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 
eatch 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 
