By this time we reached her; she lay, re¬ 
clining, on a settee, her head supported by 
pillows and her fevered cheek funned by a 
stalwart, handsome fellow, who leaned over 
her and gazed so devouringly upon the girl 
that one would have sworn he wanted to eat 
her, and would if he were not watched. 
Once her blue eyes opened and I saw by 
their glance that she felt safe with him, or 
perhaps was willing to he eaten. 
I did not disturb Katrina at first; I 
simple studied her as a physician always 
studies a patient ; then quietly, without at¬ 
tracting her attention, I felt her pulse. I 
took Herr Muhlenberg's arm and walked 
to a seat a little distance from the family, 
“My friend, where are you going to set lie ?” 
“I am going with my neighbor Stkin- 
metz to B-, in the West, where we are 
to have farms near each other; you know 
we are old friends, and my daughter Ka¬ 
trina has an understanding with his son 
Fritz. Fritz is a good hoy.” 
“ Herr M uulknbeug,” 1 said, “ don’t think 
of going there. Your daughter won’t live in 
that climate till spring; the bleak winds of 
the prairies will kill her. Her lungs are 
sadly diseased already; hut if you will take 
my advice and profit by my experience you 
will see her come hack to health and life, 
and bless you and Fritz, too, for many a 
year." 
“ Ah, bill Fritz will go to B-, and 1 
fear for her if he leaves her. Where would 
you have me go, Herr Doctor?" 
“ Well, do as you will; bill, if you want to 
see Katrina get well, and if you want to 
build up a pretty and a happy Lome in a 
shorter time than any other place will let 
you—if you want to escape winters and hot 
summers alike, and Innoi one perpetual 
spring—you will go and be my neighbor in 
S r ‘Jtlieastern Florida, on the beautiful Bis- 
caine Bay. Talk with FRITZ and Ids father, 
perhaps they will go too.” 
“ No, Doctor, that cannot be, Herr Stein- 
mktz lias already bought his farm and paid 
lor it, Ii is too late for him to change,—but 
you have frightened me so about Katiuna ! 
I will talk with my wife and Steinmetz, 
and we will see. But yon, doctor, you look 
lat and healthy,'and when you left Weis- 
baden we all said ‘ poor man, lie only goes 
to a grave.’ ” 
“ Ah ! Herr Muhlenberg, you are right, 
and if I had not found the country I am liv¬ 
ing in, I should now be gone the way Ka¬ 
trina seems traveling.” 
So we talked and 1 finally persuaded Herr 
Muhlenberg to go to Florida for a home. 
Fiutz aud Katrina bad some quiet talk 
together, aiul though I did'ut hear the par¬ 
ticulars, I saw Lbey parted cheerfully when 
Steinmetz departed with his family for the 
railroad that should carry him to B- It 
was the boy's idea of duty to bis parents that 
bore him from bis sweetheart. Such a boy 
would be a good man and make a good lius- 
band one day. 
It was time now that I prepared to get my 
friends a passage to their Southern home. 
You know that many vessels are constantly 
going to the St. John’s to bring away cargoes 
of the lumber for which that great river of 
Florida is so famous. These vessels may be 
found by their advertisements in the daily 
newspapers of New York, where they ask 
for freight and passengers to carry out. 
AV luitever of freight they secure is taken at a 
merely nominal price; it saves bringing and 
handling ballast, which must be thrown 
away as useless when they prepare to take 
in lumber. I bad already engaged one of 
these vessels to lake out my winter’ssupplies 
and she would sail on the morrow. Now, 
made with her captain a contract for my 
countryman, lien* Muhlenberg. Nordic; 
it take long, for lie was only too glad to find 
a menus of reducing his expenses, lie 
agreed to give the entire family passage in 
ids cabin, with board at his own table. For 
the lather, mother aud two grown children 
lie wanted $12 each; for the four younger, 
ft piece, while for Ihe two little boys of 
three and five years lie made no charge. 
1 
thought it a fair bargain ; the whole fkinily 
of ten were to he carried eight hundred miles 
loi $i2, with the privilege of taking what¬ 
ever they might wish in the way of freight 
and baggage, without extra charge. And 
the good captain thought the strangers 
would do well to come aboard at once; they 
would find his vessel more comfortable than 
the emigrant depot, though that was no mean 
place either. Accordingly, he sent Ins boat 
around to the landing for them, and before 
supper time they were all aboard theschoon- 
er, which would be their home for the next 
week or two, as the wind should be more or 
Jess favorable. 
When the Captain saw poor, sick Katri¬ 
na, his kind heart, was touched and lie gave 
up bis own state-room to the use of the girl 
and her mother. In a half hour Wilhelm 
had found a German among the crew—a lad 
little older than himself—who had been in 
America two years and fd ready talked good 
Etr-.ish. So they bad an interpreter for the 
voyage. 
When I saw them comfortably fixed, I 
called Herr Muhlenberg aside and told him 
that if be bad any money to spare it would 
be well to provide a small stock of necessary 
articles to lake with him to his new home. 
He said lie had not much, but enough to buy 
some groceries, farm tools and medicines. 
So he bought tea and codec and wheat and 
rye. Was this all he would require iu the 
way of groceries? Yes, assuredly. lie 
“ could not nve without sugar and molasses,” 
and I would sell him both those articles of 
my own raising and make. 
“No?” 
“ Yes!” 
Well, then he must have pepper and to¬ 
bacco. No’ I bad them ulso. Our country 
has not only an abundance of salt springs, 
but we use the water of the bay, on which 
we live, and make salt iu sight of our own 
houses. “ As for tobacco,”. I said, take 
what you want for your passage, but when 
you reach your new home I will show you 
tobacco worth your smoking—there Is none 
nice it outside of Cuba. Aud pepper! we 
raise plenty, ns of everything else, Herr 
Muhlenberg 
But my oid friend insisted on buying a 
year’s supply of smoked sausage, i laughed 
at him again, though I know it was very un¬ 
civil, and I ought to be ashamed to tell it. 
Bui 1 laughed only at his appearance of in¬ 
credulity, which was very amusing. 
“What a strange country is yours I” he 
cried. 
“ I am a German, with a German’s taste 
and thrift,” I said. “1 have a smoke house 
where hang beef and pork aud fish; sau¬ 
sages too, of which 1 know I lie very begin* 
I'ii'ff* from the little pig and the call 1 
have wine and beer of my own make; even 
the sheets on my beds and the common 
clothing of my family is grown iu sight of 
my door—spun and woven by my daugh¬ 
ters. Our sun huts are made from the leaves 
of the palms that grow wild in our fotesU; 
they would cost you a dollar a piece in Weis- 
Laden ami not be as nice as ours.” 
“Well,” said Mein Herr, “I will buy some 
medicine, for they nil tell me that in Amer¬ 
ica I shall want, lots of culomc] and quinine 
to protect me from bilious fevers aud ague.” 
“No! you will not need those nostrums, 
you are going where no miasmatic poison 
fills the air, as on the Western prairies. Iu 
my home the life-giving ocean breeze flows 
in from the sea forever. Along Unit coast 
fever and ague are unknown. If you take 
anything, let it be a little whiskey for Ka¬ 
trina; with this, and some of our wild 
cherry bark, you have always a valuable 
ionic at band; with the bark of our white 
oak, an astringent, while our rhubarb roots 
will furnish an alterative.” 
“ All! but, YIerr Doctor, you must have a 
very large estate to produce so much ! and 
you must have found great sickness, with 
good practice, to have grown so rich.” 
“ I have twenty-five acres of land, which 
I cultivate with two grown sons. And 
during six years that I have been in Florida 
I have been called three times to the sick; 
they wore all cases of childbirth that the 
old women couldn’t manage." 
Herr Muhlenberg laughed so heartily 
be awakened Katiuna, who called him to 
kiss her goodnight, and slapped him a little 
on the cheek, telling him to make less noise. 
“What shall I buy?" he asked, with a 
puzzled look 
“ You have some thick woolen clothing 
and some cloth not yet made into wearing 
apparel ?” 
Yes; Ilerr M- was the owner of 
three large chests of such goods. 
“ You will never require these things in 
to save the time of making, and this 1 ap¬ 
proved. 
We took a stein of beer together, aud I 
hade him good-night with a pleased heart, 
and went off to my hotel, promising to Leon 
hand at an early hour next morning. 
ii. 
True to my promise I was on board the 
schooner at eight o’clock, and Herr Mun- 
harbor on this coast,—nothing that looks 
like life?” 
"I am uot surprised at your question. 
Mein Herr, for it does indeed seem strange 
that a country so desirable as this should be 
so utterly desolate: there is, however, the 
oest of reasons for it. Up to the year 1859 
this was the home of the Seminole savages, 
with whom the whites were never at peace. 
In that year they were conquered—surreu- 
lenbekg was ready for me, for he had a 1 i i . . , 
go<. I ileal .o do to buy Uis ioek of goods «<*«"» <*w ■"“W »-l ™"vod from .be 
before the schooner should leave the wharf. 
Katrina is becoming a healthy woman by 
the ocean-side. Fritz will be glad to come 
here and stay with bis wife instead of Lakimr 
her out to that land of bilious disease.” 
I looked up slyly and Katrina was blush¬ 
ing ;—in a moment she walked away, but 
there was n beam of light in her look as if 
she were more than half pleased. 
So we started off, and Muhlenberg bought 
coffee, tea, wheat and rye Hour, whisky and 
Indian corn—for I had no considerable stock 
on hand, preferring to buy, where 1 could 
do so much better with my laud. He bought 
nails, screws and a few tools, also—such as be 
would require iirtiuildmg and repairing a 
house; and some farming implements, hut 
not many, because, being a blacksmith, ho 
relied on making the greater part for him¬ 
self He bought some coarse cotton for 
work clothes * a single and double harness 
completed bis outfit. He wanted to buy 
some iron in rods and bars, but I explained 
to him that, we would have onr home within 
a hundred miles ol Key West., and that there 
lie would be able to procure abundance of 
iron and brass aud such other articles as the 
wreckers of that Inland take from the hulls 
of vessels which they visit, and that this ma¬ 
terial could be bought cheap. 
The day was fine but cold, when the good 
schooner Jonathan lell the wharf under a 
spanking Northwest wind. I shall not Bil¬ 
low the trip, for 1 was going by steamer 
to meet them at a point on the St. John's 
River. But I learned afterwards that on the 
third day out they passed the light-house on 
Cape Ilatteras and after that had warm 
weather and a fair wind. 1 spent two days 
in New York and then set out to meet them, 
on the steamer which 111113 to Fernandina. 
Four days later I reached Jacksonville by 
rail from Fernandina. The first familiar 
face I met was that of Herr M. He had ar 
lived in port that morning, mid was await¬ 
ing me. 
“ Ah !” said he, “ this is indeed a charm¬ 
ing climate; my Katrina seems so well! 
She has been on deck every day and if I 
would let her she would have come here to 
meet you.” 
I soon found the family enjoying them¬ 
selves famously, and ready to cover me 
with thanks for showing them such a fine 
country, where every tree is green in the 
winter—where, indeed lliere is no winter. 
I had chartered a steamboat at home, to 
meet me here, and already Ihe transfer of 
my goods 4o-h e r 1 ‘LiuclU t Im d fairly advanced. 
She would he ready to leave on the morrow, 
and so we all went on hoard and the captain 
gave my country people comfortable quar¬ 
ters, charging the whole family $80 for the 
passage. 
hi. 
By day-break the next morning, and be. 
fore the strangers awoke, we had crossed 
the St. John’s bar and were bound down 
the coast for our home on Biscaine Bay, a 
trip of nearly 400 miles. One who has 
never sailed along this part of the Florida 
coast can scarcely conceive ol the character 
of the voyage. It is the bleak month of 
November, but no gale troubles the sea. 
We skirt along the shore in sight of the low 
sand-domes aud the pine forests and the 
dark, rich hummocks of Magnolia, Bay and 
Oak; here and there a solitary stalwart 
Palmetto, the grenadier of the coast, stands 
Wl . “i sentinel over a thicket In which you detect 
londa. Sell them; the captain will help the rich clustered waxen bells of the Span¬ 
ish Lilly ( aloi-folia ghriosu) and the wonder¬ 
ful folds of a giant grape-vine. Farther 
down the coast., you pass impenetrable for¬ 
ests of Mangrove; and everywhere in chang¬ 
ing shape the line of breakers rolled along 
the beach that sends back their softly mur¬ 
muring anthem. 
Katrina lmd spent much of her time on 
deck, over which an awning was spread to 
shelter us from the sun’s rays, and every 
hour I could see that she grew stronger— 
that too, without touching the tonic. In 
the morning, when she arose, 1 gave her an 
egg, broken in wine, and this was all she 
took that seemed like medicine. Her appe¬ 
tite increased, and her eye lighted up with a 
healthy vigor. 
Ilerr Muhlenburg seemed pleased with 
everything about him; lmt I discovered an 
anxiety and uncertainty in his manner that 
puzzled me; for Iliad not sufficiently re¬ 
flected that he had suddenly laid aside his 
fairly-matured plans, and on my simple rec¬ 
ommendation tv as traveling a road to which 
he had never before given a thought—was 
going to a section of the country of which 
be absolutely knew nothing—was about to 
enter on a sort of farming to which he was 
in good part a stranger. The second day I 
noticed my friend walking the deck in a 
quiet enjoyment of his pipe and appearing 
plunged in thought. 
Suddenly, he stopped before me. “ Hen- 
Doctor,” be said, “bow comes it, if tins is 
such a flue country, that I see no appear¬ 
ance of towns—no masts of ships in any 
Now, the clothing being home-made and 
having paid no entering duties, the captain 
and some of his crew were glad to buy what 
was so fairly offered, and paid prices that 
Muhlenberg thought himself lucky to get. 
The captain and his first officer bought 
some of the heavy German cloth also, and 
everybody wanted the blankets, which, in¬ 
deed, Mein Herr was proceeding to sell, 
when I stopped him. “Surely," said he, 
“ I shall never want these warm blankets in 
such a climate as yours.” 
“ Ah, my friend, that is its great charm 
On the shores of our beautiful Bay, the cool 
winds of the ocean make you glad to have a 
blanket, and a warm one, to draw over you 
in the night; and so it is, without cold 
weather (he system is ever restored, because 
the air'is pure and the nights cool and fresh, 
and you awaken every morning a new man.” 
The captain of the schooner had been a 
good deal interested in the honest German, 
and volunteered to find a customer for the 
cloth that had not yet been sold. This he 
accomplished next morning, and Herr Muh¬ 
lenberg invested the proceeds in a few 
farming and carpenters’ tools and some nails 
and screws, lie wanted to buy leather and 
torse-shoes; but he had ceased to he sur¬ 
prised at anything when 1 told him that we 
never shoe our horses or oxen in Florida, 
because the roads have no rocks and we 
have an abundance of hides and bark with 
which to make our own leather. He thought 
it well, however, to buy harness for horses, 
State to a reservation in the West. Atten¬ 
tion was at once directed here, for the coun¬ 
try was well known and coveted as being 
rich in every good gift of Nature. A great 
emigration would have set this way, but iu 
1800 the war ol the rebellion seemed immi¬ 
nent, and the next year it broke out and dis¬ 
tracted the minds of the entire people from 
peaceful pursuits. Now, the war is ended, 
the people of Florida are exhausted and 
emigration is setting in from other Slates 
and countries. Even this is retarded be¬ 
cause there are no railroads in this region; 
hut still, there are many persons looking 
anxiously this way, and the Government of 
the Stale is about making an appropriation 
toconnect theSt. John’s River with thcclmin 
of lakes or lagoons along the const by a 
canal; and other channels arc to be cut that 
shall connect the lagoons with each other,— 
thus affording a perfect system of inland 
navigation. 1 want to see my countrymen 
come here, Mein Herr. Do you know that 
a civilized, Christian man can afford to be 
poorer in Florida than anywhere else in the 
world ?” 
Herr Muhlenberg looked astonished; he 
opened his eves so wide, and they stuck out 
so far, they looked for all the world like the 
blue ends of two Iiard boiled eggs. “ How 
can a man afford to be poor ?” lie asked. 
“Simply, he can live here and have more 
comforts and luxuries, on less money, than 
my where else.” 
“ You can build a very good house for a 
hundred dollars, and this will dig your well 
and build your out houses—such as smoke¬ 
house and kitchen, for von must know that, 
here we build the kitchen back of the house 
to keep clear of its smoke, and flies and 
odors. Y'ou require no thick clothing; and 
" hat you wear you can raise and make for 
yourself if you please. Y T ott can buy beef 
cattle for five or six dollars a bead, and their 
pasture costs nothing. Swine will cost you 
a dollar a head, and you may raise your 
pork without expense, for tile woods abound 
in must. The rivers aud bays are full of 
fish ; you may have a fine fish every day for 
dinner, and spend not over ten minutes to 
catch it. You may shoot a deer on any 
morning, or a brace of wild ducks or 
Band-hill crane, which is as good as ihe ten- 
derest turkey mid as large as the largest. 
Poultry you may raise* in crowds. I have 
here ducks, geese, guinea and pea fowl, with 
eggs in every month. Y T ou will have green 
turtle and their eggs in llie season. I keep 
them alive in a cralI or a pen, so that I may 
take them directly lrom the water for my 
table ns 1 require. Y’ou may send your sou 
a short distance with the boat and lie will 
bring you oysters—oysters so large that it 
will lake the whole length of your pipestem 
to measure them. Alt 1 they are so nice 
roasted, broiled or fried. This dish, too, will 
be so good for Katrina ; it is nourishing 
and easily digested. You will raise figs and 
grapes, and pineapples; also peaches, melons, 
oranges, lemons and pommegranntes. King 
William cannot find such dinners as you 
will have, for money will not buy them.” 
" Ah 1 Herr Doctor, surely you are jest¬ 
ing 1 There cannot be anything so good for 
such a poor man as 1 am.” 
“Not—this is no iest—there is no poetry 
in wlmt Isay, though it sounds as if I were 
talking of fairy land. I have all this now 
in my house, and more that I have not 
named. But you will see. Have you not 
already witnessed the superb food that we 
have on this little steamboat ? Well, it costs 
less to have it than the sausage and pretzel, 
with beer, t hat you may buy for your lunch 
in New York. Absolutely, not a dollar lias 
been paid out lor any food on the table, ex¬ 
cept the bread. That delicious guava jelly 
that Katrina likes so well, was made by 
my family, and the guavas grow big in my 
garden. Y ou think those brandied figs were 
nice. I will show you such figs at my home, 
and I made the brandy from my own vine¬ 
yard. Do you know any country so kind to 
man ? ” 
“Let me think,” said Mein Herr. “ You 
confuse me so; I never heard the like. But 
you are the good Dr. Risen bach, and you 
always tell the truth. It must be so, and 
yet it seems like a dream.” 
“Perhaps,” said Katrina, “I shall be 
well again and able to help father and 
mother, as I used.” 
“Well again! my dear girl, “I said:” 
indeed you will. The balm of our climate 
already soothes your irritated lungs and our 
delicate fruits tempting your appetite will 
make you a strong woman in a year Y T es!— 
Yes! our neighbor Steinmetz may shake 
bis bones and turn yellow out there on the 
prairies with fever and ague, while our 
IV. 
We were now in the forenoon of the third 
day on the trip in the little steamer when we 
rounded Cape Florida and stood across Bis- 
caine Bay for my launching place, a few 
miles north of the Miami river. We had now 
a run of six miles to make and all this dis¬ 
tance 1 was in sight of my own door. 
Through my marine glass 1 could see my 
family gathered in the long, deep piazza of 
the house, lighted up as it was by the morn¬ 
ing sun—all gazing for the first look of him, 
their head, who had been gone ft-om them 
the past, two months. Presently they left 
the house in a body to come down to the 
pier, and here in less than an hour I had the 
joy to embrace them all—all well and all 
happy. Here too I introduced my old 
German friends, who were, however, no 
strangers, except the youngest members of 
both families. My eldest daughter, Wilhel- 
mina, took charge of Katiuna, while the 
other children mingled together with various 
degrees of diyness, which soon gave way to 
pleasant acquaintance. The old folks, all 
four of us, walked up behind the eldest 
daughters and Gustav Muhlenberg, who 
had joined them, mid had our own chat of 
old friends and by-gone times. 
Katrina was greatly excited by the sum¬ 
mer beauty that everywhere met her gaze. 
1 he shore of the Bay slopes gently up to¬ 
wards the house, and for a short distance is 
covered with a luxuriant green sward ; hero 
and there a cocnanut tree nodded its tall 
plume iu the breeze. Alter a short walk we 
entered a patch of pine-apples, the fruit of 
which was a brilliant bronze ripe. Scattered 
among them, the broad leaf of the banana 
and plantain added its beauty and gave pro¬ 
tecting shade. But I shall never forget the 
exclamations of my friends when we entered 
the path that led through the Orange grove. 
They had never beheld such a picture nor 
breathed such a fragrance. On the same 
tree at this season you may see at once the 
hud, the full white waxen blossom, thegreen 
and the golden-ripe orange. I made them 
pluck this deiioious fruit and eat — a pleas¬ 
ure they luul never before known, no, nor 
dreamed of. 
The house was embowered in Olive trees, 
and beyond them were to be seen the smaller 
bushes ol tin: Guava, hanging loaded with 
bright yellow apples: Oleanders, large trees 
taller than my bouse, all ablaze with blos¬ 
soms; crape Myrtles only smaller than the 
Oleanders, and covered with bloom—while 
a hundred varieties of Roses, from the Cloth 
of Gold to the regal Moss rose, enlivened the 
scene with their varied colors and tilled the 
air with a mingled perfume. Great was the 
pleasure of Herr M-when 1 showed him 
my Grapes. J had devoted the inside of two 
fence lines to this crop, so that they had on 
one side a southern aud on the other an 
eastern exposure. All had flourished; the 
great while and purple clusters so much 
larger than jn the fatherland filled him with 
Wonder, as did their exquisite flavor. 
We had wandered about some hours ad¬ 
miring beauties that 1 hoped soon to see my 
countryman possessing on bis own property, 
when my little Peter came to announce 
dinner, and we returned to the house.—[To 
be continued. 
A GREAT WORK 
Many a discouraged mother folds her 
tired bands at night, and feels us if she had, 
after all, done nothing, although she has not 
spent an Idle moment since she rose. Is it 
nothing that your little helpless children 
have had some one to come to with all their 
childish griefs and joys? Is it nothing that 
your husband feels "safe” when be is away 
to liia business, because your careful band 
directs everything at home? Is it nothing, 
when bis business is ever, that bo lias the 
blessed refuge of home, which you have that 
day done your best to brighten and refine ? 
O, weary, faithful mother, you little know 
your power when yon say “ I have done 
nothing.” There is a book in which a fairer 
record than this is written over against your 
name. 
--- 4 -*~*-— 
he true. 
Thou must be true thyself. 
If thou the truLh would’st teach; 
Thy soul most overflow, if thou 
Another's soul would'st reach ; 
It needs the overflow of heart 
To give the lips full speech. 
Think truly, and thy thoughts 
Shull the world’s famine feed ; 
Speak truly, and each word of thine 
Shull he a truthful seed ; 
Live truly, and thy life shall be 
A great and noble creed. 
•- - 
We should be most especially on our guard 
in the sunny days <ff prosperity, lest our 
hearts get a chill in the groves of worldly 
pleasure aud wanton enjoyment. 
