Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/312

Rh Among the memorable events of the latter part of our journey, I must not omit our morning journey in large boats of hollowed cypress trees from Ortega plantation to Jacksonville, where we took the steamer. The morning was glorious, and the negroes rowed vigorously and cheerfully. The gentlemen of the amiable family at Ortega accompanied us on board. They were of the good and the quiet of the land.

I parted from Mr. C. with sincere gratitude for his interesting society, and with a decided liking for one of the young sons of the plantation, whose broad forehead revealed a thoughtful, unprejudiced, and humorous turn of mind.

The place at which we were to take the steamer to Savannah was where the early city of Frederica had been founded by Oglethorpe, the first cultivator of Georgia. The situation appears to have been excellent, but of the city there now remains only two ruins, garlanded by green trees and bushes.

We arrived here in good time, but the steamer did not make its appearance for several hours. In the meantime it went on with us as in a fairy tale. A most charming little old lady, just like a good little fairy, received us into her house, a regular little fairy palace for beauty, comfort and attractiveness. Everything was bright and seemed to be alive from sheer cleanliness and care. The little lady,—old in years but full of youthfulness of mind, and with a pair of clear, lively blue eyes,—gave me, as she made a playful demonstration round my head, a knock on my forehead, which might have cracked the skull if it had been less thick. She spread a table for us brilliant with white linen and china and silver, and entertained us with tea and bread and butter, potatoes at my desire, eggs, and other good things. No, it would not have been possible for a meal spread by fairy hands to have been more delicate or more finely flavoured. The clever and cheerful little lady