la and New Orleans, and a
steam-tug was kept constantly busy towing vessels between the town and
the mouth of the river. Then a fine plank-road reached back from
Wakulla a hundred miles into the country, and the two hotels of the
place were constantly crowded with invalids, who came to receive the
benefits of its famous sulphur and mineral springs. In those days six
large stores were hardly sufficient for the business of the place, and
then the land on both sides of the river for miles was cultivated, and
produced heavy crops of cotton.

Now all that remained to tell of this former prosperity were a few
rotten piles in the river where the wharves had stood, the bridge
abutments, a handful of tumble-down houses, and here and there in the
dense woods traces of cultivated fields, and an occasional brick
chimney or pile of stone to mark the site of some old plantation house.

Mr. Elmer was much interested in all this, and mentally resolved that
he would do all that lay in his power to revive the old-time prosperity
of the place in which he had established his home.

"What we most need here now," concluded Mr. Bevil, "is a bridge over
the river and a mill. It ought to be a saw-mill, grist-mill, and
cotton-gin all in one."

The next morning Mr. Elmer said that he must go to Tallahassee, the
nearest city, on business, and that he might be absent several days.
Before going he laid out the work that he wanted each one to do while
he was away. Mark was to take him down the river to the railroad
station at St. Mark's, in his canoe, and on his return he and Jan were
to go into the woods after as many cedar fence-posts as they could cut.
The colored men were to prepare the large cleared field in front of the
house, in which were about ten acres, for ploughing, and to dig
post-holes around it on lines that he had marked. Captain Johnson and
his crew were to unload the lighter and haul all the lumber and
shingles up to the house.

When he and Mark went down to the canoe, it seemed to the latter that
she was not just where he had left her the day before, and he thought
she looked as though she had been recently used; but as he could not be
certain, he said nothing about it to his father.

Mr. Elmer took a light rifle with him in the canoe, saying that there
was no knowing but what they might find a chance to use it going down
the river, and that Mark could bring it back. Mark was glad of this,
for he inherited a love for shootin