ve hundred
dollars.

We walked up to the hotel, and dined with the proprietor.

CHAPTER XXII.

FISHING IN DOCTOR'S LAKE.

After a very good dinner, we were invited to take a ride in an Orange
Park carriage. The vehicle was a platform wagon, with stakes, such as
is called a "hay rigging" in some parts of the North, drawn by a pair
of mules. I found that a mule in this locality cost more than a house
for the ordinary settler. On the platform were placed chairs enough to
seat all the party, including Cornwood, Washburn, and myself. The
proprietor was the driver, and as we proceeded on the excursion, he
explained everything of interest. He drove to an old orange-tree that
had borne four thousand oranges that year. Near it was a tangled grove
of fig-trees, the first I had ever seen.

From this point we struck into the woods. We crossed a clear brook
which was never dry; and Miss Margie asked if there were any snakes on
the place. Mr. Benedict thought there might be, though he had never
seen any.

"Oh, isn't that magnificent! Perfectly lovely!" cried Miss Edith in
ecstasies.

"Beautiful!" added Miss Margie. "Did you ever see anything like it?"

I had not, for one. The sight which had called forth these enthusiastic
exclamations was a perfect forest of jasmine in full blossom. The trees
that grew near the brook were of a young growth, and for half an acre
in extent they were loaded with jasmine vines so thickly covered with
flowers that the green leaves could hardly be seen. The ladies were all
delighted. Washburn and I got out, and gathered half a cord or so of
the vines, thus loaded with blossoms, and the wagon was as fragrant as
a perfume shop.

We entered a forest of pines, where we found a house built by a couple
of young men who had been several years in Cuba, and intended to
cultivate the sugar-cane. In the midst of the woods we came to an old
church, without a house within a mile of it, and which had been three
or four miles from any dwelling in the days when it was used. It was a
rather large log-house, now in a ruinous condition, in which the
planters and their families had once attended divine services. Not far
from it the proprietor stopped his team, and we all got off the wagon.
We were conducted to the "Roaring Magnetic Spring," which was one of
the features of the place. Florida is a great place for springs of
various kinds. We were all arranged on a wooden platform over the
spring, which wa