went out on deck the next morning, the first person we saw was
Corny, holding on to the flag-staff at the bow and looking over the edge
of the deck into the water.

"What are you looking at?" said I, as we went up to her.

"See there!" she cried. "See that turtle! And those two fishes! Look!
look!"

We didn't need to be told twice to look. The water was just as clear as
crystal, and you could see the bottom everywhere, even in the deepest
places, with the great rocks covered with some glittering green
substance that looked like emerald slabs, and the fish and turtles
swimming about as if they thought there was no one looking at them.

I couldn't understand how the water had become so clear; but I was told
that we had left the river proper and were now in a stream that flowed
from Silver Spring, which was the end of our voyage into the cypress
woods. The water in the spring and in this stream was almost
transparent,--very different from the regular water of the river.

About ten o'clock, we reached Silver Spring, which is like a little
lake, with some houses on the bank. We made fast at a wharf, and, as we
were to stop here some hours, everybody got ready to go ashore.

Corny was the first one ready. Her mother thought she ought not to go,
but her father said there was no harm in it.

"If she does," said Mrs. Chipperton, "she'll get herself into some sort
of a predicament before she comes back."

I found that in such a case as this Mrs. Chipperton was generally
right.

FOOTNOTES:

[B] "_Voyez-vous cet homme et ces deux femmes cela?_"--Do you see that
man and those two women there?

[C] "_Bien donc, la petite femme n'est pas la femme du homme. La autre
femme est sa femme._"--Well, then, the little woman is not the wife of
the man. The other woman is his wife. [Of course, the French in this,
and the preceding, foot-note is Corny's.--THE AUTHOR.]

CHAPTER IX.

THE THREE GRAY BEANS.

Corny went ashore, but she did not stay there three minutes. From the
edge of the wharf we could see that Silver Spring was better worth
looking at than anything we should be likely to see on shore. The little
lake seemed deeper than a three-story house, and yet, even from where we
stood, we could see down to the very bottom.

There were two boys with row-boats at the wharf. We hired one of the
boats right off, and Corny gave me such a look, that I told her to get
in. After she was in the boat, she asked her mother, wh