146 ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN'S. 



testing that he did n't feel tired a bit, now 

 we had got the " purples ; " and if he did not 

 catch the fever from drinking some quarts 

 of river water (a big bottle of coffee having 

 proved to be only a drop in the bucket), 

 against my urgent remonstrances and his 

 own judgment, I am sure he looks back 

 upon the labor as on the whole well spent. 

 He was going North in the spring, he told 

 me. May joy be with him wherever he is ! 



The next morning I took the steamer 

 down the river to Blue Spring, a distance of 

 some thirty miles, on my way back to New 

 Smyrna, to a place where there were accessi- 

 ble woods, a beach, and, not least, a daily sea 

 breeze. The river in that part of its course 

 is comfortably narrow, a great advantage, 

 winding through cypress swamps, ham- 

 mock woods, stretches of prairie, and in one 

 place a pine barren; an interesting and 

 in many ways beautiful country, but so 

 unwholesome looking as to lose much of 

 its attractiveness. Three or four large al- 

 ligators lay sunning themselves in the most 

 obliging manner upon the banks, here one 

 and there one, to the vociferous delight of 

 the passengers, who ran from one side of the 



