834. “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 passengers 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 backgrounds, were constantly 
changing in their forms and outlines. Amelia beach reminded 
us 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 proclaimed the fostering care 
of a wise, paternal government, in lighting at night the watery 
highways. We passed within a few fect 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 upon 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 of our joys. 
