d ever seen, and I have gazed
into the crystal tide of Lake Superior, which has a great reputation
for its purity. A boat was floating on the surface, and I saw great
catfish swimming lazily out of the pool. Back of the village was the
forest of pine, magnolia, and live-oak. We walked far enough to see the
homes of some of the crackers, which were rude and primitive.

After breakfast we landed again, and followed "St. David's Path" to
Magnolia. It was through the woods, on the bank of the river. "St.
David," though he was not the original champion of Wales, had a very
fine residence near the entrance to the wood. I believe he was
canonized for the ink he made. Near the house we found some magnolia
leaves that were nearly a foot long. The blue sand in the path was as
hard as a rock, and it was strange that anything would grow in it.

The proprietor of Orange Park resented the idea, when some one called
the soil nothing but blue sand; and taking up a handful of it, he
rubbed it between his palms. The skin was considerably stained by the
operation, which could not have been the case if the earth had been
simply house-sand, as it is called in the North. We all knew that the
finest oranges, bananas, lemons, sugar-cane, as well as strawberries
and garden vegetables, grew out of it.

At the bridge which crosses Governor's Creek, on the other side of
which is the Magnolia House, we found the boats, which had been ordered
to be here. We all embarked, and ascended the creek. Our course was
through water-weeds and tiger-lilies; but we soon came to clear water.
An old mill stood by the shore.

"There is a friend of yours, Captain Garningham," said Cornwood, as he
pointed to a log, one end of which was submerged in the creek.

On the log, coiled up, with his head in the middle and resting on one
of the folds of his body, was a moccasin snake just like the one I had
seen in the attic room of Captain Boomsby's house.

"Mercy!" exclaimed Miss Margie. "It is a snake! Let us get away from
here!"

"Don't be alarmed, Miss Tiffany," interposed the guide. "He is fast
asleep."

"But he may wake, and bite some of us," insisted Miss Margie.

"If he wakes, the first thing he will do will be to run away. It is a
moccasin, and his bite is poisonous; but he can't bite in the water."

Cornwood picked up a boat-hook, but the snake was just out of his
reach. The men backed the boat a little, and the guide just touched the
tail of the repti