April the china trees have dropped their blossoms, and
the streets beneath are strewn with withered flowers. The fragrance that
filled the air has departed with the humming-birds and butterflies. The
pomegranate still continues in bloom: its vividly-scarlet flowers have
delighted us ever since the middle of March. The figs commenced leafing
with the month: now they are green with broad leaves, and in the axil of
each appears the rudiment of a fruit. They are grotesquely gnarled and
twisted, taking most unthought-of shapes and positions. The
mocking-birds have mated and begun the construction of their nests.
Their music is delightful: nearly all the day long they sing, and
sometimes in the night. It seems almost wicked--to mercenary man--to
think that birds worth twenty-five dollars apiece are freely fluttering
about unharmed. When the breeding season has opened, however, it will
not close without some family of mocking-birds being made desolate, for
the young Ethiopian hath an ear for music, and most eagerly seeketh the
young bird in its downy nest, trusting to the unsuspecting Yankee for
remuneration therefor.

The month went out in glorious style: every morning of its thirty days
had opened with unclouded sky, and each night's sun went down with a
blaze of glory that flooded the marshes with golden light and left
painted on the sky clouds of royal purple and crimson. Two or three
showers sprang upon us in the afternoon, ending after a stay of an hour
or two, cooling the air and refreshing weary man most wonderfully. Plums
and peaches are nearly grown and turning color. They afford another
illustration of the dilatory motions of vegetation here. In January I
left some plum trees in full bloom: returning a month later, I found the
same trees still white with flowers. The peaches were pink with bloom in
February and March, and even in April some blushing flowers appear.

This was Fernandina and St. Mary's in April: in August the latter town
had changed but little. The streets were as green as in early spring:
the flowers were fewer, but the air was heavy with the fragrance of
crape-myrtle and orange. It was hot in the morning, but an early breeze
from the ocean soon came in, blowing with refreshing coolness all day
long. It was even pleasanter than in spring and winter, the air clearer
and more bracing, and annoying insects had disappeared.

St. Mary's is intimately connected with Cumberland Island in history. In
the w