wander under the magnificent trees, which, draped in silver moss,
formed long avenues on the river-bank north and south. They were also
allowed to partake of food in the dining-room, where the mistress of the
house, a dignified old lady, poured out her coffee herself at the head
of her table, the cups being carried about by half-grown negro boys,
whose appearance was not in the least an indication of the quality of
the beverage, that quality being excellent. This old house, when it had
thus changed itself, rather half-heartedly, into a hotel after the war,
had been obliged to put out a dock; a sign it could dispense with; it
could dispense with many things; but an inn of any sort it could not be
on the St. John's without a dock, since the river was the highway, and
its wide shallows near shore made it necessary for the steamers to land
their passengers far out in the stream. All these "docks" on the St.
John's were in reality long narrow piers, formed by spiles driven into
the bed of the stream, over whose tops planks had been nailed down; and
if a plank was missing here and there, was it not always easy to jump
over.

Near the end of the pier belonging to Winthrop's present abode there was
a little building about six feet square. This was the United States
post-office; any one who should doubt its official character, had only
to look at the legal notices written in ink and tightly tacked up on the
outside. Generally these notices had been so blurred by the rain that
all the "men" who were required to "know" the various matters written
underneath by this proclamation thereof, could have made out a good
defence for themselves in case of prosecution for failure to comply,
since how could they "know" what they could not decipher? But even if
the notices had been printed in fairest type, it is hardly probable that
the inhabitants would have "known" them any better; they had always
hunted and fished wherever and whenever they pleased; it was not likely
that a piece of paper tacked up on a shanty a quarter of a mile out in
the St. John's was going to change these rights now. The only
proclamation they felt any interest in was that which offered bounties
for the scalps of wild-cats, a time-honored and sensible ordinance, by
which a little money could always be secured.

Winthrop had come down the river that afternoon; his steamer had left
him here, as she did not touch at the Gracias landing, which was farther
down-stream on