction the men covered the walls and roof of
+the house, which had already caught fire in several places, with
+wet blankets and carpets, and poured buckets of water over them.
+From these such volumes of steam arose that poor Ruth, seeing it
+from a distance, thought the house was surely on fire, and burst
+into tears.
+
+So busy were all hands in saving the house that they paid no
+attention to the out-buildings, until Aunt Chloe, who had been
+working with the best of the men, screamed, "Oh, de chickuns! de
+chickuns!"
+
+Looking towards the hen-house, they saw its roof in a bright
+blaze, and Aunt Chloe running in that direction with an axe in her
+hand. The old woman struck several powerful blows against the side
+of the slight building, and broke in two boards before the heat
+drove her away. Through this opening several of the poor fowls
+escaped; but most of them were miserably roasted, feathers and
+all.
+
+This was the last effort of the fire in this direction, for the
+portion of it that met the cleared spaces, new furrows, and back-
+fires, soon subsided for want of fuel; while beyond the fields it
+swept away to the northward, bearing death and destruction in its
+course.
+
+While most of the men had been engaged in saving the house and its
+adjoining fences, a small party, under the direction of Mr. March,
+had guarded the mill. They, however, had little to do save watch
+for flying embers, it was so well protected by its pond on one
+side and the river on the other.
+
+By sunrise all danger had passed, and heartily thanking the kind
+friends who had come so readily to his assistance, Mr. Elmer
+dismissed them to their homes.
+
+It took several days to recover from the effects of the great
+fire, and to restore things to their former neat condition; but
+Mr. Elmer said that, even if they had suffered more than they did,
+it would have been a valuable lesson to them, and one for which
+they could well afford to pay.
+
+Soon after this Mr. Elmer decided to go to Tallahassee again to
+make a purchase of cattle; for, with thousands of acres of free
+pasturage all around them, it seemed a pity not to take advantage
+of it. Therefore he determined to experiment in a small way with
+stock-raising, and see if he could not make it pay. This time he
+took Mark with him, and instead of going down the river to St.
+Mark's to take the train, they crossed on the ferry, and had Jan
+drive them in the mule wagon four miles across country to the
+railroad. On their way they came to a fork in the road, and not
+knowing which branch to take, waited until they could ask a little
+colored girl whom they saw approaching. She said, "Dis yere
+humpety road'll take yo' to Misto Gilcriseses' plantation, an' den
+yo' turn to de right ober de trabblin' road twel yo' come to Brer
+Steve's farm, an' thar yo' be."
+
+"Father, what is the difference between a plantation and a farm?"
+asked Mark, as they journeyed along over the "humpety" road.
+
+"As near as I can find out," said Mr. Elmer, "the only difference
+is that one is owned by a white, and the other by a colored man."
+
+They found "Brer Steve's" house without any difficulty, and, sure
+enough, there they were, as the little girl had said they would
+be; for "Brer Steve" lived close to the railroad, and the station
+was on his place.
+
+Mark was delighted with Tallahassee, which he found to be a very
+pleasant though small city, built on a hill, and surrounded by
+other hills. Its streets were shaded by magnificent elms and oaks,
+and these and the hills were grateful to the eye of the Maine boy,
+who had not yet learned to love the flat country in which his
+present home stood.
+
+They spent Sunday in Tallahassee, and on Monday started for home
+before daylight, on horseback and driving a small herd of cattle,
+which, with two horses, Mr. Elmer had bought on Saturday. As
+Saturday is the regular market-day, when all the country people
+from miles around flock into town to sell what they have for sale,
+and to purchase supplies for the following week, Mark was much
+amused and interested by what he saw. Although in Tallahassee
+there are no street auctions as in Key West, there was just as
+much business done on the sidewalks and in the streets here as
+there.
+
+It seemed very strange to the Northern boy to see cattle and pigs
+roaming the streets at will, and he wondered that they were
+allowed to do so. When he saw one of these street cows place her
+fore-feet on the wheel of a wagon, and actually climb up until she
+could reach a bag of sweet-potatoes that lay under the seat, he
+laughed until he cried. Without knowing or caring how much
+amusement she was causing, the cow stole a potato from the bag,
+jumped down, and quietly munched it. This feat was repeated again
+and again, until finally an end was put to Mark's and the cow's
+enjoyment of the meal, by the arrival of the colored owner of both
+wagon and potatoes, who indignantly drove the cow away, calling
+her "a ole good-fo'-nuffin'."
+
+Mark said that after that he could never again give as an answer
+to the conundrum, "Why is a cow like an elephant?" "Because she
+can't climb a tree;" for he thought this particular cow could
+climb a tree, and would, if a bag of sweet-potatoes were placed in
+the top of it where she could see it.
+
+It was late Monday evening before they reached home with their new
+purchases, and both they and their horses and their cattle were
+pretty thoroughly tired with their long day's journey. The next
+day, when Ruth saw the horses, one of which had but one white spot
+in his forehead, while the other had two, one over each eye, she
+immediately named them "Spot" and "Spotter." Mark said that if
+there had been another without any spots on his forehead he
+supposed she would have named him "Spotless."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+HOW THE BOYS CAUGHT AN ALLIGATOR
+
+
+Hi! Mark," shouted Frank from his ferry-boat one warm morning in
+March, "come here a minute. I've got something to tell you. Great
+scheme."
+
+"Can't," called Mark--"got to go to mill."
+
+"Well, come when you get back."
+
+"All right."
+
+Mark and Frank had by this time become the best of friends, for
+each had learned to appreciate the good points of the other, and
+to value his opinions. Their general information was as different
+as possible, and each thought that the other knew just the very
+things a boy ought to know. While Mark's knowledge was of books,
+games, people, and places that seemed to Frank almost like foreign
+countries, he knew the names of every wild animal, bird, fish,
+tree, and flower to be found in the surrounding country, and was
+skilled in all tricks of woodcraft.
+
+Since this boy had first entered the Elmer household, wounded,
+dirty, and unkempt as a young savage, he had changed so
+wonderfully for the better that his best friends of a few months
+back would not have recognized him. He was now clean, and neatly
+dressed in an old suit of Mark's which just fitted him, and his
+hair, which had been long and tangled, was cut short and neatly
+brushed. Being naturally of a sunny and affectionate disposition,
+the cheerful home influences, the motherly care of Mrs. Elmer,
+whose heart was very tender towards the motherless boy, and, above
+all, the great alteration in his father's manner, had changed the
+shy, sullen lad, such as he had been, into an honest, happy
+fellow, anxious to do right, and in every way to please the kind
+friends to whom his debt of gratitude was so great. His regular
+employment at the ferry, the feeling that he was useful, and, more
+than anything else, the knowledge that he was one of the
+proprietors of the Elmer Mill, gave him a sense of dignity and
+importance that went far towards making him contented with his new
+mode of life. Mark, Ruth, and he studied for two hours together
+every evening under Mrs. Elmer's direction, and though Frank was
+far behind the others, he bade fair to become a first-class
+scholar.
+
+Mr. Elmer was not a man who thought boys were only made to get as
+much work out of as possible. He believed in a liberal allowance
+to play, and said that when the work came it would be done all the
+better for it. So, every other day, Mark and Frank were sent down
+to St. Mark's in the canoe for the mail, allowed to take their
+guns and fishing-tackle with them, and given permission to stay
+out as long as they chose, provided they came home before dark.
+Sometimes Ruth was allowed to go with them, greatly to her
+delight, for she was very fond of fishing, and always succeeded in
+catching her full share. While the boys were thus absent, Mr.
+Elmer took charge of whatever work Mark might have been doing, and
+Jan always managed to be within sound of the ferry-horn.
+
+On one of their first trips down the river Mark had called Frank's
+attention to the head of a small animal that was rapidly swimming
+in the water close under an overhanging bank, and asked him what
+it was.
+
+For answer Frank said, "Sh!" carefully laid down his paddle, and
+taking up the rifle, fired a hasty and unsuccessful shot at the
+creature, which dived at the flash, and was seen no more.
+
+"What was it?" asked Mark.
+
+"An otter," answered Frank, "and his skin would be worth five
+dollars in Tallahassee."
+
+"My!" exclaimed Mark, "is that so? Why can't we catch some, and
+sell the skins?"
+
+"We could if we only had some traps."
+
+"What kind of traps?"
+
+"Double-spring steel are the best."
+
+"I'm going to buy some, first chance I get," said Mark; "and if
+you'll show me how to set 'em, and how to skin the otters and
+dress the skins, and help do the work, we'll go halves on all we
+make."
+
+Frank had agreed to this; and when Mark went to Tallahassee he
+bought six of the best steel traps he could find. These had been
+carefully set in likely places along the river, baited with fresh
+fish, and visited regularly by one or the other of the boys twice
+a day. At first they had been very successful, as was shown by the
+ten fine otter-skins carefully stretched over small boards cut for
+the purpose, and drying in the workshop; but then, their good
+fortune seemed to desert them.
+
+As the season advanced, and the weather grew warmer, they began
+frequently to find their traps sprung, but empty, or containing
+only the foot of an otter. At first they thought the captives had
+gnawed off their own feet in order to escape; but when, only the
+day before the one with which this chapter opens, they had found
+in one of the traps the head of an otter minus its body, this
+theory had to be abandoned.
+
+"I never heard of an otter's gnawing off his own head," said
+Frank, as he examined the grinning trophy he had just taken from
+the trap, "and I don't believe he could do it anyhow. I don't
+think he could pull it off either; besides, it's a clean cut; it
+doesn't look as if it had been pulled off."
+
+"No," said Mark, gravely; for both boys had visited the traps on
+this occasion. "I don't suppose he could have gnawed off, or
+pulled off, his own head. He must have taken his jack-knife from
+his pocket, quietly opened it, deliberately cut off his head, and
+calmly walked away."
+
+"I have it!" exclaimed Frank, after a few minutes of profound
+thought, as the boys paddled homeward.
+
+"What?" asked Mark--"the otter?"
+
+"No, but I know who stole him. It's one of the very fellows that
+tried to get me."
+
+"Alligators!" shouted Mark.
+
+"Yes, alligators; I expect they're the very thieves who have been
+robbing our traps."
+
+The next day at noon, when Mark finished his work at the mill, he
+hurried back to the ferry to see what Frank meant when he called
+him that morning, and said he had something to tell him.
+
+Frank had gone to the other side of the river with a passenger,
+but he soon returned.
+
+"Well, what is it?" asked Mark, as he helped make the boat fast.
+
+"It's this," said Frank. "I've seen a good many alligators in the
+river lately, and I've had my eye on one big old fellow in
+particular. He spends most of his time in that little cove down
+there; but I've noticed that whenever a dog barks, close to the
+river or when he is crossing on the ferry, the old 'gator paddles
+out a little way from the cove, and looks very wishfully in that
+direction. I know alligators are more fond of dog-meat than
+anything else, but they won't refuse fish when nothing better
+offers. Now look here."
+
+Going to the other end of the boat as he spoke, Frank produced a
+coil of light, but strong Manila line that he had obtained at the
+house. To one end of this rope were knotted a dozen strands of
+stout fish-line, and the ends of these were made fast to the
+middle of a round hickory stick, about six inches long, and
+sharply pointed at each end. These sharp ends had also been
+charred to harden them.
+
+"There," said Frank, as Mark gazed at this outfit with a perplexed
+look, "that's my alligator line; and after dinner, if you'll help
+me, we'll fish for that old fellow in the cove."
+
+"All right," said Mark; "I'm your man; but where's your hook?"
+
+"This," answered Frank, holding up the bit of sharpened stick.
+"It's all the hook I want, and I'll show you how to use it when we
+get ready."
+
+After dinner the boys found several teams on both sides of the
+river waiting to be ferried across; then Mark had to go with Jan
+for a load of fence posts, so that it wanted only about an hour of
+sundown when they finally found themselves at liberty to carry out
+their designs against the alligator.
+
+Frank said this was all the better, as alligators fed at night,
+and the nearer dark it was, the hungrier the old fellow would be.
+
+Taking a large fish, one of a half a dozen he had caught during
+the day, Frank thrust the bit of stick, with the line attached,
+into its mouth and deep into its body. "There," said he, "now you
+see that if the 'gator swallows that fish he swallows the stick
+too. He swallows it lengthwise, but a strain on the line fixes it
+crosswise, and it won't come out unless Mr. 'Gator comes with it.
+Sabe?"
+
+"I see," answered Mark; "but what am I to do?"
+
+"I want you to lie down flat in the boat, and hold on to the line
+about twenty feet from this end, which I am going to make fast to
+the ferry post. Keep it clear of the bank, and let the bait float
+well out in the stream. The minute the 'gator swallows it, do you
+give the line a jerk as hard as you can, so as to fix the stick
+crosswise in his gullet."
+
+"All right," said Mark; "I understand. And what are you going to
+do?"
+
+"Oh, I'm going to play dog," answered Frank, with a laugh, as he
+walked off down the riverbank, leaving Mark to wonder what he
+meant.
+
+Frank crept softly along until he was very near the alligator
+cove, just above which he could see the fish, which Mark had let
+drop down-stream, floating on the surface of the water. Then he
+lay down, and began to whine like a puppy in distress. As soon as
+Mark heard this he knew what his friend meant by playing dog, and
+he smiled at the capital imitation, which would have certainly
+deceived even him if he had not known who the puppy really was.
+
+Frank whined most industriously for five minutes or so, and even
+attempted two or three feeble barks, but they were not nearly so
+artistic as the whines. Then he stopped, for his quick eye
+detected three black objects moving on the water not far from the
+bank. These objects were the alligator's two eyes and the end of
+his snout, which were all of him that showed, the remainder of his
+body being completely submerged. He was looking for that puppy,
+and thinking how much he should enjoy it for his supper if he
+could only locate the whine, and be able to stop it forever.
+
+Again it sounds, clear and distinct, and the sly old 'gator comes
+on a little farther, alert and watchful, but without making so
+much as a ripple to betray his presence.
+
+Now the whine sounds fainter and fainter, as though the puppy were
+moving away, and finally it ceases altogether.
+
+Mr. Alligator is very much disappointed; and now, noticing the
+fish for the first time, concludes that though not nearly so good
+as puppy, fish is much better than nothing, and he had better
+secure it before it swims away.
+
+He does not use caution now; he has learned that fish must be
+caught quickly or not at all, and he goes for it with a rush. The
+great jaws open and close with a snap, the fish disappears, and
+the alligator thinks he will go back to his cove to listen again
+for that puppy whine. As he turns he opens his mouth to clear his
+teeth of something that has become entangled between them.
+Suddenly a tremendous jerk at his mouth is accompanied by a most
+disagreeable sensation in his stomach. He tries to pull away from
+both the entanglement and the sensation, but finds himself caught
+and held fast.
+
+Mark gives a cheer as he jumps up from his uncomfortable position
+at the bottom of the ferry-boat, and Frank echoes it as he dashes
+out of the bushes and seizes hold of the line.
+
+Now the alligator pulls and the boys pull, and if the line had not
+been made fast to the post, the former would certainly have pulled
+away from them or dragged them into the river. He lashes the water
+into foam, and bellows with rage, while they yell with delight and
+excitement. The stout post is shaken, and the Manila line hums
+like a harp-string.
+
+"It'll hold him!" screams Frank. "He can't get away now. See the
+reason for that last six feet of small lines, Mark? They're so he
+can't bite the rope; the little lines slip in between his teeth."
+
+The noise of the struggle and the shouts of the boys attracted the
+notice of the men on their way home from work at the mill, and
+they came running down to the ferry to see what was the matter.
+
+"We were fishing for minnows," explained Mark, "and we've caught a
+whale. Take hold here and help us haul him in."
+
+The men caught hold of the rope, and slowly but surely, in spite
+of his desperate struggles, the alligator was drawn towards them.
+
+Suddenly he makes a rush at them, and, as the line slackens, the
+men fall over backward in a heap, and their enemy disappears in
+deep water. He has not got away, though--a pull on the line
+assures them of that; and again he is drawn up, foot by foot,
+until half his body is out on the bank. He is a monster, and Jan
+with an uplifted axe approaches him very carefully.
+
+"Look out, Jan!" shouts Frank.
+
+The warning comes too late; like lightning the great tail sweeps
+round, and man and axe are flung ten feet into the bushes.
+
+Luckily no bones are broken, but poor Jan is badly bruised and
+decidedly shaken up. He does not care to renew the attack, and
+Frank runs to the house for a rifle. Taking steady aim, while
+standing at a respectful distance from that mighty tail, he sends
+a bullet crashing through the flat skull, and the struggle is
+ended.
+
+That evening was spent in telling and in listening to alligator
+stories, and Frank was the hero of the hour for having so
+skilfully captured and killed the alligator that had been for a
+long time the dread of the community.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+A FIRE HUNT, AND MARK'S DISAPPEARANCE.
+
+
+Besides showing Mark how to catch otter and alligators, Frank
+taught him how to kill or capture various other wild animals.
+Among other things he made plain the mysteries of fire hunting for
+deer, and this proved a more fascinating sport to Mark than any
+other. As explained by Frank, fire hunting is hunting at night,
+either on foot or horseback, by means of a fire-pan. This is an
+iron cage attached to the end of a light pole. It is filled with
+blazing light-wood knots, and the pole is carried over the
+hunter's left shoulder, so that the blaze is directly behind and a
+little above his head. While he himself is shrouded in darkness,
+any object getting within the long lane of light cast in front of
+him is distinctly visible, and in this light the eyes of a wild
+animal shine like coals of fire. The animal, fascinated by the
+light, as all wild animals are, and being unable to see the
+hunter, stands perfectly still, watching the mysterious flames as
+they approach, until perhaps the first warning he has of danger is
+the bullet that, driven into his brain between the shining eyes,
+permanently satisfies his curiosity.
+
+When he goes afoot, the hunter must take with him an assistant to
+carry a bag of pine knots to replenish the fire; but on horseback
+he can carry his own fuel in a sack behind the saddle.
+
+Some fire hunters prefer to carry a powerful bull's-eye lantern
+strapped in front of their hats; but our boys did not possess any
+bull's-eyes, and were forced to be content with the more primitive
+fire-pans.
+
+A method similar to this is practised by the hunters of the North,
+who go at night in boats or canoes to the edges of ponds to which
+deer resort to feed upon lily-pads. There this method of hunting
+is called "jacking" for deer, and the fire-pan, or "jack," is
+fixed in the bow of the boat, while the hunter, rifle in hand,
+crouches and watches beneath it.
+
+Their first attempt at fire hunting was made by the boys on foot
+in the woods near the mill; but here they made so much noise in
+the underbrush that, though they "shined" several pairs of eyes,
+these vanished before a shot could be fired at them. In
+consequence of this ill-luck they returned home tired and
+disgusted, and Mark said he didn't think fire hunting was very
+much fun after all.
+
+Soon after this, however, Frank persuaded him to try it again, and
+this time they went on horseback. Both the Elmer horses were
+accustomed to the sound of fire-arms, and warranted, when
+purchased, to stand perfectly still, even though a gun should be
+rested between their ears and discharged.
+
+This time, having gone into a more open country, the hunters were
+successful; and having shot his first deer, and being well smeared
+with its blood by Frank, Mark came home delighted with his success
+and anxious to go on another hunt as soon as possible.
+
+The country to the east of Wakulla being very thinly settled,
+abounded with game of all descriptions, and especially deer. In it
+were vast tracts of open timber lands that were quite free from
+underbrush, and admirably fitted for hunting. This country was,
+however, much broken, and contained many dangerous "sink holes."
+
+In speaking of this section, and in describing these "sink holes"
+to the Elmers one evening, Mr. March had said,
+
+"Sinks, or sink holes, such as the country to the east of this
+abounds in, are common to all limestone formations. They are
+sudden and sometimes very deep depressions or breaks in the
+surface of the ground, caused by the wearing away of the limestone
+beneath it by underground currents of water or rivers. In most of
+these holes standing water of great depth is found, and sometimes
+swiftly running water. I know several men who have on their places
+what they call 'natural wells,' or small, deep holes in the
+ground, at the bottom of which flow streams of water. Many of
+these sinks are very dangerous, as they open so abruptly that a
+person might walk into one of them on a dark night before he was
+aware of its presence. Several people who have mysteriously
+disappeared in this country are supposed to have lost their lives
+in that way."
+
+This conversation made a deep impression upon Mark, and when the
+boys started on horseback, one dark night towards the end of
+March, with the intention of going on a fire hunt in this very
+"sink hole" country, he said to Frank, as they rode along,
+
+"How about those holes in the ground that your father told us
+about the other night. Isn't it dangerous for us to go among
+them?"
+
+"Not a bit of danger," answered Frank, "as long as you're on
+horseback. A horse'll always steer clear of 'em."
+
+When they reached the hunting-ground, and had lighted the pine-
+knots in their fire-pans, Frank said,
+
+"There's no use our keeping together; we'll never get anything if
+we do. I'll follow that star over this way"--and he pointed as he
+spoke to a bright one in the north-east--"and you go towards that
+one"--pointing to one a little south of east. "We'll ride for an
+hour, and then if we haven't had any luck we'll make the best of
+our way home. Remember that to get home you must keep the North-
+star exactly on your right hand, and by going due west you'll be
+sure to strike the road that runs up and down the river. If either
+of us fires, the other is to go to him at once, firing signal guns
+as he goes, and these the other must answer so as to show where he
+is."
+
+Mark promised to follow these instructions, and as the two boys
+separated, little did either of them imagine the terrible
+circumstances under which their next meeting was to take place.
+
+Mark had ridden slowly along for some time, carefully scanning the
+lane of light ahead of him, without shining a single pair of eyes,
+and was beginning to feel oppressed by the death-like stillness
+and solitude surrounding him. Suddenly his light disappeared, his
+horse reared into the air, almost unseating him, and then dashed
+madly forward through the darkness.
+
+The fire-pan, carelessly made, had given way, its blazing contents
+had fallen on the horse's back, and, wild with pain, he was
+running away. All this darted through Mark's mind in an instant;
+but before he had time to think what he should do, the horse, with
+a snort of terror, stopped as suddenly as he had started--so
+suddenly as to throw himself back on his haunches, and to send
+Mark flying through the air over his head.
+
+Thus relieved of his rider, the horse wheeled and bounded away. At
+the same instant Mark's rifle, which he had held in his hand, fell
+to the ground, and was discharged with a report that rang loudly
+through the still night air.
+
+The sound was distinctly heard by Frank, who was less than a mile
+away; and thinking it a signal from his companion, he rode rapidly
+in the direction from which it had come. He had not gone far
+before he heard the rapid galloping of a horse, apparently going
+in the direction of Wakulla. Although he fired his own rifle
+repeatedly, he got no response, and he finally concluded that Mark
+was playing a practical joke, and had ridden home after firing his
+gun without waiting for him. Thus thinking, he turned his own
+horse's head towards home, and an hour later reached the house.
+
+He found Mark's horse standing at the stable door in a lather of
+foam, and still saddled and bridled. Then it flashed across him
+that something had happened to Mark, and, filled with a sickening
+dread, he hurried into the house and aroused Mr. Elmer.
+
+"Hasn't Mark come home?" he inquired, in a husky voice.
+
+"No, not yet. Isn't he with you?" asked Mr. Elmer, in surprise.
+
+"No; and if he isn't here something dreadful has happened to him,
+I'm afraid"; and then Frank hurriedly told Mr. Elmer what he knew
+of the events of the hunt.
+
+"We must go in search of him at once," said Mr. Elmer, in a
+trembling voice, "and you must guide us as nearly as possible to
+the point from which you heard the shot."
+
+Hastily arousing Mr. March and Jan, and telling them to saddle the
+mules, Mr. Elmer went to his wife, who was inquiring anxiously
+what had happened, and told her that Mark was lost, and that they
+were going to find him. The poor mother begged to be allowed to go
+too; but assuring her that this was impossible, and telling Ruth
+to comfort her mother as well as she could, Mr. Elmer hurried
+away, mounted Mark's horse, and the party rode off.
+
+Frank knew the country so well that he had no difficulty in
+guiding them to the spot where he and Mark had separated. From
+here they followed the star that Frank had pointed out to Mark,
+and riding abreast, but about a hundred feet apart, they kept up a
+continual shouting, and occasionally fired a gun, but got no
+answer.
+
+At length Mr. March detected a glimmer of light on the ground, and
+dismounting, found a few charred sticks, one of which still glowed
+with a coal of fire.
+
+"Halloo!" he shouted; "here's where Mark emptied his fire-pan."
+
+They all gathered around, and having brought a supply of light-
+wood splinters with which to make torches, they each lighted one
+of these, and began a careful search for further evidences of the
+missing boy.
+
+A shout from Jan brought them to him, and he showed the broken
+fire-pan which he had just picked up.
+
+A little farther search revealed the deep imprints of the horse's
+hoofs when he had plunged and reared as the burning brands fell on
+his back; and then, step by step, often losing it, but recovering
+it again, they followed the trail until they came upon the rifle
+lying on the ground, cold and wet with the night dew.
+
+Mr. March, holding his torch high above his head, took a step in
+advance of the others as they were examining the rifle, and
+uttered a cry of horror.
+
+"A sink-hole! Good heavens! the boy is down there!"
+
+A cold chill went through his hearers at these words, and they
+gathered close to the edge of the opening and peered into its
+black depths.
+
+"We must know beyond a doubt whether or not he is down there
+before we leave this place," said Mr. Elmer, with forced
+composure, "and we must have a rope. Frank, you know the way
+better than any of us, and can go quickest. Ride for your life
+back to the house, and bring that Manila line you used to catch
+the alligator with. Don't let his mother hear you--a greater
+suspense would kill her."
+
+While Frank was gone the others carefully examined the "sink
+hole," and cut away the bushes and vines from around its edges. It
+was an irregular opening, about twenty feet across, and a short
+distance below the surface had limestone sides.
+
+Begging the others to be perfectly quiet, Mr. Elmer lay down on
+the ground, and reaching as far over the edge as he dared, called,
+
+"Mark! my boy! Mark!" but there was no answer. Still Mr. Elmer
+listened, and when he rose to his feet he said,
+
+"March, it seems as though I heard the sound of running water down
+there. Listen, and tell me if you hear it. If it is so, my boy is
+dead!"
+
+Mr. March lay down and listened, and the others held their breath.
+"Yes," he said, "I hear it. Oh, my poor friend, I fear there is no
+hope."
+
+The first faint streaks of day were showing in the east when Frank
+returned with the rope and an additional supply of torches.
+
+"Now let me down there," said Mr. Elmer, preparing to fasten the
+rope around him, "and God help me if I find the dead body of my
+boy."
+
+"No," said Frank, "let me go. He saved my life, and I am the
+lightest. Please let me go!"
+
+"Yes," said Mr. March, "let Frank go. It is much better that he
+should."
+
+Mr. Elmer reluctantly consented that Frank should take his place,
+and the rope was fastened around the boy's body, under his arms,
+having first been wound with saddle blankets so that it should not
+cut him. Taking a lighted torch in one hand and some fresh
+splinters in the other, he slipped over the log which they had
+placed along the edge, so that the rope should not be cut by the
+rocks, and was gently lowered by the three anxious men into the
+awful blackness.
+
+Thirty feet of the rope had disappeared, when it suddenly sagged
+to the opposite side of the hole, and at the same instant came the
+signal for them to pull up.
+
+As Frank came again to the surface the lower half of his body was
+dripping wet, and his face was ghastly pale.
+
+"He isn't there," he said; "but there is a stream of running water
+so strong that, when you let me into it, I was nearly swept away
+under the arch. It flows in that direction," he added, pointing to
+the south.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+BURIED IN AN UNDERGROUND RIVER.
+
+
+When Mark felt himself flying from his horse's back through the
+air, he of course expected to strike heavily on the ground, and
+nerved himself for the shock. To his amazement, instead of
+striking on solid earth he fell into a mass of shrubbery that
+supported him for a moment, and then gave way. He grasped wildly
+at the bushes; but they were torn from his hands, and he felt
+himself going down, down, down, and in another instant was plunged
+deep into water that closed over his head. He came to the surface,
+stunned and gasping, only to find himself borne rapidly along by a
+swift current. He did not for a moment realize the full horror of
+his situation, and with the natural instinct of a swimmer struck
+out vigorously.
+
+He had taken but a few strokes when his hand hit a projecting
+rock, to which he instinctively clung, arresting his further
+progress. To his surprise, on letting his body sink, his feet
+touched bottom, and he stood in water not much more than waist
+deep, but which swept against him with almost irresistible force.
+
+His first impulse was to scream, "Frank! oh, Frank!" but only a
+dull echo mocked him, and he received no reply but the rush and
+gurgle of the water as it hurried past.
+
+Then in an instant he comprehended what had happened. He had been
+flung into a "sink hole," and was now buried in the channel of one
+of those mysterious underground rivers of which Mr. March had told
+them a few nights before. That was at home, where he was
+surrounded by his own loving parents and friends. Should he ever
+see them again? No; he was buried alive.
+
+Buried alive! he, Mark Elmer? No--it couldn't be. It must be a
+dreadful dream, a nightmare; and he laughed hysterically to think
+how improbable it would all seem when he awoke.
+
+But he felt the cold water sweeping by him and knew it was no
+dream. The reality stunned him, and he became incapable of
+thinking; he only moaned and called out, incoherently, "Mother!
+father! Ruth!"
+
+After a while he began to think again. He had got to die. Yes,
+there was no escape for him. Here he must die a miserable death,
+and his body would be swept on and on until it reached the Gulf
+and drifted out to sea; for this running water must find its way
+to the sea somehow.
+
+If he could only reach that sea alive! but of course that was
+impossible. Was it? How far is the Gulf? And the poor boy tried to
+collect his thoughts.
+
+It couldn't be more than five miles in a straight line, nor, at
+the most, more than three times as far by water. Perhaps there
+might be more "sink holes" opening into this buried river. Oh, if
+he could only reach one of them! He would then die in sight of the
+blessed stars, and perhaps even live to see the dear sunlight once
+more.
+
+These thoughts passed through his mind slowly, but they gave him a
+ray of hope. He determined that he would make a brave fight with
+death, and not give up, like a coward, without making even an
+effort to save himself.
+
+Thus thinking, he let go his hold of the projection to which he
+had clung all this time, and allowed himself to be carried along
+with the current. He found that he could touch bottom most of the
+time, though every now and then he had to swim for greater or less
+distances, but he was always carried swiftly onward. He tried to
+keep his hands extended in front of him as much as possible, to
+protect himself from projecting rocks, but several times his head
+and shoulders struck heavily against them.
+
+Once, for quite a distance, the roof was so low that there was
+barely room for his head between it and the water. A few inches
+lower would have drowned him, but it got higher again, and he went
+on.
+
+Suddenly the air seemed purer and cooler, and the current was not
+so strong. Mark looked up and saw a star--yes, actually a star--
+twinkling down at him like a beacon light. He was in water up to
+his shoulders, but the current was not strong; he could maintain
+his footing and hold himself where he was.
+
+He could only see one star, so he knew the opening through which
+he looked must be very small; but upon that one star he feasted
+his eyes, and thought it the most beautiful thing he had ever
+seen.
+
+How numb and cold he was! Could he hold out until daylight? Yes,
+he would. He would see the sunlight once more. He dared not move,
+nor even change his position, for fear lest he should lose sight
+of the star and not be able to find it again.
+
+So he stood there, it seemed to him, for hours, until his star
+began to fade, and then, though he could not yet see it, he knew
+that daylight was coming.
+
+At last the friendly star disappeared entirely, but in its place
+came a faint light--such a very faint suspicion of light that he
+was not sure it was light. Slowly, very slowly, it grew brighter,
+until he could see the outline of the opening far above him, and
+he knew that he had lived to see the light of another day. Then
+Mark prayed, prayed as he had never dreamed of praying before. He
+thanked God for once more letting him see the blessed daylight,
+and prayed that he might be shown some means of escape. He prayed
+for strength to hold out just a little while longer, and it was
+given him.
+
+When Frank March was drawn to the surface, and said he had been
+let down into a swift current of water, Mr. Elmer buried his face
+in his hands, and groaned aloud in the agony of his grief.
+
+"Why did I bring him to this place?" sobbed the stricken man. "To
+think that his life should be given for mine. If we had only
+stayed in the North my life might have been taken, but his would
+have been spared. O, Heavenly Father! what have I done to deserve
+this blow?"
+
+For some time the others respected his grief, and stood by in
+silence. Then Mr. March laid his hand gently on the shoulder of
+his friend, and said,
+
+"You are indeed afflicted, but there are others of whom you must
+think besides yourself. His mother and sister need you now as they
+never needed you before. You must go to them." Turning to Frank,
+he said, "I will go home with Mr. Elmer, but I want you to ride
+with Jan in the direction you think this stream takes, and see if
+you can find its outlet or any other traces of it. There is a bare
+possibility that we may recover the body."
+
+So they separated, the two gentlemen riding slowly and sadly
+homeward, and Frank and Jan riding southward with heavy hearts.
+
+They had not gone more than half a mile when they came to a little
+log-house in the woods, and as the sun had risen, and they and
+their horses were worn out with their night's work, they decided
+to stop and ask to be allowed to rest a while, and for something
+to eat for themselves and their animals.
+
+The owner of the house was a genuine "cracker," or poor white--
+lean, sallow, and awkward in his movements, but hospitable, as men
+of his class always are. In answer to their request he replied,
+
+"Sartin, sartin; to be sho'. Light down, gentleMEN, and come
+inside. We 'uns is plain folks, and hain't got much, but sich as
+we has yo' 'uns is welkim to. Sal, run fo' a bucket of water."
+
+As Frank and Jan entered the house, a little-barefooted, tow-
+headed girl started off with a bucket. They were hardly seated,
+and their host had just begun to tell them about his wonderful
+"nateral well," when a loud scream was heard outside. The next
+instant the little girl came flying into the house, with a terror-
+stricken face, and flung herself into her father's arms.
+
+"Why! what is it, gal? So, honey, so! Tell yer daddy what's a-
+skeering of ye"; and the man tried to soothe the child, and learn
+the cause of her sudden fright.
+
+At length she managed to sob out, "It's the devvil, pa; the
+devvil's in our well, an' he hollered at me, an' I drapped the
+bucket an' run."
+
+At these words Frank sprang to his feet, exclaiming, "What! a
+voice in the well? And you said it was a natural well, mister? Oh,
+Jan, can it be?" And then turning fiercely to the man, "Show us to
+the well, man, quick! What do you sit there staring for?"
+
+Without waiting for a reply he rushed from the door, and running
+along a little pathway leading from it, was in another minute
+lying flat on the ground, looking down a hole of about six feet in
+diameter, and shouting, "Halloo! down there."
+
+Yes, there was an answer, and it was, "Help! he-l-p!"
+
+The two men had followed Frank from the house, and Jan had been
+thoughtful enough to bring with him the Manila rope that had hung
+at the pommel of Frank's saddle.
+
+There was no need for words now. Frank hastily knotted the rope
+under his arms, handed it to Jan, and saying, "Haul up gently when
+I call," slipped over the curb and disappeared.
+
+One, two, three minutes passed after the rope slackened in their
+hands, showing that Frank had reached the bottom, and then those
+at the top heard, clear and loud from the depths, "Haul away
+gently."
+
+Very carefully they pulled on that rope, and up, up, up towards
+the sunlight that his strained eyes had never thought to see
+again, came Mark Elmer.
+
+When Jan, strong as an ox, but tender as a woman, leaned over the
+curb and lifted the limp, dripping figure, as it were from the
+grave, he burst into tears, for he thought the boy was dead. He
+was still and white, the merry brown eyes were closed, and he did
+not seem to breathe.
+
+But another was down there, so they laid Mark gently on the grass,
+and again lowered the rope into the well.
+
+The figure that appeared as they pulled up this time was just as
+wet as the other, but full of life and energy.
+
+"Carry him into the house, Jan. He isn't dead. He was alive when I
+got to him. Put him in a bed, and wrap him up in hot blankets. Rub
+him with whiskey! slap his feet!--anything!--only fetch him to,
+while I go for help."
+
+With these words Frank March, wet as a water-spout, and more
+excited than he had ever been in his life, sprang on his horse and
+was off like a whirlwind.
+
+That that ride did not kill the horse was no fault of Frank's; for
+when he was reined sharply up in the "Go Bang" yard, and his rider
+sprang from his back and into the house at one leap, he staggered
+and fell, white with foam, and with his breath coming in gasps.
+
+In the sitting-room Mr. Elmer was just trying to break the news of
+Mark's death to his wife as gently as possible, when the door was
+flung open, and Frank, breathless, hatless, dripping with water,
+and pale with excitement, burst into the room shouting,
+
+"He's alive!--he's alive and safe!"
+
+Over and over again did he have to tell the marvellous story of
+how he had found Mark standing up to his neck in water, at the
+bottom of a natural well, nearly dead, but still alive; how he had
+knotted the rope around him and sent him to the top, while he
+himself stayed down there until the rope could again be lowered;
+how Mark had fainted, and now lay like dead in a farm-house--
+before the parents could realize that their son, whom they were a
+moment before mourning as dead, was still alive.
+
+Then the mules were hitched to the farm-wagon, a feather-bed and
+many blankets were thrown in, Mr. and Mrs. Elmer, Ruth, and Frank
+climbed in, and away they went. John Gilpin's ride was tame as
+compared to the way that wagon flew over the eight miles of rough
+country between Wakulla and the house in which Mark lay, slowly
+regaining consciousness.
+
+The meeting between the parents and the son whom they had deemed
+lost to them was not demonstrative; but none of them, nor of those
+who saw it, will ever forget the scene.
+
+A solemn "Thank God!" and "My boy! my darling boy!" were all that
+was heard; and then Mark was lifted gently into the wagon, and it
+was driven slowly and carefully home.
+
+An hour after he was tucked into his own bed Mark was in a raging
+fever, and screaming, "The star! the star! Please let me see it a
+little longer." And it was many a day before he again left the
+house, and again breathed the fresh air out-of-doors.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+TWO LETTERS AND A JOURNEY.
+
+
+It was late in April before Mark rose from the bed on which for
+weeks he had tossed and raved in the delirium of fever. He had
+raved of the horrible darkness and the cold water, and begged that
+the star should not be taken away. One evening he woke from a
+heavy, death-like sleep in which he had lain for hours, and in a
+voice so weak that it was almost a whisper, called "Mother."
+
+"Here I am, dear"; and the figure which had been almost constantly
+beside him during the long struggle, bent over and kissed him
+gently.
+
+"I ain't dead, am I, mother?" he whispered.
+
+"No, dear, you are alive, and with God's help are going to get
+well and strong again. But don't try to talk now; wait until you
+are stronger."
+
+For several days the boy lay sleeping, or with eyes wide open
+watching those about him, but feeling so weak and tired that even
+to think was an effort. Still, the fever had left him, and from
+the day he called "Mother" he gradually grew stronger, until
+finally he could sit up in bed. Next he was moved to a rocking-
+chair by the window, and at last he was carried into the sitting-
+room and laid on the lounge--the same lounge on which Frank had
+lain, months before, when he told them what a wicked boy he had
+been.
+
+Now the same Frank, but yet an entirely different Frank, sat
+beside him, and held his hand, and looked lovingly down into his
+face. Each of them had saved the other's life, and their love for
+each other was greater than that of brothers. Mark had been told
+of how Frank had gone down into the "sink hole" after him, and
+stayed there in the cold, rushing water while he was drawn to the
+top, but he could remember nothing of it. He only remembered the
+star, and of praying that he might live to see the sunlight.
+
+How happy they all were when the invalid took his first walk out-
+of-doors, leaning on Frank, and stopping many times to rest. The
+air was heavy with the scent of myriads of flowers, and the very
+birds seemed glad to see him, and sang their loudest and sweetest
+to welcome him.
+
+After this he improved in strength rapidly, and was soon able to
+ride as far as the mill, and to float on the river in the canoe,
+with Frank to paddle it; but still his parents were very anxious
+about him. He was not their merry, light-hearted Mark of old. He
+never laughed now, but seemed always to be oppressed with some
+great dread. His white face wore a frightened look, and he would
+sit for hours with his mother as she sewed, saying little, but
+gazing wistfully at her, as though fearful that in some way he
+might lose her or be taken from her.
+
+All this troubled his parents greatly, and many a consultation did
+they have as to what they should do for their boy. They decided
+that he needed an entire change of scene and occupation, but just
+how to obtain these for him they could not plan.
+
+One day Mrs. Elmer sat down and wrote a long letter to her uncle,
+Christopher Bangs, telling him of their trouble, and asking him
+what they should do. To this letter came the following answer:
+
+"BANGOR, MAINE, May 5, 188-.
+
+"DEAR NIECE ELLEN,--You did exactly the right thing, as you always
+do, in writing to me about Grandneph. Mark. Of course he needs a
+change of scene after spending a whole night hundreds of feet
+underground, fighting alligators, and naturally having a fever
+afterwards. Who wouldn't? I would myself. A good thing's good for
+a while, but there is such a thing as having too much of a good
+thing, no matter how good it is, and I rather guess Grandneph.
+Mark has had too much of Floridy, and it'll do him good to leave
+it for a while. So just you bundle him up and send him along to me
+for a change. Tell him his old Grandunk Christmas has got some
+important business for him to look after, and can't possibly get
+on without him more than a week or two longer. I shall expect a
+letter by return mail saying he has started.
+
+"Give Grandunk Christmas's love to Grandniece Ruth, and with
+respects to your husband, believe me to be, most truly, as ever,
+
+Your affectionate uncle,
+
+"CHRISTOPHER BANGS."
+
+"P.S.--Don't mind the expense. Send the boy C.O.D. I'll settle all
+bills. C.B."
+
+In the same mail with this letter came another from Maine,
+directed to "Miss Ruth Elmer." It was from her dearest friend,
+Edna May; and as Ruth handed it to her mother, who read it aloud
+to the whole family, we will read it too:
+
+"NORTON, MAINE, May 5, 188-.
+
+"MY OWN DARLING RUTH,--What is the matter? I haven't heard from
+you in more than a week. Oh, I've got SUCH a plan, or rather
+father made it up, that I am just wild thinking of it. It is this:
+father's ship, Wildfire, has sailed from New York for Savannah,
+and before he left, father said for me to write and tell you that
+he couldn't think of letting me go to Florida next winter unless
+you came here and spent this summer with me.
+
+"The Wildfire will leave Savannah for New York again about the
+15th of May, and father wants you to meet him there and come home
+with him. His sister, Aunt Emily Coburn, has gone with him for the
+sake of the voyage, and she will take care of you.
+
+"Oh, do come! Won't it be splendid? Father is coming home from New
+York, so he can bring you all the way. I am sure your mother will
+let you come when she knows how nicely everything is planned.
+
+"I have got lots and lots to tell you, but can't think of anything
+else now but your coming.
+
+"What an awful time poor Mark has had. I don't see how he ever
+lived through it. I think Frank March must be splendid. Write just
+as quick as you can, and tell me if you are coming.
+
+"Good-bye. With kisses and hugs, I am your dearest, lovingest
+friend,
+
+"EDNA MAY."
+
+These two letters from the far North created quite a ripple of
+excitement in that Southern household, and furnished ample subject
+for discussion when the family was gathered on the front porch in
+the evening of the day they were received.
+
+Mr. Elmer said, "I think it would be a good thing for Mark to go,
+and I should like to have Ruth go too; but I don't see how you can
+spare her, wife."
+
+"I shall miss her dreadfully, but I should feel much easier to
+think that she was with Mark on this long journey. Poor boy, he is
+far from strong yet. Yes, I think Ruth ought to go. It seems
+providential that these two letters should have come together, and
+as if it were a sign that the children ought to go together,"
+answered Mrs. Elmer.
+
+Mark, who had listened quietly to the whole discussion, now spoke
+up and said, "I should like to go, father. As long as I stay here
+I shall keep thinking of that terrible underground river over
+there. I think of it and dream of it all the time, and sometimes
+it seems as if it were only waiting and watching for a chance to
+swallow me again. I should love dearly to have Ruth go with me
+too, though I am quite sure I am strong enough to take care of
+myself"; and he turned towards his mother with a smile.
+
+Ruth said, "Oh, mother, I should love to go, but I can't bear to
+leave you! so, whichever way you decide, I shall be perfectly
+satisfied and contented."
+
+It was finally decided that they should both go. Mark was to
+accompany Ruth as far as Savannah, and see her safely on board the
+ship; then, unless he received a pressing invitation from Captain
+May to go with him to New York, he was to go by steamer to Boston,
+and there take another steamer for Bangor.
+
+This was the both of May, and as the Wildfire was to sail on or
+about the 15th, they must be in Savannah on that day; therefore no
+time was to be lost in making preparations for the journey.
+
+Such busy days as the next three were! such making of new clothes
+and mending of old, to be worn on the journey! so many things to
+be thought of and done! Even Aunt Chloe became excited, and
+prepared so many nice things for "Misto Mark an' Missy Rufe to eat
+when dey's a-trabblin'" that Mark actually laughed when he saw
+them.
+
+"Why, Aunt Clo," he explained, "you have got enough there to last
+us all the time we're gone. Do you think they don't have anything
+to eat up North?"
+
+"Dunno, honey," answered the old woman, gazing with an air of
+great satisfaction at the array of goodies. "Allus hearn tell as
+it's a powerful pore, cole kentry up dar whar you's a-gwine.
+'Specs dey hab somfin to eat, ob co'se, but reckon dar ain't none
+too much, sich as hit is."
+
+The good soul was much distressed at the small quantity of what
+she had provided, for which room was found in the lunch-basket,
+and said she "'lowed dem ar chillun's gwine hungry heap o' times
+befo' dey sets eyes on ole Clo agin."
+
+It had been arranged that Mr. and Mrs. Elmer and Frank March
+should go with the travellers as far as Tallahassee, and see them
+fairly off from there. Bright and early on the morning of the 13th
+the mule wagon, in which comfortable seats were fixed, was driven
+up to the front door, the trunks, bags, and lunch-basket were put
+in, and everything was in readiness for the start.
+
+Mr. March, Jan, Aunt Chloe, and several of the neighbors from
+across the river had assembled to see them off, and many and
+hearty were the good wishes offered for a pleasant journey and a
+safe return in the fall.
+
+"Good-bye, Misto Mark an' Missy Rufe," said Aunt Chloe; "trus' in
+de Lo'd while you's young, an' he ain't gwine fo'git yo' in yo'
+ole age."
+
+"Good-bye, Aunt Clo! good-bye, everybody!" shouted Mark, as the
+wagon rattled away. "Don't forget us!" And in another minute "dear
+old Go Bang," as the children already called it, was hidden from
+view behind the trees around the sulphur spring.
+
+They stopped for a minute at the mill to get a sack of corn for
+the mules, and as they drove from it its busy machinery seemed to
+say,
+
+"Good-bye, Mr. President, good-bye, Mr. President, good-bye, Mr.
+President of the Elmer Mills."
+
+They reached Tallahassee early in the afternoon, and went to a
+hotel for the night. From the many cows on the street Mark tried
+to point out to Ruth and Frank the one he had seen climb into a
+cart on his previous visit, but none of those they saw looked able
+to distinguish herself in that way. They concluded that she had
+become disgusted at being called "a ole good-fo'-nuffin," and had
+carried her talents elsewhere.
+
+The train left so early the next morning that the sadness of
+parting was almost forgotten in the hurry of eating breakfast and
+getting down to the station. In the train Mark charged Frank to
+take good care of his canoe and rifle, Ruth begged him to be very
+kind to poor Bruce, who would be so lonely, and they both promised
+to write from Savannah. Then the conductor shouted, "All aboard!"
+hurried kisses and last good-byes were exchanged, and the train
+moved off.
+
+Ruth cried a little at first, and Mark looked pretty sober, but
+they soon cheered up, and became interested in the scenery through
+which they were passing. For an hour or two they rode through a
+beautiful hill country, in which was here and there a lake covered
+with great pond-lilies. Then the hills and lakes disappeared, and
+they hurried through mile after mile of pine forests, where they
+saw men gathering turpentine from which to make resin. It was
+scooped into buckets from cuts made in the bark of the trees, and
+the whole operation "looked for all the world," as Mark said,
+"like a sugar-bush in Maine."
+
+At Ellaville, sixty-five miles from Tallahassee, they saw great
+saw-mills, and directly they crossed one of the most famous rivers
+in the country, the Suwannee, and Ruth hummed softly,
+
+    "'Way down upon de Swanee Ribber,
+      Far, far away."
+
+Soon afterwards they reached Live Oak, where they were to change
+cars for Savannah. They made the change easily, for their trunks
+had been checked through, and they had little baggage to trouble
+them. A few miles farther took them across the State line and into
+Georgia, which Ruth said, with a somewhat disappointed air, looked
+to her very much the same as Florida.
+
+Now that they were in Georgia they felt that they must be quite
+near Savannah, and began to talk of Captain May, and wonder if he
+would be at the depot to meet them. Letters had been sent to Uncle
+Christopher Bangs, to Edna, and to Captain May, as soon as it was
+decided that they should take this journey, and Mr. Elmer had
+telegraphed to the captain from Tallahassee that morning, so they
+felt pretty sure he would know of their coming.
+
+At a junction with the funny name of "Waycross" their car was
+attached to an express train from Jacksonville, on which were
+numbers of Northern tourists who had been spending the winter in
+Florida and were now on their way home. These people interested
+the children so much that they forgot to be tired, though it was
+now late in the afternoon. At last, as it was beginning to grow
+dark, the train rolled into the depot at Savannah. Taking their
+bags and holding each other's hands tight, for fear of being
+separated in the crowd, the children stepped out on the platform,
+where they were at once completely bewildered by the throng of
+hurrying people, the confusion, and the noise.
+
+As they stood irresolute, not knowing which way to turn nor what
+to do, a cheery voice called out,
+
+"Halloo! here we are. Why, Mark, my hearty, this is indeed a
+pleasure--and little Ruth, too! Won't my Edna be delighted!" And
+Captain May stooped down and kissed her, right there before all
+the people, as though he were her own father.
+
+"Oh, Captain Bill!" said Mark, greatly relieved at seeing the
+familiar face, "we are so glad to see you. We were just beginning
+to feel lost."
+
+"Lost, eh?" laughed the captain; "well, that's a good one. The
+idea of a boy who's been through what you have feeling lost--right
+here among folks too. But then, to one used to the water, this
+here dry land is a mighty bewildering place, that's a fact. Well,
+come, let's get under way. I've got a carriage moored alongside
+the station here, and we'll clap sail on to it and lay a course
+for the Wildfire. Steward's got supper ready by this time, and
+Sister Emily's impatient to see you. Checks? Oh yes. Here, driver,
+take these brasses, and roust out that dunnage; lively, now!"
+
+When they were in the carriage, and rolling quietly along through
+the sandy streets, Captain May said they were just in time, for he
+was ready to drop down the river that night.
+
+"Then I'd better go to a hotel," said Mark.
+
+"What for?" asked Captain May.
+
+"Because I'm to go to Boston by steamer from here, and Ruth is to
+go with you."
+
+"Steamer nothing;" shouted Captain Bill. "You're coming along with
+us on the Wildfire. Steamer, indeed!"
+
+This seemed to settle it, and Mark wrote home that evening that,
+having received a "pressing invitation," he was going to sail to
+New York with Captain Bill May in the Wildfire.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE BURNING OF THE "WILDFIRE."
+
+
+"Aunt Emily," as the children called her at once, because she was
+Edna May's aunt, welcomed them as warmly as Captain May had done,
+and everything in the cabin of the Wildfire was so comfortable
+that they felt at home at once. Supper was ready as soon as they
+were, and as they sat down to it Mark said he wished "Aunt Clo"
+could see it, for he thought it would give her some new ideas of
+what Yankees had to eat.
+
+After supper each of the children wrote a letter home, and Mark
+and Captain May walked up to the post-office to mail them.
+
+About nine o'clock a tug came for the ship, and very soon they had
+bid good-bye to Savannah, and were dropping down the muddy river
+towards the sea. As it was a fine moonlit night, the children
+stayed on deck with Mrs. Coburn to see what they could of the
+river, which here forms the boundary line between the States of
+Georgia and South Carolina. On both sides, as far as they could
+see, the marshes were covered with fields of growing rice, and
+every now and then they heard the sound of music coming from the
+funny little negro cabins which were scattered here and there
+along the banks.
+
+They passed the old forts Jackson and Pulaski, both on the south
+side of the river, and both deserted and falling to ruin, and very
+soon had left behind Tybee Island, with its flashing light, at the
+mouth of the river. The tug left them when they reached the siren
+buoy that keeps up a constant moaning on the outer bar; one after
+another of the ship's sails were loosed and "sheeted home," and
+then Captain May said it was "high time for the watch below to
+turn in."
+
+The sea was so calm and beautiful the next day that even Mark did
+not feel ill, nor was he during the voyage. As for Ruth, she knew,
+from her experience on the last voyage they had taken, that she
+should not be sea-sick, and so everybody was as happy and jolly as
+possible.
+
+During the afternoon, after they had all been sitting on deck for
+some time, talking of the dear ones left at home, and of the many
+friends whom they hoped soon to meet, Ruth said she was going down
+to open her trunk and get out the album containing the pictures of
+her girl friends in Norton, and see if they looked as she
+remembered them. It was so long since she had opened this album
+that she had almost forgotten whose pictures were in it. She soon
+returned with it in her hand, and with a very puzzled expression
+on her face.
+
+"Mark," she said, "did you ever think that Frank March looked like
+anybody else whom we know?"
+
+"I don't know," answered Mark. "Yes, come to think of it, I have
+thought two or three times that his face had a familiar look, but
+I never could think who it was he resembled. Why?"
+
+Placing the album in his hand, and opening it to the first page,
+on which was the photograph of Edna May, Ruth said, "Do you think
+he looks anything like that?"
+
+"Why, yes! of course he does," exclaimed Mark, startled at the
+resemblance he saw. "He looks enough like the picture to be Edna's
+brother."
+
+"Aunt Emily," said Ruth, turning to Mrs. Coburn, who sat near
+them, "do you know in what Southern city Captain May found Edna?"
+
+"Yes, it was in the one we have just left--Savannah."
+
+"And Frank came from Savannah, and he lost his mother and little
+sister there, and Edna's own mother was drowned there. Oh, Mark,
+if it should be!" cried Ruth, much excited.
+
+"Wouldn't it be just too jolly?" said Mark.
+
+Mrs. Coburn became almost as interested as the children when the
+matter was explained to her; but Captain May was quite provoked
+when he heard of it. He said it was only a chance resemblance, and
+there couldn't be anything in it. He had made inquiries in
+Savannah at the time, and never heard anything of any father or
+brother either, and at any rate he was not going to lose his Edna
+now for all the brothers and fathers in the world. He finally said
+that unless they gave him a solemn promise not to mention a word
+of all this to Edna, he should not let her visit them next winter.
+So the children promised, and the captain was satisfied; but they
+talked the matter over between themselves, and became more and
+more convinced that Frank March and Edna May were brother and
+sister.
+
+After this the voyage proceeded without incident until the evening
+of the third day, when they were sitting at supper in the cabin.
+The skylights and port-holes were all wide open, for in spite of
+the fresh breeze that was blowing, the cabin was uncomfortably
+close and hot. Mark said the further north they went the hotter it
+seemed to get, and the others agreed with him. Captain May said
+that if the breeze held, and they were lucky in meeting a pilot,
+they would be at anchor in New York Harbor before another supper-
+time, and he hoped the hot spell would be over before they were
+obliged to go ashore. While he was speaking the mate put his head
+down the companion-way and said,
+
+"Captain May, will you be good enough to step on deck a moment,
+sir?"
+
+As the captain went on deck he noticed that all the crew were
+gathered about the forecastle, and were talking earnestly.
+
+"What's in the wind now, Mr. Gibbs?" he asked of the mate, who at
+that moment stepped up to him.
+
+"Why, sir, only this, that I believe the ship's on fire. A few
+minutes ago the whole watch below came on deck vowing there was no
+sleeping in the fo'k'sle; that it was a reg'lar furnace. I went to
+see what they was growling at, and 'twas so hot down there it made
+my head swim. There wasn't any flame nor any smoke, but there was
+a powerful smell of burning, and I'm afraid there's fire in the
+cargo."
+
+Without a word Captain May went forward and down into the
+forecastle, the men respectfully making way for him to pass. In
+less than a minute he came up, bathed in perspiration, and turning
+to the crew, said, "My men, there's no doubt but that this ship is
+on fire. It's in among the cotton; but if we can keep it smothered
+a while longer, I think, with this breeze, we can make our port
+before it breaks out. I want you to keep cool and steady, and
+remember there's no danger, for we can make land any time in the
+boats if worse comes to worse. Mr. Gibbs, have the men get their
+dunnage up out of the forecastle, and then close the hatch and
+batten it."
+
+Going aft, the captain found his passengers on deck waiting
+anxiously to learn the cause of the commotion they had already
+noticed. He told them the worst at once, and advised them to go
+below and pack up their things ready for instant removal in case
+it became necessary.
+
+"Oh, William," exclaimed his sister, "can't we take to the boats
+now while there is time? It seems like tempting Providence to stay
+on the ship and wait for the fire to break out. What if she should
+blow up?"
+
+"Now, don't be foolish, Emily," answered the captain. "There's
+nothing on board that can blow up, and it would be worse than
+cowardly to leave the ship while there's a chance of saving her.
+The boats are all ready to be lowered instantly, and at present
+there is no more danger here than there would be in them."
+
+Not a soul on board the Wildfire went to bed or undressed that
+night, and Mark and Ruth were the only ones who closed their eyes.
+They stayed on deck until midnight, but then, in spite of the
+excitement, they became too sleepy to hold their eyes open any
+longer, and Mrs. Coburn persuaded them to take a nap on the cabin
+sofas.
+
+All night the ship flew like a frightened bird towards her port,
+under such a press of canvas as Captain May would not have dared
+carry had not the necessity for speed been so great. As the night
+wore on the decks grew hotter and hotter, until the pitch fairly
+bubbled from the seams, and a strong smell of burning pervaded the
+ship. At daylight the American flag was run half-way up to the
+mizzen peak, union down, as a signal of distress. By sunrise the
+Highlands of Navesink were in sight, and they also saw a pilot-
+boat bearing rapidly down upon them from the northward.
+
+As soon as he saw this boat Captain May told his passengers that
+he was going to send them on board of it, as he feared the fire
+might now break out at any minute, and he was going to ask its
+captain to run in to Sandy Hook, and send despatches to the
+revenue-cutter and to the New York fire-boat Havemeyer, begging
+them to come to his assistance.
+
+Mrs. Coburn and Ruth readily agreed to this plan, but Mark begged
+so hard to be allowed to stay, and said he should feel so much
+like a coward to leave the ship before any of the other men, that
+the captain finally consented to allow him to remain.
+
+The ship's headway was checked as the pilot-boat drew near, in
+order that her yawl, bringing the pilot, might run alongside.
+
+"Halloo, Cap'n Bill," sang out the pilot, who happened to be an
+old acquaintance of Captain May's. "What's the meaning of all
+that?" and he pointed to the signal of distress. "Got Yellow Jack
+aboard, or a mutiny?"
+
+"Neither," answered Captain May, "but I've got a volcano stowed
+under the hatches, and I'm expecting an eruption every minute."
+
+"You don't tell me?" said the pilot, as he clambered up over the
+side. "Ship's afire, is she?"
+
+The state of affairs was quickly explained to him, and he readily
+consented that his swift little schooner should run in to the Hook
+and send despatches for help. He also said they should be only too
+proud to have the ladies come aboard.
+
+Without further delay Mrs. Coburn and Ruth, with their baggage,
+were placed in the ship's long-boat, lowered over the side, and in
+a few minutes were safe on the deck of the pilot-boat, which
+seemed to Ruth almost as small as Mark's canoe in comparison with
+the big ship they had just left.
+
+As soon as they were on board, the schooner spread her white wings
+and stood in for Sandy Hook, while the ship was headed towards the
+"Swash Channel."
+
+As she passed the Romer Beacon Captain May saw the pilot-boat
+coming out from behind the Hook, and knew the despatches had been
+sent. When his ship was off the Hospital Islands he saw the
+revenue-cutter steaming down through the Narrows towards them,
+trailing a black cloud behind her, and evidently making all
+possible speed.
+
+By this time little eddies of smoke were curling up from around
+the closely battened hatches, and Captain May saw that the ship
+could not live to reach the upper bay, and feared she would be a
+mass of flames before the fire-boat could come to her relief. In
+this emergency he told the pilot that he thought they had better
+leave the channel and run over on the flats towards the Long
+Island shore, so as to be prepared to scuttle her.
+
+"Ay, ay, Cap; I can put her just wherever you want her. Only give
+the word," answered the pilot.
+
+"I do give it," said Captain May, as a cloud of smoke puffed out
+from the edge of one of the hatches. "Put her there, for she'll be
+ablaze now before many minutes."
+
+As the ship's head was turned towards the flats the revenue-cutter
+ran alongside. Her captain, followed by a dozen bluejackets,
+boarded the ship, and the former, taking in her desperate
+situation at a glance, said to Captain May, "You must scuttle her
+at once, captain; it's your only chance to save her."
+
+"Very well, sir," answered Captain May. "I think so myself, but am
+glad to have your authority for doing so."
+
+As the ship's anchors were let go, her carpenter and a squad of
+men from the cutter, armed with axes and augurs, tumbled down into
+her cabin, and began what seemed like a most furious work of
+destruction. The axes crashed through the carved woodwork,
+furniture was hurled to one side, great holes were cut in the
+cabin floor, and the ship's planking was laid bare in a dozen
+places below the water-line. Then the augurs were set to work, and
+in a few minutes a dozen streams of water, spurting up like
+fountains, were rushing and gurgling into the ship.
+
+While this was going on in the cabin, the ship's crew, assisted by
+others of the revenue men, were removing everything of value on
+which they could lay their hands to the deck of the cutter.
+
+Suddenly those in the cabin heard a great cry and a roaring noise
+on deck and as they rushed up the companion-way they saw a column
+of flame shooting up from the fore-hatch, half-mast high.
+
+Half the people had sprung on board the revenue-cutter as she
+sheered off, which she did at the first burst of flame, and now
+the others filled the boats, which were quickly lowered and shoved
+off. As the boats were being lowered a second burst of flame came
+from the main-hatch, and already tongues of fire were lapping the
+sails and lofty spars.
+
+Mark had worked with the rest in saving whatever he could lift,
+and did not think of leaving the ship until Captain May said,
+
+"Come, Mark, it's time to go. Jump into this boat."
+
+Mark did as he was told, and as Captain May sprang in after him,
+and shouted "Lower away!" not a living soul was left on board the
+unfortunate vessel.
+
+As the men in the boats rested on their oars, and lay at a safe
+distance from the ship, watching the grand spectacle of her
+destruction, they saw that she was settling rapidly by the stern.
+Lower and lower she sank, and higher and higher mounted the fierce
+flames, until, all at once, her bows lifted high out of the water,
+her stern seemed to shoot under it, then the great hull plunged
+out of sight, and a mighty cloud of smoke and steam rose to the
+sky. Through this cloud the flames along the upper masts and yards
+shone with a lurid red. At this point the fire-boat arrived; a
+couple of well-directed streams of water from her powerful engines
+soon extinguished these flames, and the three blackened masts,
+pointing vaguely upward, were all that remained to show where, so
+short a time before, the great ship had floated.
+
+The pilot-boat had already transferred Mrs. Coburn and Ruth and
+their baggage to the cutter, and she now steamed up the bay,
+carrying the passengers, crew, and all that had been saved from
+the good ship Wildfire.
+
+This disaster to his ship, which would have been so terrible had
+it happened out at sea instead of almost in port, as it did,
+obliged Captain May to remain in New York several days. Of this
+Mark and Ruth were very glad, for it gave them an opportunity to
+see some of the wonders of the great city of which they had read
+so much, and which they had longed so often to visit.
+
+Mrs. Coburn, who had at one time lived in New York, and so knew
+just what was best worth seeing, took them to some new place every
+day. They saw the great East River Bridge that connects New York
+and Brooklyn, they took the elevated railroad, and went the whole
+length of Manhattan Island to High Bridge, on which the Croton
+Aqueduct crosses the Harlem River, and on the way back stopped and
+walked through Central Park to the Menagerie, where they were more
+interested in the alligators than anything else, because they
+reminded them so of old friends, or rather enemies.
+
+They visited museums and noted buildings and stores, until Ruth
+declared that she wanted to get away where it was quiet, and she
+didn't see how people who lived in New York found time to do
+anything but go round and see the sights.
+
+They were all glad when Captain May was ready to leave, and after
+the noise and bustle of the great city they thoroughly enjoyed the
+quiet night's sail up Long Island Sound on the steamer Pilgrim.
+
+At Fall River they took cars for Boston, where they stayed one
+day. From there they took the steamer Cambridge for Bangor, where
+they arrived in the morning, and where "Uncle Christmas," as jolly
+and hearty as ever, met them at the wharf.
+
+"Sakes alive, children, how you have growed!" he said, holding
+them off at arm's-length in front of him, and looking at them
+admiringly. "Why, Mark, you're pretty nigh as tall as a Floridy
+pine."
+
+He insisted on taking the whole party to dine with him at the
+hotel, and at dinner told Mark that that little business of theirs
+had got to wait a while, and meantime he wanted him to run over to
+Norton, and stay at Dr. Wing's until he came for him.
+
+This was just what Mark had been wishing, above all things, that
+he could do, and he almost hugged "Uncle Christmas" for his
+thoughtful kindness.
+
+After dinner the happy party bade the old gentleman good-bye, and
+took the train for Skowhegan, where they found the same old
+rattlety-bang stage waiting to carry them to Norton.
+
+As with a flourish of the driver's horn and a cracking of his whip
+they rolled into the well-known Norton street, a crowd of boys and
+girls, who seemed to have been watching for them, gave three
+rousing cheers for Mark Elmer, and three more for Ruth Elmer, and
+then three times three for both of them.
+
+The stage stopped, and in another instant Ruth was hugging and
+kissing, and being hugged and kissed, by her "very dearest,
+darlingest friend" Edna May, and Mark was being slapped on the
+back and hauled this way and that, and was shaking hands with all
+the boys in Norton.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+UNCLE CHRISTOPHER'S "GREAT SCHEME."
+
+
+How pleasant it was to be in dear old Norton again! and how glad
+everybody was to see them! Good old Mrs. Wing said it made her
+feel young again to have boys in the house. She certainly had
+enough of them now; for the Norton boys could not keep away from
+Mark. From early morning until evening boys walked back and forth
+in front of the house waiting for him to appear, or sat on the
+fence-posts and whistled for him. Some walked boldly up to the
+front door, rang the bell, and asked if he were in; while others,
+more shy, but braver than those who whistled so alluringly from
+the fence-posts, stole around through the garden at the side of
+the house, and tried to catch a glimpse of him through the
+windows.
+
+All this was not because Mark kept himself shut up in the house.
+Oh no! he was not that kind of a boy. He only stayed in long
+enough to sleep, to eat three meals a day, and to write letters to
+his father, mother, and Frank March, telling them of everything
+that was taking place. The rest of the time he devoted to the
+boys--and the girls; for he was over at Captain May's house
+almost as much as he was at the Wings'. He was enjoying himself
+immensely, though it didn't seem as though he was doing much
+except to talk.
+
+If he went fishing with the boys, they would make him tell how he
+and Frank caught the alligator, or how the alligator caught Frank,
+and how he killed it; and when he finished it was time to go home,
+and none of them had even thought of fishing since Mark began to
+talk.
+
+There was nothing the boys enjoyed more than going out into the
+woods, making believe that some of the great spreading oaks were
+palm-trees, and lying down under them and listening, while Mark,
+at their earnest request, told over and over again the stories of
+the wreck on the Florida reef, and the picnic his father and
+mother and Ruth and he had under the palm-trees, or of hunting
+deer at night through the solemn, moss-hung, Southern forests, or
+of the burning of the Wildfire.
+
+"I say, Mark," exclaimed Tom Ellis, after listening with
+breathless interest to one of these stories, "you're a regular
+book, you are, and I'd rather hear you tell stories than to read
+Captain Marryat or Paul du Chaillu."
+
+But there was one story Mark never would tell. It was that of his
+terrible experience in the buried river. Of this he tried to think
+as little as possible, and when the boys saw that it really
+distressed him to talk of it they forbore to urge him to do so.
+
+Of course Ruth did not feel as Mark did about it, and she told the
+story many times, and everybody who heard it declared it was a
+most wonderful experience. They also seemed to think that in some
+way the mere fact that the hero of such an adventure was a Norton
+boy reflected great credit on the village.
+
+Both Mark and Ruth saw a greater resemblance in the real Edna May
+to Frank March than had been shown by her photograph; but they
+remembered their promise to Captain Bill, and did not speak of it
+except to each other. It was very hard for Ruth to keep this
+promise, for Edna had become much interested in Frank through her
+letters, and now asked many questions about him. Ruth told her all
+she knew, except the one great secret that was on the end of her
+tongue a dozen times, but was never allowed to get any further.
+
+Two weeks had been spent very happily by the children in Norton,
+when, one beautiful evening in June, the old stage rattled up to
+the Wings' front gate, and from it alighted Uncle Christopher
+Bangs.
+
+"Halloo, Mark!" sung out the old gentleman, catching sight of his
+grandnephew almost the first thing. "How are you, my boy? Sakes
+alive, but you're looking well! Seems as if Maine air was the
+correct thing for Floridy boys, eh?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, 'Uncle Christmas,'" replied Mark, as he ran out to
+meet the dear old man, "Maine air is the very thing for this
+Florida boy, at any rate."
+
+"So it is, so it is," chuckled Uncle Christopher. "Wal, I suppose
+you're all ready to go to work now, eh?"
+
+"To be sure I am, uncle; ready to begin right off."
+
+"That's right, that's right; but s'posing we just look in on Mrs.
+Wing first, and see what she's got for supper, and then, after
+sleeping a bit, and eating again, and sort o' shaking ourselves
+together, we'll begin to consider. There ain't nothing to be
+gained by hurrying and worrying through the only lifetime we've
+got in this world, eh?"
+
+The Doctor and Mrs. Wing welcomed Uncle Christopher most warmly,
+for he was a very dear friend of theirs, and they never allowed
+him to stay anywhere in Norton but at their house, now that the
+Elmers had moved away. After supper Ruth and the Mays came over to
+see him, and he entertained them the whole evening with his funny
+stories and quaint sayings.
+
+In the morning, after breakfast, they began to "consider," as
+Uncle Christopher called it. First he made Mark stand in front of
+him, looked him all over from head to foot with a quizzical
+expression, and finally said, "Yes, you look strong and hearty,
+and I guess you'll do.
+
+"Fact is, Mark, I've got to take a trip down into Aroostook, and
+as I'm getting pretty old and feeble--Oh, you needn't smile,
+youngster, I am old and I've made so many bad jokes lately that I
+must be getting feeble. As I was saying, having reached an
+advanced state of infirmity, it has occurred to me that I need a
+travelling companion, a young, able-bodied fellow like you, for
+instance, to protect me against the dangers of the journey. Who
+knows but what we may meet with an alligator, eh? and so I want
+you to go along with me."
+
+Of course Mark agreed readily to this proposition, though he had
+expected one far different, and the next morning he and Uncle
+Christopher took leave of their Norton friends and started for
+Bangor. From there another train carried them for miles along the
+upper Penobscot River, past the Indian settlement at Old Town,
+past the great saw-mills and millions of logs at Mattawaumkeag,
+and finally to McAdam Junction in "Europe," as Uncle Christopher
+called New Brunswick. Here they took another road, and were
+carried back into Maine to Houlton, the county seat of Aroostook
+County. After staying overnight here they took a stage, and for a
+whole day travelled over pleasant roads, through sweet-scented
+forests of spruce and balsam, broken here by clearings and thrifty
+farms, until at last the journey ended in the pretty little
+backwoods settlement of Presque Isle.
+
+Here Uncle Christopher's lumber business detained him for a week,
+and here he introduced Mark to all his friends as "My grandnephew,
+Mr. Mark Elmer, Jun., President of the Elmer Mills down in
+Floridy," covering Mark with much confusion thereby, and enjoying
+the joke immensely himself. Now the real object of bringing the
+boy on this trip was disclosed. Mr. Bangs not only wanted Mark to
+meet with these practical men, and become familiar with their ways
+of conducting a business which was very similar to that which the
+Elmers had undertaken in Florida, but he knew that pine lumber was
+becoming scarce in that Northern country, and thought perhaps some
+of these men could be persuaded to emigrate to another land of
+pines if the idea was presented to them properly. So he encouraged
+Mark to talk of Florida, and to give them all the information he
+possessed regarding its forests of pine and its other resources.
+As a result, before they again turned their faces homeward, half a
+dozen of these clear-headed Maine men had promised them to visit
+Florida in the fall, take a look at the Wakulla country, and see
+for themselves what it offered in their line of business.
+
+When Uncle Christopher and Mark returned to Bangor, the latter
+began to attend school regularly; not a grammar-school, nor a
+high-school, nor a school of any kind where books are studied, but
+a mill-school, where machinery took the place of books, where the
+teachers were rough workmen, and where each lecture was
+illustrated by practical examples. Nor did Mark merely go and
+listen to these lectures: he took an active part in illustrating
+them himself; for Uncle Christopher had explained so clearly to
+him that in order to be a truly successful mill president he must
+thoroughly understand the uses of every bit of mill machinery,
+that the boy was now as eager to do this as he had been in Wakulla
+to learn how to fish for alligators, or fire-hunt for deer.
+
+All that summer he worked hard--two months in a saw-mill, and two
+more in a grist-mill--and though he did not receive a cent of
+money for all this labor, he felt amply repaid for what he had
+been through, by a satisfied sense of having, at least, mastered
+the rudiments of what he knew was to be an important part of his
+work in life for some years to come.
+
+About the end of September his Uncle Christopher called Mark into
+his study one evening, and telling him to sit down, said, "Well,
+Mark, my boy, I suppose you're beginning to think of going home
+again to Floridy, eh?"
+
+"Yes, uncle; father writes that both Ruth and I ought to come home
+very soon now, and I, for one, am quite ready to go."
+
+"So you ought, so you ought. When boys and girls can help their
+fathers and mothers, and be helping themselves at the same time,
+they ought to be doing it," assented Uncle Christopher,
+cheerfully. "Well, Mark, I've got a scheme, a great scheme in my
+head, and I want you to tell me what you think of it. In the first
+place, I want you and the other directors to increase the capital
+stock of the Elmer Mill and Ferry Company, and let me take the
+extra shares."
+
+"Oh, Uncle Christopher!"
+
+"Wait, my boy, I haven't begun yet. You see, as I've told you
+before, I'm getting old and fee--not a word, sir!--feeble, and my
+old bones begin to complain a good deal at the cold of these Maine
+winters. Besides, all the folks that I think most of in this world
+have gone to Floridy to live, and it isn't according to nater that
+a man's body should be in one place while his heart's in another.
+Consequently it looks as if I had a special call to have a
+business that'll take my body where my heart is once in a while.
+Now my business is the lumber business, and always will be; and
+from what I know and what you tell me, it looks as if there was
+enough of that sort of business to be done in Floridy to amuse my
+declining years."
+
+"Yes, indeed there is, uncle."
+
+"Well, that p'int being settled, and you, as President of the
+Elmer Mills, being willing to use your influence to have me made a
+partner in that concern--"
+
+"Why, of course, uncle--"
+
+"No 'of course' about it, young man; remember there's a Board of
+Directors to be consulted. Friendship is friendship, and business
+is business, and sometimes when one says 'Gee' t'other says 'Haw.'
+Having secured the influence of the president of the company,
+however, I'm willing to risk the rest. And now for my scheme.
+
+"Supposing, for the sake of argument, that I am made one of the
+proprietors of the Elmer Mills. In that case I want them to be big
+mills. I'm too old a man to be fooling my limited time away on
+little mills; consequently, I propose to buy a first-class outfit
+of machinery for a big saw-mill, ship it to Wakulla, Floridy, and
+let it represent my shares of Elmer Mill Company stock. Moreover,
+as the schooner Nancy Bell, owned by the subscriber, is just now
+waiting for a charter, I propose to load her with the said mill
+machinery, and whatever articles you may think the Wakulla colony
+to be most in need of, and despatch her to the St. Mark's River,
+Floridy.
+
+"Moreover, yet again, as she is now without a captain, Eli Drew
+having gone into deep-water navigation, I propose to offer the
+command of the Nancy Bell to Captain Bill May, as his ship won't
+be ready for some months yet.
+
+"And, moreover, for the third time, I further propose to invite
+Mr. Mark Elmer, Jun., President of the Elmer Mill and Ferry
+Company of Floridy, Miss Ruth Elmer, Secretary of the same, Miss
+Edna May, daughter of the captain, that is to be, of the schooner
+Nancy Bell, and the several gentlemen whom we met down in
+Aroostook last June, to take this Floridy trip on board the
+schooner Nancy Bell with me."
+
+"With YOU, Uncle Christopher!" exclaimed Mark. "Are you going
+too?"
+
+"Why, to be sure I am," answered Uncle Christopher. "Didn't I tell
+you it was my intention to reunite the scattered members of my
+being under more sunny skies than these? Now what do you say to my
+scheme, eh?"
+
+"I say it's the most splendid scheme I ever heard of," cried Mark,
+jumping from his chair in his excitement, "and I wish we could
+start this very minute."
+
+"Well we can't; but we can start towards bed, and in the morning
+we'll look after that mill machinery."
+
+The next two were indeed busy weeks for our friends. In Bangor
+Uncle Christopher and Mark were fully occupied in selecting mill
+machinery of the most improved patterns, and in purchasing a great
+variety of farm utensils, groceries, and other things that Mark
+knew would prove very welcome in Wakulla. Captain May, who had
+gladly accepted the command of the Nancy Bell for this voyage, was
+equally busy getting her ready for sea, and superintending the
+stowage of her precious but awkward cargo of machinery.
+
+In Norton, Ruth and Edna had their hands full of dressmaking,
+packing, and paying farewell visits, and down in Aroostook the six
+families of the six gentlemen who had accepted Mr. Bangs's
+invitation to visit Florida with him were in a whirl of
+excitement, for to these untravelled people the journey from Maine
+to Florida seemed but little less of an undertaking than a journey
+around the world.
+
+At length everything was ready, and the Nancy Bell only awaited
+her passengers. Captain May and Mark ran over to Norton one day to
+bid the friends there good-bye, and returned the next, bringing
+the girls with them. Both the girls were as excited as they could
+be; Edna at the prospect of this the first long journey that she
+could remember, and Ruth at the idea of soon being at home with
+her own dear parents again, and with anticipating all she should
+have to show and tell Edna.
+
+A letter had been sent to Wakulla, saying that Mark and Ruth would
+take advantage of the first opportunity that offered to go home,
+and that Edna May would come with them; but nothing was said of
+Uncle Christopher and the rest of the party, nor of the schooner
+and her cargo. All this was reserved as a grand surprise.
+
+How different were the feelings that filled the minds of Mark and
+Ruth now, from those with which they had sailed down the Penobscot
+in this same schooner Nancy Bell eleven months before. Then they
+were leaving the only home they had ever known, and going in
+search of a new one in which their father could recover his
+shattered health. Even they had realized that it was a desperate
+venture, and that its success was very doubtful. Now they were
+going to that home, already well established and prosperous. They
+knew that their father was again a strong and well man, and they
+were taking with them friends and material that were to insure
+increased happiness and prosperity to those whom they loved most.
+
+The first of October was a charming season of the year for a
+Southern voyage, and with favoring winds the Nancy Bell made a
+quick run down the coast. In one week after leaving Bangor she had
+rounded the western end of the Florida Reef, and was headed
+northward across the green waters of the Gulf. Here she moved but
+slowly before the light winds that prevailed, but at last the
+distant light-house at the mouth of the St. Mark's River was
+sighted. Almost at the same time a slender column of smoke was
+seen rising to the east of the light, and apparently at some
+distance inland. As the lamp in the light-house shed forth its
+cheerful gleam at sunset the column of smoke changed to a deep
+red, as though it were a pillar of fire. While they were wondering
+what it could be, a pilot came on board, and in answer to their
+questions told them that it was the light from the Wakulla
+volcano. He said that no living soul had ever been nearer than
+five miles to it, on account of the horrible and impenetrable
+swamps surrounding it.
+
+Hearing this, Uncle Christopher declared that, before leaving that
+country, he meant to go in there and see how nigh he could get to
+it, and Mark said he would go with him.
+
+As the breeze and tide were both in their favor, it was decided to
+run up to St. Mark's that night. When, about nine o'clock, this
+point was reached, it was suggested that all hands should take to
+the boats, and tow the schooner the rest of the way up to Wakulla
+that same night, so as to surprise the folks in the morning. The
+children were wild to have this plan carried out, and finally
+Captain May and Uncle Christopher consented that it should be
+tried.
+
+All night long the schooner moved slowly up the solemn river
+through the dense shadows of the overhanging forests. The boats'
+crews were relieved every hour, and shortly before sunrise the
+children, who had been forced by sleepiness to take naps in their
+state-rooms, were wakened by Uncle Christopher, who said,
+
+"Come, children, hurry up on deck. The schooner has just been made
+fast to the 'Go Bang' pier, and we're going to fire a gun to wake
+up the folks--a sort of a 'Go Bang' good-morning, you know."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+EDNA MAY MARCH.
+
+
+Mark, Ruth, and Edna hurried on deck, and reached it in time to
+see Captain May load to its muzzle the small brass cannon that was
+carried on the schooner for firing signals.
+
+How beautiful and peaceful everything looked! The tide, with which
+they had come up, filled the river to the brim, and it sparkled
+merrily in the light of the rising sun. The ferry-boat lay moored
+to the bank just in front of the schooner, and they could see the
+tin horn hanging to its post, and the very card on which were the
+ferry rates that Ruth had printed so many months before. The house
+was hidden from their view by a clump of trees, but over their
+tops rose a light column of smoke, and they knew Aunt Chloe was up
+and busy, at any rate.
+
+Suddenly, flash! bang! the small cannon went off with a roar
+worthy of a larger piece, and one that woke the echoes for miles
+up and down the river, disturbed numerous wild water-fowl from
+their quiet feeding, and sent them screaming away through the air,
+and set all the dogs in Wakulla to barking furiously. In the midst
+of all the clamor the children heard the loud bark of their own
+dog, Bruce, and in another moment he came bounding down to the
+landing, and was the first to welcome them home.
+
+At the same time a number of colored people, among whom the
+children recognized several familiar faces, came running down to
+the opposite bank of the river, where they stood rubbing their
+eyes and staring at the big schooner, the first that had been seen
+in their river in many years.
+
+The children did not pay much attention to them, however, for a
+landing-plank was being run ashore, and they were eager to go to
+the house. As Mark reached the wharf, and was holding out his hand
+to Ruth, who followed, there was a loud hurrah behind him, and
+before he could turn around Frank March had thrown his arms round
+his neck, and was fairly hugging him in his joy.
+
+"I knew you'd come when we weren't expecting you! I knew you'd
+surprise us! and I told 'em so last night when they were worrying
+about you," shouted the boy, dancing about them, and almost
+inclined to hug Ruth as he had Mark. But he didn't; he only
+grasped both her hands, and shook them until she begged for mercy.
+As soon as she regained possession of her hands, she said,
+
+"And here's Edna, Frank. Miss Edna May, Mr. Frank March."
+
+"I'm awfully glad to see you, Miss Edna," said Frank; and "How do
+you do, Mr. March?" said Edna, as they shook hands and looked at
+each other curiously.
+
+Then Frank was introduced to Uncle Christopher, who said, "My boy,
+I'm proud to make your acquaintance. So you didn't expect us, eh?"
+and the old gentleman chuckled as he thought of the quality and
+size of the joke they had played on the inmates of "Go Bang" by
+surprising them.
+
+Captain May and the gentlemen from Aroostook had not left the
+schooner when the others turned towards the house, talking so fast
+as they went that nobody understood, or even heard, what anybody
+else was saying.
+
+As they came in sight of the house two well-known figures were
+leaving the front gate, and the next minute Mark and Ruth had
+rushed into the arms of their father and mother, and the latter
+was actually crying for joy.
+
+"It is all your doing, Uncle Christopher," she said to Mr. Bangs,
+as soon as she could speak. "I know it is; for you never in your
+life have neglected opportunities for giving people joyful
+surprises."
+
+"Well, Niece Ellen, I won't say as I didn't have a hand in it,"
+answered the old gentleman, his face beaming with delight. "But,
+sakes alive! Mark Elmer, is this the place that I let you have
+rent free for ten years?" and he pointed to the pretty house, and
+swept his hand over the broad fields surrounding it.
+
+"Yes, Uncle Christopher, this is the place. This is 'Go Bang,' as
+the children have named it, and we welcome you very heartily to
+it."
+
+"Well, well," said Uncle Christopher, mournfully, "what chances I
+have thrown away in this life! eh, Niece Ellen?"
+
+"You never threw away a chance to do good or make others happy,
+uncle, I am sure of that. But now come into the house and get
+ready for breakfast, which will soon be ready for you."
+
+As the others went into the house, Ruth ran around to the kitchen
+to see Aunt Chloe, and so surprised that old woman that she just
+threw her floury arms about the girl's neck and kissed her,
+saying,
+
+"Tank de Lo'd, honey! Tank de good Lo'd you's come home ag'in!
+We's all miss yo' like de sunshine, but nobody hain't miss yo'
+like ole Clo done."
+
+Mr. March and Jan had gone to Tallahassee the day before, but were
+to be back that night.
+
+Mrs. Elmer sent Mark down to the schooner to invite Captain May
+and the Aroostook gentlemen to come to the house for breakfast,
+but, rather to her relief--for she was not prepared to entertain
+so many guests--they declined her invitation, saying they would
+breakfast on board, and come to the house to pay their respects
+later.
+
+How jolly and happy they were at breakfast. How shy Frank was
+before Edna, and how many funny things Uncle Christopher did say
+to make them laugh! Little by little the "great scheme" was
+unfolded to the three members of the mill company present who had
+not heard of it, though Uncle Christopher and Mark had intended to
+keep it a secret until they could lay it before a regular meeting
+of the directors. But, beginning with hints, the whole story was
+finally told, and Mr. and Mrs. Elmer and Frank were only too glad
+to sustain President Mark in his promises. They said they should
+not only be proud and happy to have the "best uncle in the world"
+become a member of their company, but that new saw-mill machinery
+was just what they needed, for they found the present mill already
+unable to supply the demands upon it for lumber.
+
+While the others were talking business, Ruth and Edna had gone out
+on the front porch to look at the garden, and now Ruth came back
+to ask whose house the pretty little new one was that stood just
+on the edge of the woods to the right.
+
+"Why, that's ours," said Frank, jumping from the table. "Don't you
+want to go and look at it?"
+
+They said of course they did, and Mark said he would go too. They
+were perfectly delighted with the new house and everything in it,
+and praised it for being so tiny and cosey and comfortable, until
+Frank thought he had never felt so happy and proud before. It was
+no wonder, for this was the first time he had ever known the
+pleasure of extending, to those whom he loved, the hospitality of
+a pleasant home of his own.
+
+When they returned to the big house they found the rest of their
+friends from the schooner there. Captain May started when he saw
+Frank March, and on being introduced to him held his hand so long,
+and stared at him so earnestly, as to greatly embarrass the boy.
+
+As Uncle Christopher and the Aroostook gentlemen were anxious to
+visit the mill, Mr. Elmer invited them to walk up there through
+the woods. On their way they passed the sulphur spring, which had
+been cleaned out and walled in, and over which a neat bath-house
+had been built. Uncle Christopher was delighted with it, and
+declared that, to an old "rheumatizy" man like him, that spring
+was worth all the lumber in "Floridy."
+
+Mark had asked Edna and Ruth to go up to the mill by water with
+Frank and him in the canoe, and they accepted the invitation. At
+first Edna was very timid in the frail craft, but she soon gained
+confidence, and said "she thought it was the very nicest little
+boat, on one of the prettiest rivers she had ever seen."
+
+As they neared the mill its busy machinery seemed to Mark to say,
+"Welcome, Mr. President, welcome, Mr. President, welcome Mr.
+President of the Elmer Mills"; and when he drew the attention of
+the others to it, they declared that they, too, could distinguish
+the words quite plainly. The mill looked just as it had when they
+last saw it, but at one side were great piles of sawed lumber that
+Uncle Christopher and the Aroostook gentlemen were examining
+carefully.
+
+That afternoon Mark handed Frank thirty dollars as his share of
+the money the former had received from their otter-skins, which he
+had carried North and sold. Frank had several more that he had
+caught during the summer, but their skins were of little value
+compared with those caught during the earlier months of the year.
+
+Mr. Elmer had invited all the gentlemen to dine with him that
+evening, much to the consternation of Aunt Chloe, who said "she
+was sho' she couldn't see how she was gwine fin' time to po'wide
+vittles fo' so many guesses; an' dem po' hung'y Norfeners too.
+'Specs dey'll be powerful tickled to git a squar' meal."
+
+The "guesses" spent the afternoon in crossing the river to
+Wakulla, and in driving several miles into the great pine forests,
+which pleased them greatly.
+
+The dinner turned out to be a most bountiful meal, in spite of
+Aunt Chloe's fears; and at half-past six a very merry company
+gathered around the long table, which, for want of space
+elsewhere, had been set in the wide hall that ran through the
+house from front to rear. The evening was so warm that the front
+door stood wide open, and when dinner was nearly over, the whole
+party were laughing so heartily at one of Uncle Christopher's
+funny stories, that no one heard the sound of wheels at the gate,
+nor noticed the figure that, with white face and wild eyes, stared
+at them from the open doorway.
+
+No, not at them; only at one of them--the fair-haired girl, almost
+a woman, who sat at the head of the table, on Mr. Elmer's right
+hand, and on whose face the light shone full and strong.
+
+Then a cry rang through the hall, a cry almost of agony, and it
+was "Margaret! Margaret! my wife Margaret! Am I dreaming, or can
+the dead come to life?"
+
+As the startled guests looked towards the door Mr. March entered
+the room, and without noticing any one else, walked straight to
+where Edna May was sitting. She, frightened at his appearance and
+fixed gaze, clung to Mr. Elmer's arm, and Captain May half rose
+from his chair with a confused idea that the girl, whom he loved
+as his own daughter, was in danger.
+
+"Who is she, Elmer? where did she come from?" exclaimed Mr. March.
+"She is the living image of my dead wife; only younger, much
+younger, and more beautiful than she whom I drove from her home,"
+he added, with a groan.
+
+Mr. Elmer had noticed the strange resemblance between Frank March
+and Edna May, and had determined to speak to his wife about it
+that night. Now it all flashed across him as clear as sunlight;
+but before he could speak, Ruth sprang to his side, and taking her
+friend's hand in hers, cried,
+
+"Don't you see, father, she is his own daughter, the baby he
+thought was drowned in the Savannah River so many years ago?
+Captain May saved her, and now he has brought her back to her
+father and brother. Frank, Edna is your own sister."
+
+Mr. March tried to take Edna into his arms, but she slipped away
+from him and ran to Captain May, saying, "This is my father, the
+only one I have ever known. As he has loved and cared for me, so
+do I love him. I will never, never leave him!" and she burst into
+tears.
+
+After soothing and quieting her, Captain May said, "Mr. March, I
+suspected this long ago. Mark and Ruth told me of the resemblance
+between Edna and your son on our way North together last spring,
+and I made them promise not to mention it to her. I hoped it would
+prove to be only a fancied resemblance; but, as a Christian man, I
+could not keep father and daughter separated, if indeed they were
+father and daughter. So I brought her here to meet you face to
+face; and from what I have just seen I am inclined to think you
+are her own father, but you must prove it to me. Prove the fact
+beyond a doubt, and I will yield to you an undivided half interest
+in this dear child. Only a half, though. I can't give up the love
+that has twined round my heart for nearly fifteen years."
+
+Then Mr. March sat down, and in faltering tones told to the
+listening company the sad story of his married life. He gave the
+date of the disappearance of his wife and her baby from home, and
+he described as well as he could the clothes that each wore at the
+time.
+
+As he finished, Captain May went to him and gave him a warm,
+hearty hand-grasp. "That's enough," he said. "Gentlemen, I call
+you to witness that from this time forth I renounce all claims,
+except those of love, to her who has been known for the last
+fifteen years as my daughter Edna May. I am satisfied that this
+man is her father, and that whatever he has been in the past, he
+is now worthy to occupy that position towards her. Edna, my girl,
+you have only got two fathers instead of one, and a brother of
+whom I think you will live to be very proud besides; your heart
+holds enough love for all of us, doesn't it, dear?"
+
+Edna's answer was to throw her arms around his neck, and kiss his
+weather-beaten cheeks again and again. Then, with a smile showing
+through the tears that still filled her eyes, she went over to Mr.
+March, whom she no longer doubted was her own father, but of whom
+she could not help feeling very shy, and half timidly held up her
+face for him to kiss. The happy father opened his arms and clasped
+her to his heart, exclaiming, in a broken voice, "God bless you,
+my daughter! That He has restored you to me is the surest sign of
+His forgiveness."
+
+Then Frank came to them, saying, "Sister Edna, won't you kiss me
+too? The thing I have envied Mark most was his having a sister,
+and now that I have got one of my own, I do believe I am the very
+happiest boy in the world."
+
+"Sakes alive!" exclaimed good old Uncle Christopher, who had all
+this time been blowing his nose very loudly with a great red silk
+hand-kerchief, and occasionally wiping his eyes, "with all this
+kissing going on, where am I? Grandniece Ruth, come here and kiss
+your 'Uncle Christmas' directly." Ruth did as she was bid, and the
+old gentleman continued: "What a country this Floridy is, to be
+sure. They change March into May, or vicy versy, and each one is
+as beautiful as the other. Sakes alive! what an old April Fool I
+was not to think of all this myself when I first saw those two
+young people together."
+
+Long before this, honest Jan Jansen, who had returned from
+Tallahassee with Mr. March, but waited to put up the mules, had
+come into the room, and he was now brought forward and introduced
+to everybody. Among the Aroostook gentlemen he found an old
+acquaintance who had met him in New Sweden, and who now told him
+that, owing to the death of a relative in the old country, a snug
+little property awaited him, and that a lawyer in Bangor was
+advertising and searching for him.
+
+Having now spent almost a year with our Wakulla friends, perhaps
+they are getting tired of us, and we had better leave them for a
+while, only waiting to draw together the threads of the story, and
+finish it off neatly.
+
+Edna May March has been installed mistress of the pretty little
+house that Mr. March and Frank built while the young Elmers were
+in the North, and she and Ruth receive daily lessons in cooking,
+sewing, and all sorts of housekeeping from Mrs. Elmer and Aunt
+Chloe; and the latter says "she's proud to 'still Soufern precep's
+into deir sweet Norfern heads, bress em!"
+
+The Nancy Bell lay in the St. Mark's River long enough to secure a
+load of lumber from the Elmer Mill, and then sailed for the North.
+But she will return, for Captain May has bought a half interest in
+her from Uncle Christopher, and will hereafter run her regularly
+between New York and Wakulla.
+
+The new Elmer Mill is nearly finished, and four of the six
+gentlemen from Aroostook have gone home to get their families, and
+to buy more machinery with which to erect another saw-mill farther
+up the river, and they are expected back on the next trip of the
+Nancy Bell.
+
+Jan has gone to Sweden; but they have had a letter from him saying
+that he should return soon, and invest his property in Wakulla.
+
+Dear old "Uncle Christmas" is busy preparing for his expedition in
+search of the famous Wakulla volcano. He revels in the warmth of
+the climate, and in bathing in the sulphur spring, and he says
+that if a good thing's good, a better may be better, and he may
+find more warmth and more sulphur if he can only find the volcano.
+
+Edna has been taken on several picnics to Wakulla Spring, over the
+"humpety road," and "de trabblin' road," past "Brer Steve's" down
+to the light-house, and to other places of interest. The contrast
+between what is, and what the people of Wakulla hope will be when
+they get the great ship-canal across Florida built, and other
+schemes carried out, amuses her greatly. She smiles when they come
+to her and in strict confidence unfold their plans for future
+greatness; but is such a patient listener, and so ready a
+sympathizer, that she is rapidly winning their admiration and
+love.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of Wakulla, by Kirk Munroe
+
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