ansively.

"Bress all yo' hea'ts!" she exclaimed. "Climb right down, and come in
yeah! I's got de fried chicken an' corn pone all ready fo' yo'all. An'
dere's soft crabs fo' dem as wants 'em, an' chicken-gumbo soup, an'----"

"Hold on, Aunt Hannah!" exclaimed Mr. Hammond with a laugh. "Have a
little mercy on them. Maybe they are not hungry for all your good
things."

"Oh, aren't we, though!" cried Mollie. "Just try me. I've always wanted
chicken fried in the Southern style."

"You'll get it here," said Mr. Stonington.

Let us pass over that first meal--something that the girls did not do by
any means--but the mere details of our friends arriving, getting
settled, and then of resting to enjoy life as they had never enjoyed it
before, can have little of interest to the reader. So, as I said, let us
pass over a few days.

Each one, it is true, brought something new and of peculiar interest to
the girls, but it was only because they had never before been in
Florida. To the residents it was all an old story--even the picking of
oranges.

The grove was near a beautiful stream, not such a river as was the
Argono of Deepdale, but broader, more shallow and sluggish.

"I wonder if there are alligators in it?" asked Betty, of one of the
pickers.

"Not around here," he answered. "You have to go into the bayous, or
swamps, for them critters. Don't yo'all worry 'bout the 'gators."

"We won't when we get in the _Gem_," said Betty. "I wonder when they
will bring her up and launch her?"

"Let's go to the depot and find out," suggested Amy. "We can have a
carriage and team with a driver any time we want it, Uncle Stonington
said."

At the freight office the boat was promised to them for the following
day, but it was two before this promise was kept.

"You mustn't fret," said Mr. Stonington, when Betty grew rather
impatient. "Remember you are down South. Few persons hurry here."

But finally the _Gem_ arrived, and after some hard work she was
launched. Proudly she rode the river, as proudly as at Deepdale, and
Betty, with a little cry of joy, took her place at the wheel.

Batteries and magneto were in place, some gasoline was provided, and a
little later the motor boat was ready for her first trip in Southern
waters.

"All aboard!" cried Betty, as the engine was started.

Slowly, but with gathering speed, the trim craft shot out into the
middle of the Mayfair.

"Oh, this is just perfect!" breathed Mollie. There was