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