anything, but his expression saddened.

We had studied out this trip the night before, and knew just what we had
to do. We first went from St. Augustine, on the sea-coast, to Tocoi, on
the St. John's River, by a railroad fifteen miles long. Then we took a
steam-boat up the St. John's to Pilatka, and the next morning left for
the Oclawaha, which runs into the St. John's about twenty-five miles
above, on the other side of the river.

We found the Corny family at the station, all right, and Corny
immediately informed me that she had a fishing-line, but didn't bring a
pole, because her father said he could cut her one, if it was needed. He
didn't know whether it was "throw-out" fishing or not, on that river.

There used to be a wooden railroad here, and the cars were pulled by
mules. It was probably more fun to travel that way, but it took longer.
Now they have steel rails and everything that a regular grown-up
railroad has. We knew the engineer, for Mr. Cholott had introduced us to
him one day, on the club-house wharf. He was a first-rate fellow, and
let us ride on the engine. I didn't believe, at first, that Rectus would
do this; but there was only one passenger car, and after the Corny
family got into that, he didn't hesitate a minute about the engine.

We had a splendid ride. We went slashing along through the woods the
whole way, and as neither of us had ever ridden on an engine before, we
made the best of our time. We found out what every crank and handle was
for, and kept a sharp look-out ahead, through the little windows in the
cab. If we had caught an alligator on the cow-catcher, the thing would
have been complete. The engineer said there used to be alligators along
by the road, in the swampy places, but he guessed the engine had
frightened most of them away.

The trip didn't take forty minutes, so we had scarcely time to learn the
whole art of engine-driving, but we were very glad to have had the ride.

We found the steam-boat waiting for us at Tocoi, which is such a little
place that I don't believe either of us noticed it, as we hurried
aboard. The St. John's is a splendid river, as wide as a young lake; but
we did not have much time to see it, as it grew dark pretty soon, and
the supper-bell rang.

We reached Pilatka pretty early in the evening, and there we had to stay
all night. Mr. Chipperton told me, confidentially, that he thought this
whole arrangement was a scheme to make money out of travellers.