GREER SPRING.

Oregon County is also at the extreme southern limit of the State of
Missouri and was visited, not because its caves are supposed to be
either finer or more numerous than those of all the other Ozark
counties, but on account of remarkable attractions associated with them
that are not known to be equaled, or even subject to rivalry, by any
similar works of nature in any portion of the world.

The most convenient railway point is Thayer; the station hotel affords
comfortable accommodations for headquarters, and the last days of
September proved a charming time. The foliage was in full summer glory,
refreshed by a gentle and copious rain, and the insinuating tick had
already retired from active business until the following season.

The carriage having been ordered on condition of its being a clear day,
we left Thayer at eight o'clock on a perfect morning to visit Greer
Spring, and were soon in the depth of the beautiful Ozark forest, from
which we did not once emerge until Alton, the county seat, was reached,
the distance traveled being sixteen miles. Here we stopped for dinner at
the small hotel kept by one of the old-time early settlers who came to
the region before the war. The dinner was a surprise, and received the
highest commendation possible to a dinner, the hearty appreciation of a
boy. A young nephew, Arthur J. Owen, having been invited to act as
escort on the trip, found all the varied experience in cave hunting
fully equal to the pictured joys of anticipation. After a large bell
suspended somewhere outside had notified the business public that dinner
was ready to be served, we were invited to the dining-room, where on a
long table was the abundance of vegetables afforded by the season and