now any more than an alligator, took light-wood
torches and set out to discover what had happened. As Jan climbed down
the bank into the mud, and held his torch beneath the boat, he saw in a
moment the cause of the accident, and knew just how it had occurred.

As the tide ebbed the lighter had been gradually lowered, until it
rested on the upright branches of an old water-logged tree-top that was
sunk in the mud at this place. The water falling lower and lower, the
weight upon these branches became greater and greater, until they could
support it no longer, and one side of the lighter went down with a
crash, while the other rested against the bank. Jan, who had been
sleeping on the upper side of the boat, was thrown out into the water
when it fell, as some of the Elmers doubtless would have been had not
their canvas shelter prevented such a catastrophe.

The rest of the night was spent around the fire, which was kept up to
enable Jan to dry his clothes. By daylight the tide had risen, so that
the lighter again floated on an even keel. By sunrise a simple
breakfast of bread-and-butter and coffee had been eaten, and our
emigrants were once more afloat and moving slowly up the
tropical-looking river.

About ten o'clock Captain Johnson pointed to a huge dead cypress-tree
standing on the bank of the river some distance ahead, and told the
Elmers that it marked one of the boundary-lines of Wakulla. They gazed
at it eagerly, as though expecting it to turn into something different
from an ordinary cypress, and all felt more or less disappointed at not
seeing any clearings or signs of human habitations. It was not until
they were directly opposite the village that they saw its score or so
of houses through the trees and undergrowth that fringed the bank.

As the Bangs place, to which the children gave the name of "Go Bang"--a
name that adhered to it ever afterwards--was across the river from the
village, the lighter was poled over to that side. There was no wharf,
so she was made fast to a little grassy promontory that Captain Johnson
said was once one of the abutments of a bridge. There was no bridge
now, however, and already Mark saw that his canoe was likely to prove
very useful.

The first thing to do after getting ashore and seeing the precious
canoe safely landed was to find the house. As yet they had seen no
trace of it, so heavy was the growth of trees every-where, except at
the abutment, which was built of stone,