He had opportunity enough, though, to get up a pretty good-sized poem, for we were kept awake a long time after we went to bed by the boughs of the trees on shore scratching and tapping against the outside of our state-room.
When we went out on deck the next morning, the first person we saw was Corny, holding on to the flag-staff at the bow and looking over the edge of the deck into the water.
"What are you looking at ?" said I, as we went up to her.
"See there!" she cried.

"See that turtle! And those two fishes! Look! look!" We didn't need to be told twice to look.

The water was just as clear as crystal, and you could see the bottom everywhere, even in the deepest places, with the great rocks covered with some glittering green substance that looked like emerald slabs, and the fish and turtles swimming about as if they thought there was no one looking at them.
I couldn't understand how the water had become so clear; but I was told that we had left the river proper and were now in a stream that flowed from Silver Spring, which was the end of our voyage into the cypress woods.

The water in the spring and in this stream was almost transparent,--very different from the regular water of the river.
About ten o'clock, we reached Silver Spring, which is like a little lake, with some houses on the bank.

We made fast at a wharf, and, as we were to stop here some hours, everybody got ready to go ashore.
Corny was the first one ready.