ldren
safely on board the boat, went up to Frank with a beaming face, and
said,

"Misto Frank, I'se bought a ok. Dar he is hitched into dat ar kyart,
an' oh! he do plough splendid!"

The "ok," which poor Joe thought was the proper singular of "oxes," as
he would have called a pair of them, was a meek-looking little
creature, harnessed to an old two-wheeled cart by a perfect tangle of
ropes and chains. He was so small that even Frank, accustomed as he was
to the ways of the country, almost smiled at the idea of its "ploughing
splendid."

He didn't, though; for honest Joe was waiting to hear his purchase
praised, and Frank praised it by saying it was one of the handsomest
oxen of its size he had ever seen. Joe was fully satisfied with this,
and when the boat reached the other side, hurried off to find new
admirers for this first piece of actual property he had ever owned, and
to tell them that "Misto Frank March, who know all about oxes, say dis
yere ok de han'somes' he ebber seed."

Of course the Bevils and Carters came over to the picnic. Grace Bevil,
of whom Ruth had already made a great friend, waited with her at the
house until the last boat-load of people had been ferried across. Then
Frank called them, and after helping them into the canoe and telling
them to sit quiet as 'possums, paddled it up the wild, beautiful river
to the mill.

This was a novel experience to the little Wakulla girl, who had never
in her life before travelled so easily and swiftly. She afterwards told
her mother that, as she looked far down into the clear depths of the
water above which they glided, she thought she knew how angels felt
flying through the air.

By the time they reached the mill more than a hundred persons were
assembled near it, and Mr. Elmer was talking to them from the steps.
They were in time to hear him say,

"The Elmer Mill is now about to be opened for business and set to work.
A bushel of corn belonging to Uncle Silas Brim, the oldest man present,
has been placed in the hopper, and will be the first ground."

Then Mark, who, as president of the Elmer Mill and Ferry Company, was
allowed the honor of so doing, pressed a lever that opened the
floodgates. A stream of water dashed through the race, the great wheel
began to turn, and, as they heard the whir of the machinery, the crowd
cheered again and again. In a little while Uncle Silas Brim's corn was
returned to him in the form of a sack of fine yellow meal. Af