MARK AND RUTH ATTEND AN AUCTION.
Although Mr. and Mrs. Elmer regretted the delay in Key West, being
anxious to get settled in their new home as soon as possible, the
children did not mind it a bit; indeed, they were rather glad of it. In
the novelty of everything they saw in this queerest of American cities,
they found plenty to occupy and amuse them.
The captain and their father were busy in the court-room nearly every
day, and Mrs. Elmer did not care to go ashore except for a walk in the
afternoon with her husband. So the children went off on long exploring
expeditions by themselves, and the following letter, written during
this time by Ruth to her dearest friend, Edna May, will give an idea of
some of the things they saw:
"KEY WEST, FLA., December 15, 188-.
"MY DEAREST EDNA,--It seems almost a year since I left you in dear old
Norton, so much has happened since then. This is the very first chance
I have had since I left to send you a letter, so I will make it a real
long one, and try to tell you everything.
"I was not sea-sick a bit, but Mark was.
"In the Penobscot River we rescued a man from a floating cake of ice,
and brought him with us. His name is Jan Jansen, but Mark calls him
Jack Jackson. A few days before we got here we found a wreck, and
helped get it off, and brought it here to Key West. Now we are waiting
for a court to say how much it was worth to do it. I shouldn't wonder
if they allowed as much as a thousand dollars, for the wreck was a big
ship, and it was real hard work.
"This is an awfully funny place, and I just wish you were here to walk
round with Mark and me and see it. It is on an island, and that is the
reason it is named 'Key,' because all the islands down here are called
keys. The Spaniards call it 'Cayo Hueso,' which means bone key, or bone
island; but I'm sure I don't know why, for I haven't seen any bones
here. The island is all made of coral, and the streets are just hard
white coral worn down. The island is almost flat, and 'Captain
Li'--he's our captain--says that the highest part is only sixteen feet
above the ocean.
"Oh, Edna! you ought to see the palm-trees. They grow everywhere, great
cocoa-nut and date palms, and we drink the milk out of the cocoa-nuts
when we go on picnics and get thirsty. And the roses are perfectly
lovely, and they have great oleanders and cactuses, and hundreds of
flowers that I don't know the names of, and they are all in full bloom
now, though it is nearly Christmas. I don't suppose I shall hang up my
stocking this Christmas; they don't seem to do it down here.
"The other day we went out to the soldiers' barracks, and saw a
banyan-tree that 'Captain Li' says is the only one in the United
States, but we didn't see any monkeys or elephants. Mark says he don't
think this is very tropical, because we haven't seen any
bread-fruit-trees nor a single pirate; but they used to have them
here--I mean pirates. Anyhow, we have custard apples, and they sound
tropical, don't they? And we have sapadilloes that look like potatoes,
and taste like--well, I think they taste horrid, but most people seem
to like them.
"It is real hot here, and I am wearing my last summer's best straw hat
and my thinnest linen dresses--you know, those I had last vacation. The
thermometer got up to 85 degrees yesterday.
"Do write, and tell me all about yourself and the girls. Has Susie Rand
got well enough to go to school yet? and who's head in the algebra
class? Mark wants to know how's the skating, and if the boys have built
a snow fort yet? Most all the people here are black, and everybody
talks Spanish: it is SO funny to hear them.
"Now I must say good-bye, because Mark is calling me to go to the fruit
auction. I will tell you about it some other time.
"With love to everybody, I am your own lovingest friend,
"RUTH ELMER.
"P.S.--Don't forget that you are coming down here to see me next
winter."
Before Ruth finished this letter Mark began calling to her to hurry up,
for the bell had stopped ringing, and the auction would be all over
before they got there. She hurriedly directed it, and put it in her
pocket to mail on the way to the auction, just as her brother called
out that he "did think girls were the very slowest."
They had got nearly to the end of the wharf at which the schooner lay,
when Ruth asked Mark if he had any money.
"No," said he, "not a cent. I forgot all about it. Just wait here a
minute while I run back and get some from mother."
"Well," said Ruth, "if boys ain't the very carelessest!" But Mark was
out of hearing before she finished.
While she waited for him, Ruth looked in at the open door of a very
little house, where several colored women were making beautiful flowers
out of tiny shells and glistening fish-scales. She became so much
interested in their work that she was almost sorry when Mark came
running back, quite out of breath, and gasped, "I've got it! Now let's
hurry up!"
Turning to the left from the head of the wharf, they walked quickly
through the narrow streets until they came to a square, on one corner
of which quite a crowd of people were collected. They were all
listening attentively to a little man with a big voice, who stood on a
box in front of them and who was saying as fast as he could,
"Forty, forty, forty. Shall I have the five? Yes, sir; thank you.
Forty-five, five, five--who says fifty? Fifty, fifty,
forty-five--going, going, gone! and sold at forty-five to Mr.--Beg
pardon; the name, sir? Of course, certainly! And now comes the finest
lot of oranges ever offered for sale in Key West. What am I bid per
hundred for them? Who makes me an offer? I am a perfect Job for
patience, gentlemen, and willing to wait all day, if necessary, to hear
what you have to say."
Of course he was an auctioneer, and this was the regular fruit auction
that is held on this same corner every morning of the year. Many other
things besides fruit are sold at these auctions; in fact, almost
everything in Key West is bought or sold at auction; certainly all
fruit is. For an hour before the time set for the auction a man goes
through the streets ringing a bell and announcing what is to be sold.
This morning he had announced a fine lot of oranges, among other
things, and as Mrs. Elmer was anxious to get some, she had sent Mark
and Ruth to attend the auction, with a commission to buy a hundred if
the bids did not run too high.
The children had already attended several auctions as spectators, and
Mark knew enough not to bid on the first lot offered. He waited until
somebody who knew more about the value of oranges than he should fix
the price. He and Ruth pushed their way as close as possible to the
auctioneer, and watched him attentively.
"Come, gentlemen," said the little man, "give me a starter. What am I
to have for the first lot of these prime oranges?"
"Two dollars!" called a voice from the crowd.
"Two," cried the auctioneer. "Two, two, two and a half. Who says three?
Shall I hear it? And three. Who bids three? That's right. Do I hear the
quarter? They are well worth it, gentlemen. Will no one give me the
quarter? Well, time is money, and tempus fugit. Going at three--at
three; going, going, and sold at three dollars."
Several more lots sold so rapidly at three dollars that Mark had no
opportunity of making himself heard or of catching the auctioneer's
eye, until, finally, in a sort of despair he called out "Quarter," just
as another lot was about to be knocked down to a dealer at three
dollars.
"Ah!" said the auctioneer, "that is something like. It takes a
gentleman from the North to appreciate oranges at their true value. A
quarter is bid. Shall I have a half? Do I hear it? Half, half, half;
and sold at three dollars and a quarter to Mr.---what name, please?
Elder. Oh yes; good old name, and one you can live up to more and more
every day of your life. John, pick out a hundred of the best for Mr.
Elder."
The oranges selected by John were such beauties that neither Mark nor
his mother regretted the extra quarter paid for them. After that,
during the rest of their stay in Key West, whenever Mark went near a
fruit auction he was addressed politely by the auctioneer as "Mr.
Elder," and invited to examine the goods offered for sale that day.
One day Mark and Ruth rowed out among the vessels of the sponging fleet
that had just come in from up the coast. Here they scraped acquaintance
with a weather-beaten old sponger, who sat in the stern of one of the
smallest of the boats, smoking a short pipe and overhauling some
rigging; and from him they gained much new information concerning
sponges.
"We gets them all along the reef as far as Key Biscayne," said the old
sponger; "but the best comes from Rock Island, up the coast nigh to St.
Mark's."
"Why, that's where we're going!" interrupted Ruth.
"Be you, sissy? Wal, you'll see a plenty raked up there, I reckon. Did
you ever hear tell of a water-glass?"
"No," said Ruth, "I never did."
"Wal," said the old man, "here's one; maybe you'd like to look through
it." And he showed them what looked like a wooden bucket with a glass
bottom. "Jest take an' hold it a leetle ways down into the water and
see what you can see."
Taking the bucket which was held out to her, Ruth did as the old man
directed, and uttered an exclamation of delight. "Why, I can see the
bottom just as plain as looking through a window."
"To be sure," said the old sponger; "an' that's the way we sees the
sponges lying on the bottom. An' when we sees 'em we takes those
long-handled rakes there an' hauls 'em up to the top. When they fust
comes up they's plumb black, and about the nastiest things you ever did
see, I reckon. We throws 'em into crawls built in shallow water, an'
lets 'em rot till all the animal matter is dead, an' we stirs 'em up an
beats 'em with sticks to get it out. Then they has to be washed an'
dried an' trimmed, an' handled consider'ble, afore they's ready for
market. Then they's sold at auction."
The sponge crawls of which the old man spoke are square pens make of
stakes driven into the sand side by side, and as close as possible
together. In some of them at Key West Mark and Ruth saw little negro
boys diving to bring up stray sponges that the rakes had missed. They
did not seem to enjoy this half as much as Mark and his boy friends
used to enjoy diving in the river at Norton, and they shivered as
though they were cold, in spite of the heat of the day.
When the children told Mr. Elmer about these little, unhappy-looking
divers that night, he said,
"That shows how what some persons regard as play, may become hard and
unpleasant work to those who are compelled to do it."
Several days after this Mr. Elmer engaged a carriage, and took his wife
and the children on a long drive over the island. During this drive the
most interesting things they saw were old Fort Taylor, which stands
just outside the city, and commands the harbor, the abandoned
salt-works, about five miles from the city, and the Martello towers,
built along the southern coast of the island. These are small but very
strong forts, built by the government, but as yet never occupied by
soldiers.
In one of them the Elmers were shown a large, jagged hole, broken
through the brick floor of one of the upper stories. This, the sergeant
in charge told them, had been made by a party of sailors who deserted
from a man-of-war lying in the harbor, and hid themselves in this
Martello tower. They made it so that through it they could point their
muskets and shoot anybody sent to capture them as soon as he entered
the lower rooms. They did not have a chance to use it for this purpose,
however, for the officer sent after them just camped outside the tower
and waited patiently until hunger compelled the runaways to surrender,
when he quietly marched them back to the ship.
In all of the forts, as well as in all the houses of Key West, are
great cisterns for storing rain-water, for there are no wells on the
island, and the only fresh-water to be had is what can be caught and
stored during the rainy season.
It was a week after the orange auction that Mr. Elmer came into the
cabin of the schooner one afternoon and announced that the court had
given its decision, and that they would sail the next day.
This decision of the court gave to the schooner Nancy Bell five
thousand dollars, and this, "Captain Li" said, must, according to
wrecker's law, be divided among all who were on board the schooner at
the time of the wreck. Accordingly, he insisted upon giving Mr. and
Mrs. Elmer each two hundred dollars, and Mark, Ruth, and Jan each one
hundred dollars. As neither of the children had ever before owned more
than five dollars at one time, they now felt wealthy enough to buy the
State of Florida, and regarded each other with vastly increased
respect. While their father took charge of this money for them, he told
them they might invest it as they saw fit, provided he and their mother
thought the investment a good one.
At daylight next morning the Nancy Bell again spread her sails, and
soon Key West was but a low-lying cloud left far behind. For three days
they sailed northward, with light winds, over the warm waters of the
Gulf of Mexico. On the evening of the third day a bright light flashed
across the waters ahead of them, and "Captain Li" said it was at the
mouth of the St. Mark's River. As the tide was low, and no pilot was to
be had that night, they had to stand off and on, and wait for daylight
before crossing the bar and sailing up the river beyond it.