334 ISLES OF SUMMER. 



the great northern frost king, who so quietly and thoroughly 

 paves our roads and bridges, our lakes and rivers in a single night. 



Our jDassengers thronged the bow of our boat and feasted eye 

 and mind upon scenery of unusual loveliness. The shore lines, 

 with their white beaches and dark biickgrounds, were constantly 

 changing in their forms and outlines. Amelia beach reminded 

 ns as we passed of the pleasure we experienced when driving over 

 it a little more than a year before. Our water-way was marked 

 by buoys, while several lighthouses j-roclaimed the fostering care 

 of a wise, paternal government, in lighting at night the watery 

 highways. AVe passed within a few feet of a warning bell, so 

 hung that the play of the ceaseless tides causes it to constantly 

 rise and fall, and, unattended, to ring out upon the waters in calm 

 and storm, during the long hours of the day and the darker and 

 longer hours of the night, in musical tones, ''Ho! mariners, this 

 is the only true way! As ye value your lives, heed me and obey 

 my voice!" 



In vain the sun struggled to look down u})on this charming 

 picture of sea and land. Cold looking clouds veiled the sky. 

 Beautiful pelicans sported in the air, amused, perhaps, at the 

 frolicsome play of the porpoises in the waters below. Wild 

 ducks, obeying some great social law, were seen associating to- 

 gether in large flocks, observing the most perfect order, and 

 giving to man examples worthy of imitation of mutual forbear- 

 ance, domestic peace, and freedom from family jars and internal 

 dissensions. Our old friends, the sea-gulls, held not each with 

 the rest so close a communion, and seemed to have more individ- 

 ual liberty with their unity; but they kept sufficiently near to each 

 other to avoid the crushing loneliness of a solitary life. 



Danger ever hovers above and around us, and unseen peril often 

 most suddenly and unexpectedly darts out upon us from its am- 

 bush. But thus far only two petty annoyances had interfered 

 with the deep, strong, and steady current uf our joys. 



