ittle negro
boys diving to bring up stray sponges that the rakes had missed. They
did not seem to enjoy this half as much as Mark and his boy friends
used to enjoy diving in the river at Norton, and they shivered as
though they were cold, in spite of the heat of the day.

When the children told Mr. Elmer about these little, unhappy-looking
divers that night, he said,

"That shows how what some persons regard as play, may become hard and
unpleasant work to those who are compelled to do it."

Several days after this Mr. Elmer engaged a carriage, and took his wife
and the children on a long drive over the island. During this drive the
most interesting things they saw were old Fort Taylor, which stands
just outside the city, and commands the harbor, the abandoned
salt-works, about five miles from the city, and the Martello towers,
built along the southern coast of the island. These are small but very
strong forts, built by the government, but as yet never occupied by
soldiers.

In one of them the Elmers were shown a large, jagged hole, broken
through the brick floor of one of the upper stories. This, the sergeant
in charge told them, had been made by a party of sailors who deserted
from a man-of-war lying in the harbor, and hid themselves in this
Martello tower. They made it so that through it they could point their
muskets and shoot anybody sent to capture them as soon as he entered
the lower rooms. They did not have a chance to use it for this purpose,
however, for the officer sent after them just camped outside the tower
and waited patiently until hunger compelled the runaways to surrender,
when he quietly marched them back to the ship.

In all of the forts, as well as in all the houses of Key West, are
great cisterns for storing rain-water, for there are no wells on the
island, and the only fresh-water to be had is what can be caught and
stored during the rainy season.

It was a week after the orange auction that Mr. Elmer came into the
cabin of the schooner one afternoon and announced that the court had
given its decision, and that they would sail the next day.

This decision of the court gave to the schooner Nancy Bell five
thousand dollars, and this, "Captain Li" said, must, according to
wrecker's law, be divided among all who were on board the schooner at
the time of the wreck. Accordingly, he insisted upon giving Mr. and
Mrs. Elmer each two hundred dollars, and Mark, Ruth, and Jan each one
hundred dollars.