Wakulla: a story of adventure in Florida

n 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,

with a gilt band around it, seemed so much superior to ordinary boys, that, had they not been going on s

orld; and when, shortly after noon, they reached Bangor, and saw real ships, looking very like th

several sea-voyages as a young man, said that most of them were schooners, and that

ttract 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

By making a few inquiries they soon found her, and were welcomed on board by her young, pl

n, 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 sid

d you ever see such cunning little beds? They woul

ght name is berths," said Mark, with the ai

eds for all that, and have got pillows and sheet

Southern home, were all safe on board the schooner and stowed down in the hold, and he

ell get to feeling at home before they started. They thought so too; and so, after a walk through the city, where,

f the night, but the children slept like tops. When Mark did wake he forgot where he was, a

the schooner was moving. Slipping down from his berth, and quietly dressing himself, so as not to disturb his father, he

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

its way, the captain directed Mark's attention. On this cake, which was about as

"is where he ever found a cake of ice at th

here, and what is he doing?"

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 boa

rk, who, even upon so serious an occasion, c

d the schooner Mark rushed down into the cabin and called to his parents and Ruth to hurry on deck. As they were already up a

lled in warm blankets, and given restoratives and hot dr

and Mark, who remained on deck with his father, questioned him about th

and consequently always rises; and the warm, damp air rising from the surface of the river into t

would be cold with all that

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 on

n still wrapped in blankets, but talking in a faint voice to the captain;

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

he 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 poo